The New York Times International - 05.08.2019

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T HE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019 | 13

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GARFIELD

KENKEN

Answers to Previous Puzzles

WIZARD of ID

DOONESBURY CLASSIC 1993

CALVIN AND HOBBES

DILBERT

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

SUDOKU No. 0508

Fill the grid so

that every row,

column 3x3 box

and shaded 3x

box contains

each of the

numbers

1 to 9 exactly

once.

Fill the grids with digits so as not

to repeat a digit in any row or

column, and so that the digits

within each heavily outlined box

will produce the target number

shown, by using addition,

subtraction, multiplication or

division, as indicated in the box.

A 4x4 grid will use the digits

1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.

For solving tips and more KenKen

puzzles: http://www.nytimes.com/

kenken. For Feedback: nytimes@

kenken.com

For solving tips

and more puzzles:

http://www.nytimes.com/

sudoku

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC.

Copyright © 2018 http://www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved.

(c) PZZL.com Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution No. 0308 CROSSWORD | Edited by Will Shortz

Across

1 Group in a play

5 Plasterwork backing

9 Bracelet securer

14 Arthur with a stadium

named after him

15 Feeling fluish, in a way

16 “___ me” (“Go along

with it”)

17 ___ the Man (old

baseball nickname)

18 Be overrun (with)

19 “E” on a gas gauge

20 Pre-snap powwow

22 Garden munchkin

24 “How was ___ know?”

25 2012 Best Picture

winner set in Iran

27 Kind of toy that moves

when you turn a key

31 Semiaquatic

salamanders

33 Flowers on trellises

35 Bill in a tip jar

36 Slangy “sweetheart”

37 Horace, as a poet

38 Barrister’s headgear

39 Scrub vigorously

41 Manipulate

42 Littlest ones in litters

44 Contagious viral

infection

45 Cross ___ with

47 Side-to-side nautical

movement

48 Plural “is”

49 First appearance, as

of symptoms

50 Toronto N.H.L. team,

for short

53 Common ankle injury

55 Biggest bear in

“Goldilocks and the

Three Bears”

57 “V for Vendetta” actor

Stephen

58 Grind, as teeth

60 Withstands

62 Gemstone measure

65 Chopped down

67 3:1 or 4:1, e.g.

68 Superior beef grade

69 They’re mined and

refined

70 Large, scholarly book

71 “For ___ waves of

grain” (line in “America

the Beautiful”)

72 Water swirl

73 Elderly

Down

1 Redeem, as a savings

bond

2 Uncommonly

perceptive

3 Air-punching pugilist

4 Manage, as a bar

5 “Ciao”

6 Unreturned tennis

serve

7 2006 Matt Damon spy

film

8 Song sung on Sunday

9 Place with beakers

and Bunsen burners

10 Measure of light’s

brightness

11 Electric guitar

accessory

12 Drunkard

13 Jimmy (open)

21 Lecturer’s implement

with

a light at the

end

23 Is indebted to

26 Fills, as tile joints

28 Popular yoga pose ...

or a literal hint to the

ends of 3-, 7-, 9- and

21-Down

29 The “U” in I.C.U.

30 Cribbage

scorekeepers

32 Letter after sigma

34 Nap south of the

border

39 Pampering places

40 Bus. concern

43 Persian Gulf country,

for short

46 Actress Kendrick

51 What “woof” or

“meow” may mean

52 Talked back to with

’tude

54 Best effort, informally

56 Colorful flower with a

“face”

59 Pump or oxford

61 Smidgen

62 Helper during taxing

times, for short?

