【Perez公器私用練英文050】
為足球感謝上蒼【1】嶄露頭角
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| Ryan Pierse/Getty |
- (1)嶄露頭角 (童年~比利亞雷亞爾時期)
- (2)閃耀藍月，鬥牛士登頂 (馬競~曼城三冠王~西班牙歐國杯冠軍)：文章連結
原文網址：https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/rodri-premier-league-manchester-city-soccer-spain
時間：2024/09/04
作者：Rodri
I always try to tell my teammates at City: I don’t speak English, I speak American. They love to make fun of me, you know? For everything. Usually, it’s for my clothes. What they call my “drip.” And sometimes it’s for the way I talk. But there is a lot that people don’t know about me. In fact I didn’t learn to speak the language in Manchester or London. I learned it in the woods in Connecticut. My reference is American English.
我常常試著跟我的曼城隊友說：我不是說英文，我講美語。他們老愛捉弄我你知道，什麼事都會。通常來說，他們叫我的衣服是『滴滴』。而有時候那就是我講話的方式。但是彼處有很多人並不熟知我。事實上我不是在曼徹斯特或倫敦學這門語言的。我是在康乃狄格的樹林中學到的。我的語言參考依據是美式英文。
“I know, mayn. Heya. How ya dewin, bro?” (You know, like this.)
「我知影啊，男倫。嘿呀！最近過得咋樣啊，兄弟？」(你知道，大概就像這樣)
You see, education was really important in my family, and my father always wanted me to do an exchange at an American high school for one year. But my football dream made that impossible. So instead, when I turned 14, I went to this summer camp in the middle of the forest in Connecticut. Even the name, “Conn-et-ee-cut,” sounded crazy for a kid from Madrid. But when I arrived, it was like I was stepping into a Hollywood movie. You know the movies where the kids go to the camp on a big lake and there’s wooden canoes and you’re climbing trees and sleeping in tents and starting fires with sticks? It was really like that. You’re eating the marshmallows and the biscuits, you know? Over the fire? With the chocolate?
顯而易見，教育在我的家中是很重要的事情，我爸爸總是要求我去美國高中交換一年。但我的足球夢讓它成為了泡影。所以退而求其次，當我十四歲時，我去了康乃狄格州森林中的夏令營，「康—乃—迪—格」光是唸出來就對一個馬德里小孩夠瘋狂的了。
但當我真的抵達的時候，像是踏進好萊塢電影似的。你看過那種一群小朋友去一個大湖邊的營隊，伴隨著獨木舟，還有爬樹、睡帳棚、生火的電影嗎？幾乎就跟那種電影差不多。棉花糖跟餅乾被你吃得津津有味，你懂嗎？火堆旁耶？還有巧克力？
S’mores. Incredible.
西摩瑞絲（Perez譯註：美國知名棉花糖餅乾)耶。不可置信。
No phones. No Wi-Fi. I’m all by myself in a new country, trying to make friends. “Hello, I am Rodrigo. I am from Madrid.” (My teammates are already laughing, I can hear them.) I was always saying, in my broken English, “OK, guys, when are we going to play football?”
沒有手機。沒有Ｗi-Fi。我孓然一人被拋到一個陌生國家，試著去交新朋友。
「哈囉，我是羅德里。我來自馬德里。」(隊友們已經準備發笑了，我聽得到。)
(Perez譯註：我們習慣稱呼的羅德里Rodri全名為Rodrigo Hernández Cascante；避免與皇馬球員羅德里戈混淆，下列出現「Rodrigo」仍將翻譯為羅德里)
我當時老是會用我的破英文說：「好啦，各位，我們什麼時候去踢球啦？」
“Yeah, Rodrigo. We’re playing later. We’re gonna throw the pig skin around.”
「會啦，羅德里。我們等等會踢。我們要先來到處丟豬皮。」
I’m thinking: “The pig skin??”
我就想說：「豬皮？」
“Come on, bro. Like the NFL.”
「拜託，兄弟，就像NFL美式足球啦。」
Honestly, I kind of liked it. It was fun.
老實說，我蠻喜歡它的。
But I kept saying, “I want to play soccer, guys”
但我就會繼續講：「各位，我想要踢足球。」
“Sawker? We’re not playing sawker, mayn.”
