Chapter 261 - 254: Confidence? Arrogance?

A plane bearing the logo of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines slowly landed at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, Iran.

After getting off the plane, Yang Yang dragged his suitcase and followed the crowd toward immigration.

Since he was here to participate in a World Cup qualifier on behalf of the Chinese National Team, the team handled all the arrangements, including his round-trip ticket and all necessary procedures. He didn’t have to worry about a thing.

After boarding in Amsterdam, Yang Yang had pulled a blanket over his head and slept, training in the Super Training. None of the other passengers disturbed him. But now that he was off the plane, many Dutch fans who recognized him came over to greet him.

"Hey, Yang, well done."

"Thanks."

"I was at the matches against The Hague and Feyenoord. They were incredible."

"Thanks."

"You have to keep it up in Tehran, too. We’ll all be supporting you."

"Thanks."

"We haven’t had an Eredivisie Top Scorer in years. You have to beat Kuyt this year."

"Okay, I’ll do my best. Thanks."

"Come on, Yang, can you sign an autograph for me? My whole family supports Ajax, and we’re all your fans."

"Of course."

"Yang, can I get a picture with you?"

"Of course."

...

Having woken from a deep sleep, Yang Yang was full of energy, without a trace of fatigue from the long flight. The other travelers were thrilled to see him, and since many were Ajax fans, Yang Yang naturally didn’t refuse their requests.

After clearing immigration, he saw several young, beautiful Dutch flight attendants from his flight waiting for him. The moment they saw Yang Yang, they immediately came over, and another round of autographs and photos began.

"Yang, how many days will you be in Tehran?"

"Two nights. I fly back to Amsterdam the morning after tomorrow."

"What a shame..."

"Where are you headed now? Do you need a ride?"

"No, no, thank you. Someone is coming to pick me up."

"Oh."

Amid the flight attendants’ disappointed sighs, Yang Yang spotted a staff member from the National Team who had come to pick him up.

The man was holding a sign high in the air with "Yang Yang" written on it in Chinese characters, making it hard to miss.

But to his surprise, Zheng Zhi and Zhao Junzhe were there as well.

Zheng Zhi and Zhao Junzhe were quite surprised to see Yang Yang reluctantly saying goodbye to several young, beautiful Dutch flight attendants.

"Friends of yours?" Zheng Zhi asked with a suggestive smile.

"Don’t know them." Yang Yang shook his head. He really didn’t even know their names.

"Then how come they seemed so familiar with you?" Zhao Junzhe asked.

Yang Yang chuckled. "It’s normal. Everyone in Amsterdam is familiar with me."

The two of them thought about it for a moment and couldn’t help but laugh as well.

He wasn’t wrong. Yang Yang was now Ajax’s star player; it was no exaggeration to call him the darling of Amsterdam.

"You’re a good-looking kid. How come you haven’t found a girlfriend yet?"

Zheng Zhi was closer to Yang Yang, so he immediately started teasing him.

When he heard the word "girlfriend," the first image that popped into Yang Yang’s mind was surprisingly the lovely figure of Su Ye, or Su Xiaomei.

’She’s probably one of the very few girls I know.’

But he didn’t have any other ideas on his mind, as his focus was almost entirely on soccer right now.

His daily training schedule was packed, leaving him no time for idle thoughts.

"No time," Yang Yang said frankly.

But to Zheng Zhi and Zhao Junzhe, this sounded a bit funny, and they both chuckled.

The two of them had arrived in Tehran a little earlier than Yang Yang, by about half an hour.

Since the airport was in the south, while the stadium, Azadi, and the team’s hotel were in the north, it was an hour’s drive each way. So, they decided to wait at the airport for a bit and travel together.

Once in the car, Yang Yang asked with concern about how the two of them were doing in the Bundesliga and the Scottish Super League.

After joining Mainz, Zheng Zhi had earned the attention of head coach Klopp. However, since he was still a newcomer, he was in a period of adaptation and integration and hadn’t yet played a match for Mainz.

It was also bad luck; since the winter break, Mainz had lost three consecutive matches.

"Before I left, Coach Klopp spoke with me. He said he plans to bring me on as a substitute in the upcoming games, and if I perform well, I might even start."

Yang Yang nodded repeatedly after hearing this. "That’s a real opportunity. After three straight losses, a coach will definitely make adjustments to the lineup. You don’t need to be brilliant right away. Just be steady, avoid mistakes, and you’ll gradually earn his trust."

"That’s what Albess said, too."

After Zheng Zhi joined Mainz, Guido Alberts had become his agent.

Compared to Zheng Zhi’s situation in the Bundesliga, Zhao Junzhe’s move to the Scottish Super League had gone much more smoothly. He had played a total of four matches since arriving—the first two as a substitute, and the latter two as a starter. He had performed well in all of them, and Celtic had secured solid wins.

