Super Wingstorm

When Yang Yang pushed open the door to the locker room, everyone turned to look at him with smiles on their faces.

Suddenly, a sense of foreboding washed over him.

"What... what are you guys up to?" Yang Yang raised his hands as if to say, ’I have no money, only my life to give.’

A muscular arm suddenly shot out from the side and clamped down on Yang Yang’s shoulder. Ibrahimovic’s boisterous laugh rang in his ear. "Relax. We just want to give you a belated, unforgettable welcome ceremony."

A belated... unforgettable... welcome ceremony?

’Are they after my money or my body?’

"Help me, Captain!" Yang Yang shot a pleading look at Van der Vaart, desperately hoping his captain would bravely stand up for him.

But Van der Vaart simply raised an eyebrow and quirked his lips. "This... welcome ceremony... was my idea."

What?

Yang Yang’s vision went dark. He despaired. ’And to think I just got you an assist! How could you...’

"I just said we should give him a little welcome, I didn’t expect them to go this far..." Van der Vaart was grinning from ear to ear.

’Needless to say, even if he wasn’t the mastermind, he was definitely an accomplice.’

Just as Yang Yang was about to fall into their clutches, Head Coach Ronald Koeman pushed the door open and walked in.

Given Ronald Koeman’s usual strictness, everyone abandoned their mischief and quickly scrambled back to their lockers, each trying to suppress their laughter as they stole glances at the head coach.

Koman had been a professional player himself, so he knew emotions would be running high after a game like this. The locker room was bound to get rowdy, and he was more than used to it.

’This was nothing.’

He’d seen a room full of players strip naked and celebrate wildly before. A little horseplay with their clothes on was hardly something to get worked up about.

"Alright, gentlemen, settle down. I’d like to say a few things."

Ronald Koeman walked into the middle of the players, looked around at everyone, and finally let his gaze rest on Yang Yang in the corner. He himself could hardly believe it. What was supposed to be a desperation-move substitution had ended up being a pleasant surprise.

But this was also a rare opportunity.

Things had not been going smoothly for Ajax this season. Beyond the losses from Van der Meede and Qi Wu’s departures, a significant part of the problem was the instability in the locker room.

First, there was the dispute between Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart over the captaincy. It wasn’t a huge issue initially, and Koman had already handled it. But somehow, the media got wind of the story, and their sensationalism immediately made the relationship between the team’s two biggest stars awkward and sensitive. To make matters worse, they also had a positional conflict on the field.

Then there was Talabesi pushing for a transfer. The player was adamant, but Ajax couldn’t possibly agree. To force him to fall in line, the club resorted to freezing him out—a strategy that was undoubtedly a case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

Moreover, Talabesi being frozen out had left the rest of the locker room on edge.

On top of that, the public war of words between Van Gaal and Cruyff kept the entire club in a state of unrest. Koman, better than anyone, understood the history of their feud. Both men claimed to be acting in Ajax’s best interests, but who was right and who was wrong? Who could possibly tell?

Perhaps only time would tell.

But now, after a period of turmoil, the team had finally stabilized. They had survived a scare to defeat Bruges and miraculously advanced to the Champions League knockout stage. This not only provided a massive boost to player morale but also restabilized the locker room.

At the very least, Koman was now seeing Van der Vaart and Ibrahimovic reconcile and Talabesi make his return.

"Our Champions League journey this season has been a bumpy ride. We almost failed to advance from the third qualifying round, and the group stage was a complete roller coaster. But thankfully, in the end, we all withstood the pressure and held on until the very last moment."

Ronald Koeman didn’t name anyone, but as he spoke, every player simultaneously turned to look at Yang in the corner.

That gesture was more meaningful than any public praise from the coach could ever be.

Koman saw it all, of course. He nodded. "I believe that after the last few months, everyone here understands that if this team is going to achieve anything, we all have to pull together. We have to cast aside our personal grievances, unite as one, and focus on playing every single game to the best of our ability."

Everyone silently nodded in agreement.

"We are professional players. None of us knows where we’ll be after this season ends. But as long as we’re on this team, we sink or swim with the club. Our goals are the same, and our individual interests are not in conflict."

"Soon, we have two league matches and one Dutch Cup match before the winter break. This year, we’ll be heading to Portugal for a training camp. I want everyone to get their heads in the right place, manage their emotions, and prepare properly for the second half of the season."

"Believe me, the better the team plays in the second half of the season, the more it will help every single one of you in this room."

Having said his piece, Ronald Koeman gave the players a satisfied nod and finally turned his gaze to Yang Yang.

"Luther," Koman said, turning his head to call the assistant coach. "Starting tomorrow, Yang Yang is officially a member of our first team. He won’t be going back to the reserves."