「俗球？我們不踢俗球，男倫。」
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| Courtesy of the Cascante Family |
To make it worse, I actually arrived there during the start of the 2010 World Cup. I couldn’t even check the internet, so I was in pain. But there was a little computer in the office of the main cabin, and every single day, I would ask the camp counselors to tell me who won the games. Spain lost the first match to Switzerland, if you remember. I thought they were messing with me.
禍不單行，實際上我是在2010年剛開始的時候抵達的。我甚至沒辦法上網，所以我置身在痛苦之中。但有一台小電腦在公事篷車裡頭，每一天，我就會跟營隊隊輔老師拜託，請隊輔老師跟我說誰贏了比賽。如果你還記得，西班牙輸了第一場對瑞士的比賽。我猜他們在嘲弄我。
“Switzerland? Really? You sure you googled it right?”
「瑞士？真的假的？你確定你沒查錯吧？」
Anyway, time is going by, and Spain start playing better. Knockouts — they keep winning. Then the semifinal against Germany — I’m dying. I’m on a canoeing trip, I think. I keep asking the main counselor, “Please, please can you just find out the score?”
無論如何，時間持續前行，西班牙漸入佳境。淘汰賽開始——他們一路克敵。然後到了對德國的四強賽——我簡直要掛了。印象中，我在獨木舟上搗河過江。我一直在問我的主隊輔老師，「拜託啦，你可以幫我找到比分嗎？」
Finally, we get back to the cabins and somebody tells me: “Spain are in the final.”
最後，我們回到公事篷車，有人跟我說：「西班牙進決賽啦。」
I never felt so far from home, but also close to home, if you understand what I mean.
我從來感覺沒有離家這麼遠，但也同時離家這麼近，如果你能感同身受的話。
For the final, I begged the main counselor to let me watch on his computer. He said OK, sure. Then he brings out this computer, and it’s like a 10-inch screen. You remember those mini laptop PCs? It was one of those. Tiny. I’m thinking: It’s beautiful. I don’t care. Just let me watch.
到了決賽的時候，我乞求主隊輔老師讓我在他電腦旁邊看。他說OK沒問題。他把電腦帶過來，那是個十寸的螢幕。你還記得當時流行的小筆電嗎？那就是其中一台。很小一台。我腦袋裡只想著：「這台電腦好美，我不在乎，讓我看球。」
I don’t know how we did it, because we were in the middle of the woods, but I must have found a stream that was not exactly legal, and I watched the final, surrounded by Americans who didn’t care about what was happening.
我不知道是怎麼做到的，因為我們當時在森林裡頭，不過我確定我找到了大概不是正版的某個直播來源，然後我就在一群不太在乎在幹嘛的美國人之中看起了決賽。
When Iniesta scored, I literally started screaming and I ran outside and sprinted around the lake.
當伊涅斯塔進球的時，我就認真開始尖叫，衝到外邊繞著湖畔不斷奔跑。
“Vaaaamoooooosssss!!!!!!!!!! Aaaahahhhhhhhhh ¡¡¡¡¡jajajajajajajaja!!!! ¡Viva España!”
「再來來來來來！！！！啊啊啊啊啊啊！！！哈哈哈哈哈！！萬歲西班牙牙牙牙！」
The Americans thought I was crazy. They were shaking their heads.
老美覺得我瘋了。他們開使搖起頭來。
They were looking at me like, “Wait, is the Spanish guy crying? Over the sawker?”
他們用一種「蛤，這西班牙仔在哭？因為俗球？」的表情看著我。
They couldn’t understand what it meant to me. They thought I was crazy. And maybe I am crazy….
他們搞不清楚這對我代表什麼。他們覺得我瘋了。也許我是瘋了......
My whole life, I have lived between these two worlds. One football, the other the “real world.”
我終其一生，都在兩個世界之間活著。足球世界和「現實世界」。
Sometimes the boys make fun of me for being “normal.” It’s funny because if you asked my missus or even my mum, they would say that I am the furthest thing from normal. When it comes to football, I am an addict. If I am normal it is probably in the sense that I don’t care about social media or £400 trainers. Since I was a kid, I have simply been chasing a feeling.
有時候男孩子們會因為我的「平凡」作弄我。這很有趣，因為如果你問我的太太或我媽，他們會說我跟平凡差之千里。當一切論及足球，我如同成癮。如果我讓人感覺普通，可能是因為我不在乎社群媒體或400歐元一堂課的教練。從小開始，我就很清楚地在追逐一個感覺。
I didn’t say, “Oh, I want to be a footballer so I can have a Ferrari.” No, it was because what my heroes did on the pitch made me feel alive. I remember being five years old, and there was a communal pool in the middle of our neighborhood, and a little garden. In the summer, it was: football, pool, football, pool. Home for lunch. Back in the pool. Back in the garden.
