Super Wingstorm

Breakfast was milk with oatmeal, two eggs, and two slices of whole wheat bread.

Professional players have high dietary standards, but they aren’t actually that draconian. This was especially true for someone Yang Yang’s age, who was at a critical stage of physical development. The most important thing was a well-balanced and nutritious diet.

It was best to avoid sugar and pork. He could eat beef in moderation, but fish was the best option.

Fish and beef were quite similar nutritionally, but fish was easier to digest.

Yang Yang had learned all of this from the club’s nutrition specialist before leaving Ajax.

Back in Almere, he hadn’t paid much attention to his diet, but that wasn’t an option anymore. He was about to renew his contract with Ajax. Whether for the sake of his own career development or the obligations of his professional contract, Yang Yang had to take it seriously.

After breakfast, Yang Yang left the house, juggling a ball.

He needed to find a suitable place to practice.

The Super Training was certainly useful, but it had its limitations. It could never replace real-world hard work. Besides, Yang Yang couldn’t just sleep day and night, could he?

That would be far too decadent.

Being an upscale residential complex, there was no way Yang Yang would find a wall suitable for practice inside. He had to go outside.

Wei Zhen had told him before that not far north of the complex’s exit was a park with a sports field and concrete terraced stands.

Yang Yang went to the park to scout it out and found it quite good. The back of the stands was perfect for practice.

Since the start of the Toulon Cup, Yang Yang hadn’t done his solo wall drills for nearly half a month. Starting again now, he felt a little rusty. After a full set of basic drills, he started to break a sweat and his body warmed up.

Next up was basic ball-control practice.

The most effective way to practice ball control was with a partner, or even in the small-sided drills he did at Ajax. But that wasn’t possible now. He was alone, so he had to use the wall.

He started with two-touch drills.

To put it simply, he would kick the ball against the wall. When it bounced back, he would use different parts of one foot, at different angles and postures, to control the ball toward his other foot, which would then kick it back at the wall.

This was the simplest and most basic form of training, but as Yang Yang’s fundamentals became more solid, the demands increased. For example, he would make several marks on the wall and randomly aim for one of them when he kicked.

Different marks meant different angles and different force, which resulted in different rebounds. Naturally, this placed different demands on his ball control.

As he grew more proficient, Yang Yang would continuously shorten the distance. A shorter distance meant less reaction time, making it even more demanding.

He also varied his technique, using the inside of his foot, the instep, the outside of his foot, and even his head.

This seemingly simple training method not only honed his first touch with various parts of his body but also trained his passing. These were the absolute fundamentals.

After more than a year of this training, Yang Yang’s fundamentals had become increasingly solid. Even on the National Youth Team, aside from one or two technically refined players like Chen Tao and Hao Junmin, Yang Yang was second to none.

But at Ajax, compared to European stars like Van der Vaart, Ibrahimovic, and Sneijder, he was still noticeably inferior, especially when dealing with the ball under high-intensity pressure.

The main difference was consistency. But as Old Ice had said before: Unconscious, Unstable, Stable, and Reflex.

Yang Yang had just barely entered the Stable stage. But through relentless hard work, he wanted to elevate himself to the Reflex stage, hoping to be like Bergkamp and Van der Vaart, who could handle any kind of pass in any situation with ease and composure.

From the goal in the Champions League final to the matches in the Toulon Cup, Yang Yang had tasted the benefits of a great first touch. This filled him with an unprecedented fighting spirit and an urgent desire to improve his ball control as quickly as possible.

He believed that the better his first touch, the greater a threat he would be on the field.

...

...

Su Wenhong was a teacher at a famous nearby high school. He specialized in teaching the graduating senior class, which came with immense pressure.

Every day after school, he would go to the nearby park for a run, using the exertion and sweat to release his pent-up stress.

It was a habit he had developed over many years.

And every time he ran on the sports field and saw the abandoned football pitch in the middle, he couldn’t help but remember playing with his classmates and friends in his youth, and the urge to play would well up inside him.

But then he would look down at his slightly protruding belly and abandon the tempting thought.

His daily stress was immense. He had neither the time nor the energy, and more importantly, he just couldn’t play anymore.

Although he didn’t play, he was a die-hard fan.

When the National Team made it to the Korea-Japan World Cup in ’02, he scrimped and saved to fly over and watch the World Cup in person. In the end, the National Team lost to Brazil zero to four, and he returned to China disheartened.

But for all fans who love football, setbacks are always temporary. Su Wenhong soon reignited his passion for the sport, especially in the last six months.

Yang Yang, a seventeen-year-old Chinese boy. He had been completely unknown before, a nobody. But then, as if appearing out of nowhere, he joined Ajax, fought his way up from the reserve team to the first team, played from the Eredivisie to the Champions League, and even reached the final.