With the head coach’s declaration, everyone in the locker room broke into grins and turned to Yang Yang, who was also overjoyed.

Luther Carroll, however, looked troubled. "But... he’s still in school."

Koman and everyone else were clearly taken aback for a moment. ’Still in school?’

With everyone staring at him, Yang Yang grew nervous, afraid Koman might send him back to the reserves. He quickly stood up. "It’s fine, really, Mr. Carroll. If I have to, I can just skip my classes."

Everyone thought that sounded perfectly reasonable. He had worked so hard to make the first team; what a waste it would be to give that up.

Besides, they figured Yang Yang’s grades probably weren’t great anyway, so skipping class was no big deal. The most important thing was to secure his spot on the first team. After a performance like tonight’s, he was certain to be given a key role.

"Yeah, just talk to the school. As long as you pass, that’s enough. Focus on football," Koman agreed.

But Luther Carroll just shook his head with a wry smile. "Pass? That’s not a problem for him at all. But his teachers treat him like a prized prodigy. They say he’s much better at his studies than he is at football and want him to quit the sport to focus on academics."

"Huh?" Koman and the others were dumbfounded.

’This kid is a straight-A student?’

The way everyone looked at Yang Yang suddenly changed.

These days, it wasn’t rare to find someone with good grades. It wasn’t rare to find someone good at football, either. But someone who was both a great football player *and* an excellent student? That was the rarest, most jealousy-inducing combination of all.

Especially when he was standing in a room full of jocks.

It wasn’t just the players; even Koman felt a headache coming on. He could only toss the problem back to Luther Carroll and let him deal with it.

The first team had two training sessions a day, morning and evening, and every session was crucial, especially during weeks with two matches. They also had to travel frequently for away games. A trip to a place like Bruges was manageable, but upcoming away games in the Champions League would often involve long flights.

If they had an away league match in the same week, they could be on the road for the entire time, which would be terrible for his studies.

This was an unprecedented situation for the Ajax Team. Most players didn’t have stellar academic records, and many dropped out of school early to focus on their careers. Someone like Yang Yang, still attending school after making the first team, was a complete anomaly.

By the time Head Coach Ronald Koeman had finished the post-match press conference, the players were all packed and ready to go.

Everyone boarded the bus back to the Park Hotel. After having dinner together, they grabbed their luggage and began the journey home.

The main reason for returning overnight was the consideration that the players were too keyed up to sleep. Even if they stayed the night in Bruges, they’d be too restless. It was better to just head back right away.

Typically, the training session the morning after a match was crucial, especially for the players’ recovery and conditioning.

Unlike the tense atmosphere on the bus ride there, all the players were in high spirits on the way back.

Ibrahimovic, being the big mouth that he was, started teasing Yang Yang about his sleeping habits. That’s when Yang Yang finally understood why everyone had been giving him such strange looks earlier.

But he didn’t explain further. After all, he couldn’t tell everyone that he actually had a Super Training in his mind.

The rest of the way was filled with laughter, jokes, and teasing, and the time flew by.

Just before midnight, the bus finally arrived back at De Toekomst.

Ronald Koeman thanked all the players once again for their hard work. After dismissing the team, he asked Yang Yang to stay behind for a moment, encouraging him to keep working hard and improve his skills as quickly as possible.

Although he didn’t say it outright, Yang Yang could sense from Ronald Koeman’s words how much the coach valued him. He was confident he would get more and more playing time with the first team, which would be a massive help for his development and training.

At the very least, playing in this one Champions League match had been more valuable for his development than all his previous games combined—not just because of the match itself, but also for the boost it gave his confidence.

He hitched a ride with Ibrahimovic back to his home in Oude Kerk. Vermaelen was still awake, and naturally, he was hit with another wave of envy and jealousy. The Belgian center-back was bummed out, but he also knew that Yang Yang had only seized this opportunity thanks to his own hard work and ability.

While Yang Yang and Vermaelen were chatting in the living room, far away in Manchester, England, Wei Zhen, the head of a China Central Television (CCTV) sports channel film crew, received a call from his superiors back in China.

Even though he was a fan, he hadn’t watched the live broadcast of the Ajax versus Bruges match. But a moment ago, he had gotten a call from his younger brother, Wei Zheng, in Almere, Netherlands, after which he had immediately called his office in China.

Now, the return call he had been waiting for had finally come.

"Wrap up the shoot in Manchester immediately and fly to Amsterdam. We need a first-hand report. Get the full story on Yang Yang, introduce him to our audience—everything about him."

These were direct orders from the head of the sports channel.

Wei Zhen felt a surge of pride and vindication, but he also couldn’t help but marvel at the meteoric rise of the young Chinese player in the Netherlands.

This was a first for a Chinese player in the Champions League, after all!