我不會講什麼「喔，我想要成為足球選手，這樣我就可以有一台法拉利。」
不，一切都是因為我的英雄們在球場上做的事情讓我有真的生存在世界的感覺。
我記得五歲時候，我們鄰里中間有個公共泳池跟小花園。我那個夏天的寫照就是：足球、水池、足球、水池、回家吃午餐、回到水池、回到花園。
By the age of 10, if I played a match and I didn’t perform well, I couldn’t speak to my parents for a whole day. I was too upset with myself. I am sure that my mom was looking at me, thinking: “What the hell is wrong with him? It’s just a game.”
但當我十歲時候，如果我踢比賽表現得不好，我就會一整天不跟我爸我媽說話。我對我自己太沮喪了。我很清楚我媽看著我在想：「他是哪根筋不對勁啊？只是一場球賽耶。」
But for me, it was almost like a drug. So I made a deal with my parents when I was very young. I don’t know if we ever actually even spoke about it. It was just “understood.” If I wanted to pursue my football dream, then I had to go to university as well. So when I was 17, I moved away from Madrid to Villarreal, and I also enrolled at Jaume I University. The first year, I was living in the residences of the Villarreal Academy with my teammates. But then when you turn 18, you are considered “old,” and you have to find your own apartment.
但對我來說，那趨近於禁藥似的誘人。所以我在我還很年輕時，就跟我爸媽立注。我不確定我們有沒有真的提到這件事情，它就像是「各自了解」。如果我想要兌現我的足球夢，我就需要同時去大學唸書。所以當我十七歲時，我就搬離馬德里到了比利亞雷亞爾，去Jaume I大學求學。第一年，我還跟我比利亞雷亞爾青訓的同學們一起住宿。但當你十八歲了，你被當成「成熟了」，就得自己去找外宿了。
My mom was the one who had the idea: “Why don’t you just move into the student housing at uni?”
我媽是出主意的人。「你幹嘛不搬到大學宿舍就好？」
OK, sure.
欸，好啊。
So that’s what I did.
我就這麼做哩。
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| Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty |
I think it’s very similar in the UK — you’re in a big apartment complex with a common laundry room and showers and a cafeteria and there’s a door, a door, a door. All your neighbours side by side. You have your little room with a wooden bed, wooden desk. I didn’t have a TV or a PlayStation. Just a laptop. In the morning, I would go to training at Villarreal, then in the afternoon I’d go to class, and at night….
我想這跟英國蠻像的—你會在一個大公寓裡頭，有著基本的洗衣間、淋浴間、咖啡廳跟一扇一扇的門，所有鄰居比鄰而居。你會有一個備有木床、木桌的小房間，我甚至沒有電視或PS。只有一台筆電。每到早上，我就會在比利亞雷亞爾訓練，然後下午去上課，而到了晚上...
Well, at night it was funny because obviously it’s uni. When it’s Friday night, everyone is going to the club. But first, they’re “pregaming,” as they say in America. They’re in the tiny rooms playing music and drinking some beers, and there’s like 20 people in one room, with people sitting on the bed, on the floor, everywhere. I was just like any other student — they didn’t even know I really played football — so I’d show up with my sparkling water and I’d hang out for a while until it was time to go to the club. Then I’d disappear.
嗯，晚上會蠻歡樂的，主要是因為我在大學裡頭。每逢星期五晚上，每個人都會去俱樂部。但一開始，用老美的話來說，他們要先「熱身賽」。他們會在小房間裡放音樂、喝啤酒，大概20個人會擠一間吧，人們坐在床上或地上的各個角落。我就像其他學生一樣—他們也不知道我真的在踢球—我就會帶著氣泡水出現，跟大家廝混一陣直到要去夜店的時間。然後我就會消失。
Finally, someone was like, “Rodrigo, how come you never come out with us? Come on, man.”
終於，有個誰會出聲：「羅德里，你幹嘛從來都不跟我們一起去啊？拜託，兄弟。」
And I had to tell them, “Well, I play football. I have training in the morning.”
我就得跟他們說：「嘛，我有在踢球，明天早上還得練球。」
“Laaaaaammmeeeee. Lame, bro.”