63 Triceps location

64 Poke fun at

66 Marry

PUZZLE BY TRACY GRAY

Solution to Aug 3 Puzzle

COWTOWNSALADA

OPERAHATCRIMEA

MILEHIGHOCTAVO

BULKUPEMTSZIN

AMOSSITATROLL

TSKCANESCONDI

POWERSTATION

SAMESEXMARRIAGE

SMOKEDCIGARS

MEDOCENEMYECO

ISEETSARSSNOW

NILVASTTOUSLE

NOIRONOPOSSUMS

OWNINGRAPSHEET

WAGONSISAIDSO

12345678910111213

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 2223

24 2526 27 282930

31 32 3334 35

36 37 38

3940 41 4243

44 4546 47

48 49 50 5152

53 54 5556 57

58 59 6061

626364 6566 67

68 69 70

71 72 73

sports

With two diamond studs sparkling in his

ears, Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira

Júnior strolled through the front door of

the gated villa he calls home after a day

of training at Real Madrid.

Within minutes, he and his two closest

friends from Brazil had fired up the

FIFA video game in the living room to

begin a daily ritual: the usual marathon

session that seems to only pause for

meal times.

“What a header,” one of the friends

yelled as the digitized version of Viní-

cius leapt into the air and buried a shot

past the goalkeeper. Vinícius, 19, raised

his head from the massage table to see

the action unfold on a 65-inch television,

and then let his attention drift back to

his phone as his personal physiothera-

pist continued to work on his legs.

This villa, in an exclusive Madrid

neighborhood, has the air of a teenage

boy’s paradise. In addition to its enor-

mous television, there are electric scoot-

ers, a driving seat for a motor racing

game and table tennis and pool tables.

The items are there to distract as much

as entertain: Vinícius’s status as the

next great star of Real Madrid means he

rarely ventures out in public anymore.

There are strict rules for his friends, too.

No nights out when Vinícius is at home.

“It’s not fair if we go out and he has to

stay in,” said one of them, Luiz Felipe

Menegate. “We know we’re here for him

to succeed.”

“Just like always,” Vinícius said with a

grin.

Even if he were not one of the sport’s

brightest young prospects, Vinícius

probably would be spending his days

talking soccer in the company of

Menegate and another boyhood friend,

Wesley Menezes, or digging into plates

of black beans, rice and sirloin prepared

by a favorite aunt. But in so many other

ways — not just the toy-filled villa, but

the multimillion-dollar salary and the

attention and expectation that come

with being one of the most valuable

teenagers on earth — Vinícius Júnior

now inhabits an entirely new world.

This spring, he and his team invited

The New York Times into that world, of-

fering a rare glimpse into the care and

the planning and, yes, the comforts that

can help a talented young player navi-

gate the warp-speed transformation

from prospect to pro.

In Vinícius’s case, the change of venue

alone has been remarkable.

Only a few years ago, Vinícius, a skill-

ful and speedy wing, was living in a

cramped room with more than a half-

dozen family members in a Rio de Janei-

ro municipality notorious for violent

crime and crippling poverty. Then, in

May 2017, Real Madrid agreed to pay the

Rio de Janeiro club Flamengo 45 million

euros ( just over $50 million) for the

rights to the teenage forward. In an in-

stant, before he had kicked a ball as a

professional, Vinícius became the most

expensive teenage export in Brazilian

soccer history.

The record-breaking fee made Viní-

cius, then only 16, an instant millionaire.

But it also kick-started the effort to

make his journey from Rio to Europe as

seamless as possible. That is why

Menegate and Menezes are here, along

with his aunt and nearly a dozen other

family members, all of them living in-

side a two-story villa.

It is the dream of every young Brazil-

ian boy who plays soccer to land with a

club like Real Madrid, a team of super-

stars that has won more international ti-

tles than any other club. Vinícius’s jour-

ney, though, represents something far

different than the usual favela-to-riches

story: It also captures the fevered, high-

risk game Real Madrid plays to try to

maintain its excellence, the ease with

which top clubs can bid up the value

(and the expectations) for an unproven

player, and one family’s efforts to try to

maintain just the slightest bit of nor-

malcy amid that storm.

“I don’t really feel pressure,” Vinícius

said in April. “I just focus on enjoying

myself on the field.”

Much of that is because of what is in

place inside the villa, away from the pry-

ing eyes of fans and reporters, and a uni-

verse removed from his childhood.