Su Wenhong, now in his forties, was just like the younger fans in China—deeply amazed by Yang Yang’s outstanding performance in the Netherlands. He was especially full of admiration after Wei Zheng returned to China and recounted all of Yang Yang’s exploits there.

For the Champions League final, he had managed to get tickets from the brothers Wei Zhen and Wei Zheng. His original plan was to go to Gelsenkirchen to watch the Champions League final, then see his daughter’s play in Germany. But unexpectedly, something came up at the last minute, and the plan fell through.

In the end, he entrusted his daughter, who had zero interest in football, to go to the final in his place. He could only stay home and watch the live broadcast, witnessing Yang Yang score the game-winning goal with his own eyes, filled with immense regret.

After that was the Toulon Cup. Whenever there was a live broadcast in China, he never missed a game. He was incredibly excited watching them, especially the three matches—the two victories against France and the semifinal where they eliminated Sweden. He found them absolutely thrilling.

In his memory, Chinese Football had never produced such an outstanding and talented rookie like Yang Yang. He had no doubt that Yang Yang would become the leading figure of Chinese Football for the next decade or more—the hope and anchor for all Chinese fans.

Every time he thought about it, he felt re-energized, motivated to follow the upcoming Asian Cup.

’Perhaps this Asian Cup, hosted at home, will be different because of Yang Yang.’

This was the shared hope of him and countless fans across the country.

...

After running three kilometers in one go, Su Wenhong stopped, panting like a bull and drenched in sweat.

He felt like he was about to pass out.

He dragged his feet over to the nearby terraced stands. Just as he sat down, he heard some noise from behind the stands. He faintly made out what sounded like goodbyes, and then he heard Yang Yang’s name.

Su Wenhong’s heart skipped a beat.

’Yang Yang?’

He immediately pushed himself up and hurried around to the back of the terraced stands. Halfway there, he ran into two familiar faces he often saw while running.

”Old Su, what took you so long?”

”Yeah! Hurry up, that Yang Yang you’re always talking about is here.”

”Yang Yang?” Su Wenhong was thrilled. ”Is it really Yang Yang?”

”Of course it is! Look, here’s his autograph. Could this be fake?”

Su Wenhong immediately leaned in for a closer look. The name signed in the notebook was indeed Yang Yang. It wasn’t a flamboyant scrawl like other people’s signatures, but rather neat and in standard script.

”Is he still here?” Su Wenhong pressed.

”He just left. If you hurry, you should be able to catch him.”

Hearing this, Su Wenhong couldn’t be bothered with anything else. He sprinted to the back of the stands, but Yang Yang was already gone. He chased after him onto the road, but it was empty. There was no sign of Yang Yang anywhere.

”Oh my god, how did I miss him?” Su Wenhong said, shaking his head in frustration.

Seeing him return with a look of disappointment, his two running buddies knew what had happened. There was nothing they could do but try to console him.

”Old Su, don’t be disappointed. From the way he was talking, it sounds like he’ll be back.”

”Yeah, he’s been focused on preparing for the Asian Cup lately. I saw he was drenched in sweat from training, totally focused. He’s probably saving all his energy for the Asian Cup. Maybe our National Team actually has a shot this time.”

”Tell me about it. South Korea made it to the semifinals, and Japan made it to the round of sixteen. It’s time for China to rise to the occasion.”

”It’s all the fault of that bunch of idiots at the Football Association. They’ve ruined Chinese Football.”

”This time is different. We’re hosting the Asian Cup. No matter who it is, they have to prioritize the National Team’s strength. If anyone dares to mess things up, the entire country won’t let them get away with it.”

”That’s true. We’re playing on home soil, and we’re the hosts. If there’s no breakthrough this year, who knows how long we’ll have to wait.”

”I know, right? Look at this football pitch. It’s completely dilapidated. No one plays here, and no one takes care of it.”

The two old buddies chatted back and forth, their conversation drifting from the National Team to the Football Association, to the Asian Cup, and finally back to Yang Yang.

Yang Yang had just given them his autograph and chatted with them for a bit, leaving a very good impression. Because of this, they couldn’t stop praising him in front of Su Wenhong, calling him a good kid, self-disciplined, hardworking, and so on.

This only made Su Wenhong feel even more dejected.

He was a die-hard fan of Yang Yang. He’d seen him countless times on TV and in the newspapers, but to think that today he had just missed meeting him in person... It left a sour taste in his mouth.

”Don’t worry, Old Su. Come a bit earlier tomorrow, and you’ll probably run into him.”

”Yeah, and if that doesn’t work, just wait for the Asian Cup. I heard that the National Team’s matches will most likely all be played in Beijing this time.”

”For real?”

”It’s the host’s advantage. Who’s going to complain?”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Japan and South Korea used their host advantage to get into the World Cup semifinals and the round of sixteen. What’s the big deal about China, as host, just arranging the venues?

Su Wenhong had no other choice but to console himself with that thought.