「ㄒ～～～ㄩ～～～ㄣˋ～～～遜欸老兄。」
They killed me for it.
他們幾乎把我給宰了。
At that point, I was still training with the second team. I was a nobody. I didn’t even have a car. The student residence was a 15-minute drive from the Villarreal training center, and I couldn’t pay for a taxi every day. So I would ride my bike to the tram station — take the bike on the tram — then boom, I’d bike the rest of the way to training. Finally I got my license and I told my father, “OK, I have 3,000 euros to buy a car. See what you can find me.”
同一時間，我正在跟著二隊訓練。我默默無聞，甚至連台車也沒有。學生宿舍大概離比利亞雷亞爾的訓練場有15分鐘車程，我也沒有足夠預算天天叫車。所以我會期我的腳踏車到電車站—牽著腳踏車上電車—然後再騎車去訓練。我終於拿到駕照後跟我爸說，「OK，我現在有3,000歐元買車啦。看看你可已找到啥貨色。」
He called me back the next day, “OK, I found a good one. This old lady is selling it. She wants 4,000, but it’s got a computer in it.”
隔天他打電話給我：「OK，我找到一台不錯的。老太太要賣掉的車。它喊價四千，但裡面還附贈一台電腦。」
I’m like: Wow. A computer? It’s a deal.
我就好像是：「哇，一台電腦？成交。」
He brings me the car. It’s an Opel Corsa. I get in the car and the “computer” screen is about 8 centimeters. You could tap it to turn on the radio and that was it. I was amazed. I drove that car to training every day, like a baller. My teammates made fun of me, but I didn’t care! I loved it!
他把車牽來了。是台Opel Corsa。我坐進車裡，「電腦」螢幕大概8公分寬吧。你可以點擊它聽廣播，然後就這樣了。這太驚喜了。我每天開著車去訓練，像是個大屌哥。我隊友會開我玩笑，但我不在乎！我愛死了！
The next year, I made my first appearances in La Liga, and I think my friends from school kind of had their minds blown a bit. They told me that they were watching a match on TV, and the guy from down the hall came on the screen. The guy from their accounting class was the No. 6.
次年，我完成了我的西甲初登板，而且我猜我學校的朋友們腦袋大概在某種爆炸邊緣。他們跟我說他們在電視上看比賽，球場下緣有個傢伙出現在螢幕上，他們會計班上的那個傢伙竟然是6號球員。
They couldn’t believe it was really me.
他們難以置信真的是我。
“Wait, is this the same guy?”
「等等，是同一個人？」
“Google it, google it.”
「快Google啦快Google。」
“No, it can’t be the same Rodrigo. There’s a lot of Rodrigos. It’s not him.”
「不可能，不會是那個羅德里啦。叫羅德里的滿坑滿谷欸，不是啦。」
When you’re on TV in your football kit, you look different, no? And I probably had on my serious face.
當你穿著球衣在電視上一切就看起來渾然不同了，是吧？而我大概是以我認真的那面在畫面上。
So some of them were convinced: “No, it’s not him.”
所以有些人試著說服自己：「不，不是他。」
Then when I started playing more and more, and they realized that it was really me, they were like, “What are you even doing here man? You were playing Barcelona last night!”
接著，當我開始在更多比賽出賽，他們就會了解那真的是我，他們就會像是「你在這裡幹嘛老兄？你昨天晚上在跟巴薩踢球耶！」
In Spain, we play this game called Comunio. It’s like a fantasy football game where you buy players and manage your team. Everyone in the student housing played it, and so I would come home from a match sometimes on a Saturday night, and maybe they had a few beers, and they would be like, “Bro, come on! What happened today? You only gave me 3 points in Comunio!!! What the hell???”
在西班牙，我們叫這個遊戲「社群球」。有點像是夢幻足球，你可以買賣球員、組織你的隊伍。每個學生宿舍都在玩，所以有時候我在踢完週六晚上比賽後，他們可能會小酌一陣，然後表現出「兄弟，拜託！今天怎麼了？你只在社群球上給了我3點耶！在幹嘛啦？？？」
Hahahah. “Sorry! Sorry!”
哈哈哈。「歹勢！歹勢！」
Those were the most fun years of my life. I don’t know why, but when I arrived back at the university, my brain “switched” into my other world. School kept the pressure of football in perspective for me. The other amazing thing was that I met my missus in the student residences, and she was studying to be a doctor. Let me tell you — she didn’t care about my football pressures at all. Hahaha. She didn’t want to hear about a draw at Celta Vigo.