Even by the standards of São

Gonçalo, the bayside city of 330,

near Rio that is blighted by poverty and

crime, the Paixão de Oliveira family had

it hard. Vinícius’s father had to work in a

neighboring state to support his family,

installing wiring for cable and internet

firms. Often that was not enough.

When he was 6, Vinícius, who accord-

ing to family members showed glimpses

of talent soon after learning to walk,

signed up for soccer training with a local

school run by Carlos Eduardo Abrantes,

known as Cacau. The school is one of

scores affiliated with Flamengo, and

that meant Cacau also shared in the

riches of Vinícius’s transfer to Madrid.

“It was a good amount,” he said, without

revealing an exact figure.

By the time he was 14, Vinícius’s rare

talent was clear. He was one of the best

players in Rio, and soon a star on na-

tional teams for his age group. It was

then that TFM, one of Brazil’s soccer

agencies, started to manage his career,

taking the place of a previous agent and

providing support that allowed his fa-

ther to return home to his family and fo-

cus on Vinícius’ ascent.

TFM bet on his promise and started

investing in Vinícius, persuading the

family to let it represent the talented

youngster. The informal arrangement

carried risks for the firm because in

Brazil players cannot sign with agents

until they are 18.

“It is a gentleman’s agreement, and

many times that agreement isn’t re-

spected by the parents, and he’s free to

change his mind,” said Frederico Pena,

the agent who runs TFM.

TFM helped Vinícius’ family rent an

apartment closer to Flamengo’s train-

ing center and paid for him to attend two

high-performance facilities in the

United States used by professional

sports franchises. Such was the speed of

Vinícius’ rise that a planned third visit

had to be scrapped: He had been pro-

moted to Flamengo’s first team.

When Vinícius was honored as the

best player and top scorer for Brazil’s

championship team at a South Ameri-

can under-17 championship in early

2017, the performance led to one of the

most remarkable transfer battles in re-

cent soccer history. Real Madrid and

Barcelona, bitter rivals on and off the

field in Spain, each decided it wanted

Vinícius — a teenager who still had not

made his professional debut for Fla-

mengo — at almost any price.

The transition to Europe has not al-

ways been easy. The battle for a regular

place in the Real Madrid lineup is not for

the meek, and even the biggest signings

and brightest prospects quickly fall out

of favor with fans and the news media.

But at least that quest is within Vinícius

Júnior’s control; the friends and family

members who have uprooted their lives

to support him already have surren-

dered part of their own identities to help

him flourish. Menegate acknowledged

as much one afternoon as he waited for

his friend to return from training.

“I know that we are not just Menegate

and Wesley anymore because people

now just see us as the two guys who live

with Vinícius,” he said.

Still, the attempts at normalcy contin-

ue. His aunt Vanessa, who is part of the

entourage, cooks every meal for the

household, and the menu rarely

changes: rice, beans and protein, sta-

ples of family meals throughout Brazil.

Most days, the family gathers at the ta-

ble a couple of hours before dinner; they

wash down slices of a cornmeal cake,

known as bolo de fubá, with sweet Bra-

zilian coffee as pagode music blares

from a living room speaker. Except for

the fact the group is sitting in a home

whose previous occupant was the chief

executive of one of Spain’s largest retail-

ers, the scene could be one set back in

the cramped apartment in São Gonçalo,

family and friends enjoying one anoth-

er’s company, discussing soccer and the

quality of Aunt Vanessa’s cooking.

The next day, Vinícius will return to

training. The club will focus on his devel-

opment. The agents will focus on his mil-

lions. The family members and the old

friends will offer their company. The

auntie will prepare more beans and rice.

“My dad says, ‘Just focus on the

field,’” Vinícius Júnior said. “ ‘You don’t

have any problem off the field.’”

The perks and pressure of being a prodigy

PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Vinícius Júnior playing for Real Madrid, left. He lives in a villa with childhood friends

Wesley Menezes, center, and Luiz Felipe Menegate, and about a dozen family members.

GIANFRANCO TRIPODO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

MADRID

Old friends from Brazil

help $50 million teenager

settle in at Real Madrid

BY TARIQ PANJA

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