Bastia
An old French club, though they had been struggling in lower divisions in recent seasons. They had only been promoted to Ligue 2 last season.
Otherwise, the club wouldn't have gambled on signing De Rocca.
Ligue 1 clubs already knew everything about De Rocca, and all scouts believed he had no future.
Bastia was located on the famous island of Corsica.
Corsica held a special place in French history—Napoleon, who nearly conquered Europe, had risen from here to the pinnacle of his power.
Corsica was far from mainland France, and its residents had strong separatist tendencies.
The players here also shared Napoleon's short but sturdy build. On the football pitch, they were ruthless, strong, and gave many visiting opponents severe headaches.
When De Rocca entered the youth academy, everyone who saw him couldn't help but stare in surprise.
They seemed to be saying, "How is he here?"
Whether it was his past or current notoriety, De Rocca was very famous at Bastia.
After his imprisonment, the staff had lamented that this was another huge loss for the club's recruitment.
The former French genius had already fallen.
Now, he was nothing more than a troubled youth with psychological problems and obsessive tendencies.
This was the label everyone at Bastia gave him.
Someone who would argue and fight at the slightest provocation, even with teammates—this gave the team quite a headache.
Julien ignored the stares and walked straight to the locker room.
The original Julien had no friends here, which made things somewhat easier for him. Without interpersonal relationships, it was easier to integrate into his new life.
But when he reached the locker room, he frowned.
His locker was gone. The team had removed his locker from the changing room.
Two Bastia teammates were inside: Vincent and David.
They looked at him but didn't say much. Apart from knowing the general situation, they weren't particularly familiar with each other and saw no need to talk.
However, both were considered "veterans" of the team. Vincent was 19, a Bastia youth product currently used as a rotation midfielder; David was 32, a main striker.
Bastia, as a Ligue 2 club, had no money and no excellent youth development. They either picked up young talents hoping to strike it lucky, or signed older players who had essentially been abandoned by top-level clubs on free transfers.
Julien walked straight out of the locker room toward the reserve team.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
The two men in the locker room watched De Rocca's departing figure.
David shook his head. "Worthless kid."
Vincent said nothing. He had heard about De Rocca, but it was just another story of a talented youth destroying himself—such stories happened many times every year in football.
David spoke in a lecturing tone: "Don't be like him, ruining your own future."
Vincent pursed his lips and said nothing more.
If he had De Rocca's talent, he would want to live in the training ground every day, then achieve success, fame, and fortune!
Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't match even a hair of those geniuses.
David walked to his locker, preparing for today's training, continuing: "I've known about him for a long time. I just think it's a pity—he could have become a player like Ronaldo or Ronaldinho, but he's finished now."
Both men finished packing their training equipment.
But just before leaving, Vincent suddenly frowned and murmured to himself: "He seems somehow different from before."
He did feel something was different. When De Rocca first came here, his eyes were full of rebellion.
But today he seemed quite calm.
The reserve team and first team training grounds were separated by just a line—a wire fence that divided the two sides.
This arrangement allowed reserve players to see the first team, giving them a goal—a goal to cross that wire fence.
However, some people could never cross it in their entire lives, while others were born destined for the spotlight.
De Rocca came to the reserve team training ground and greeted coach Tavenot.
Tavenot nodded. "Go to the locker room and change. Your locker has been prepared."
"Mm."
Julien left.
At this time, many noisy voices arose from the reserve players on the training ground.
"He actually came back. I thought the club would terminate his contract."
"After all, they spent money on the contract—it's not so easy to get rid of him. I heard he still has to return to prison for monitoring at night."
"I can't believe he's going to play with us. Two years ago, he was already playing for Chelsea. Things really change."
"Someone like him can't protect that kind of talent."
Tavenot heard some of the chatter but showed no reaction. At Bastia, not many people liked De Rocca.
Top-tier talent that he didn't cherish—in the eyes of anyone who loved football, this was an extreme waste.
As a coach, Tavenot believed De Rocca's professional career was almost over.
De Rocca quickly returned to the training ground and trained with the others.
People could whisper behind his back, but no one said anything to De Rocca's face. After all, De Rocca really would hit people!
Before training, everyone ran laps to warm up. Julien joined them.
But after running one lap, his eyes suddenly widened.
Some phantom numbers appeared before his eyes:
[Running Recovery Training: 400m/20km]
[Dribbling Recovery Training: 0 hours/10 hours]
[Shooting Recovery Training: 0/1000 shots]
[When all three basic attribute training progressions are completed, the system panel will open and physical condition will be restored to previous peak state]
'Hmm?'
Julien was only slightly surprised initially, then quickly calmed down. If he could accept transmigration, there was no reason he couldn't accept a system.
The few short lines were very clear in meaning—time to train!
His current physical condition wasn't at its peak. Over the past two or three years, he had declined too severely.
At an age when he should have been improving, he was living off past achievements—not even stagnating, but declining!
Exhale!
Julien maintained his composure and continued running, watching the recovery training progress accumulate. He was somewhat excited about what the final system panel would look like.
Soon, the two-kilometer warm-up ended.
While others stopped to prepare for the day's training, De Rocca walked over to Tavenot and said: "Coach, can I skip team training today and just run on my own to recover my fitness?"
Hearing De Rocca's words, Tavenot pursed his lips, thought for a moment, then patted De Rocca's shoulder: "Fine, but don't think about slacking off. I'll be watching you."
De Rocca nodded, then continued running. This behavior made the others even more negative toward De Rocca.
They all thought De Rocca was too antisocial.
But De Rocca didn't care about others' opinions.
Others chased stardom, while he was chasing his former self!