那是我一生中最有趣的幾年了。我也不之到為什麼，但當我回到大學校園時，我的腦袋就會切換到另外一個世界。學校對我來說保留了持續看透足球的動力。另外一件美妙的事情是，我在學生宿舍遇到了我太太，當時他正為了成為醫師努力學習。讓我跟你說——她完全不關心我的足球。哈哈哈。她不想聽什麼跟塞爾戈維塔打了個平手之類的事。
She always kept my “feet on the floor.”
她老是要我「腳踏實地」。
“Hey, calm down, huh? Calm down. It’s football.”
「欸，冷靜，蛤？冷靜，這是足球耶。」
And in the eyes of my teachers, I was just “one more.” In Spain, university is university. You are there to work. So when I was in my little room with my laptop, I could get so locked in to what I was doing that I would literally forget about everything else. One day, I was studying for an exam or something, and I had my phone on silent. All of a sudden, I took a break and I realized that I had like 20 text messages, 50 WhatsApps, 10 missed calls. I’m thinking: Oh my God, did someone die? What happened?
而在老師們的眼中，我就是「又一個這樣的學生。」在西班牙，大學就是大學。你是去那邊認真讀書的。所以當我在我的小房間用筆電時，我會感到我深深栽在我專注的事之中，忘卻一切所有餘事。有一天我在準備期中考還是什麼的時候，我手機開無聲，就在我休息的一瞬間，我發現我有20封簡訊、50則WhatsApps、十通未接來電。我就想說：「我的天啊，有人死了嗎？怎麼了？」
My teammate is calling me. I pick up the phone.
我的隊友打給我。我接起電話。
“Rodri, where are you?”
「羅德里你到哪去了？」
“Where am I? I’m here. I’m at the university.”
「我到哪去？我就在這啊，在大學裡頭。」
“The manager is looking for you. Everyone is looking for you.”
「教練在找你，大家都在找你。」
“What are you talking about?”
「你在說什麼啊？」
“We’re playing Valencia. We’re all on the bus.”
「我們要打瓦倫西亞，我們都在巴士上了。」
I thought they were playing a joke on me.
我以為他們在跟我開玩笑。
I said, “Come on man, the game is tomorr……”
我說：「拜託，老兄，比賽是明......」
Oh my God. No. You know when you have a nightmare that you are back in school and you forgot you had an exam? Well, that happened to me, only it was real. And it wasn’t school, it was La Liga.
天啊，不會吧。你知道那種你夢回學校然後發現錯過考試的惡夢吧？嗯哼，我就發生過，只是它是如假包換的，並且我不是在學校，是場西甲比賽。
I said, “OK, tell the bus to leave. I will meet you guys at the hotel.”
我就說：「OK，跟巴士說可以開了，我到飯店跟你們會合。」
Man, I put my clothes on as fast as I could and I ran out to my car, and I was James Bond in my Opel through the streets. The hotel in Valencia was an hour away. By the time I got there, they were doing the team meetings, and I came in looking like “the dog ate my homework.”
兄弟，我盡可能快的著裝，衝到我的車上，我像是詹姆士龐德開著Opel在街道穿梭。瓦倫西亞的飯店大概是一小時車程。當我抵達的時候，隊友正在集合，我就一臉像是「我的狗吃了我的作業」一樣的進去。
Hahahaha. Let me tell you, it doesn’t work in football either.
哈哈哈哈，我跟你說，在足球界這招也沒用的啦。
I got destroyed that day, but I deserved it. That was a huge learning experience for me, because I realized that I had to do a better job of managing my two worlds.
我那天整個被毀了，但我罪有應得。對我來說那是很重要的一課經驗。因為我了解我要花費更多的努力經營我的兩個世界。
Every step of my journey, I learned through failure, and I added something new. A new piece of the puzzle. At Villarreal, I learned what it means to be a professional. Not just a footballer, but a professional.
回顧足球之旅的每一步，我從挫折中學習，我也天，我從挫折中學習，我也添入了不同的新鮮元素。一片新的拼圖。在比利亞雷亞爾，我學到了「職業精神」意義何在。不只是足球員，更要是專業的。
下集待續，
欲知羅德里在馬競的一個賽季，與爾後轉入曼城瓜迪奧拉麾下的日子
敬請鎖定下週(大概吧，看心情)的《羅德里：為足球感謝上蒼【2】閃耀藍月》
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