"The head coach has a pretty good impression of me," Zhao Junzhe said modestly.

"Martin O’Neill. I specifically asked around about him. He’s a very capable head coach. He previously led Celtic to become runners-up in the UEFA Cup, losing to Mourinho’s Porto. There are rumors that a Premier League team wants to sign him."

"Really?" Zhao Junzhe’s eyes lit up.

"Really, but it’s hard to say what the specifics are."

Coaches have always preferred to work with players they know rather than new faces. If Zhao Junzhe could truly win Martin O’Neill’s favor, and O’Neill moved to the Premier League, it was entirely possible that Zhao Junzhe could follow him to a Premier League team.

Of course, this was just a possibility. The key was still to work hard and perform well.

Both Zheng Zhi and Zhao Junzhe were highly skilled members of the National Team; they certainly had the talent to succeed playing abroad.

But it was the first time for both of them playing abroad, so they weren’t as familiar with many things as Yang Yang was.

Although the Eredivisie was different from the Bundesliga and the Scottish Super League, many aspects of European football were universal.

* * *

* * *

Yang Yang rejoins the team!

This was undoubtedly a major event for the National Team.

As soon as the other National Team players heard he had arrived, many of them made a special trip to welcome him.

Recently, Yang Yang had been on a scoring streak in the Eredivisie, causing a huge stir in the foreign media. The domestic media and fans were even more ecstatic, and almost everyone took pride in his achievements.

Sixteen goals and ten assists in twenty league matches. This was a weighty record that no player in the domestic league could match, let alone the fact that Yang Yang had achieved this in Europe’s Eredivisie.

If you also included his two goals and two assists in the Champions League, his record became even more convincing.

As early as the Asian Cup, everyone had unanimously agreed that Yang Yang was the core fighting force of this National Team.

When head coach Arie Haan announced the roster, he stated bluntly that Yang Yang was an indispensable member of the Chinese National Team.

"Well now, nicely done!"

Arie Haan and Dejan were also especially happy to see Yang Yang.

Both of them were Dutchmen, and Arie Haan himself had come from Ajax, so he felt a natural affinity for Yang Yang.

Around Christmastime, Arie Haan had returned to the Netherlands for a vacation, and all he heard was praise and admiration for Yang Yang. Even he, as the head coach of the Chinese National Team, basked in some of the reflected glory, feeling a sense of honor by association.

For this reason, Arie Haan held Yang Yang in particularly high regard.

With the team having reached the final eight qualifying stage, Arie Haan began to implement the next phase of his reforms for the squad.

The roster for this National Team call-up included quite a few young players. For example, Chen Tao, Feng Xiaoting, Zhou Haibin, and Hao Junmin, who had all worked well with Yang Yang on the National Youth Team, were all included in the training camp.

Unfortunately, however, Feng Xiaoting and Hao Junmin hadn’t made the trip to Tehran; only Chen Tao and Zhou Haibin made the final roster.

From this, it was easy to see Arie Haan’s objective: to gradually bring up new talent in preparation for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

After a long-awaited reunion filled with greetings and pleasantries, the conversation quickly turned to Iran, their opponents in the first match of the final qualifying round.

"Everyone says our group is the ’group of death,’ and it’s no lie. The Iran Team is really strong."

"Yeah, and this match is away in Tehran, we..."

"I heard Iran’s record at Azadi Stadium is incredible. They’ve almost never lost there."

"That’s true. Iran’s record at that stadium is quite impressive. The Chinese Team has played there four times in the past. At the 1976 Asian Cup, we lost 0-2. In the ’89 World Cup qualifiers, we lost 2-3. In the ’97 World Cup qualifiers, we lost 1-4. And in a 2001 friendly, we lost 0-4."

"That record is just tragic."

"Azadi Stadium is known as Asia’s number one ’Devil’s Home Ground,’ with a capacity of a hundred thousand people."

"That’s right. I heard the Iranian government decided to let fans in for free for this match. There could be over a hundred thousand people there. Can you imagine that scene?"

"My God, just thinking about it is terrifying."

The teammates chimed in one after another, all clearly lacking confidence and morale.

It was no wonder. They had won the Asian Cup on home soil, but now they were on the Iran Team’s home turf. The situation was completely different. Combined with the National Team’s historically weak away performances, it was only natural for them to feel insecure.

"Yang Yang, what do you think?"

Seeing the topic shift to him, everyone turned to look his way. Yang Yang, who was gathering his things to go for a swim in the pool, just chuckled. "What is there to think? No matter how strong Iran is, didn’t we already beat them in the Asian Cup?"

"But that was on our home ground."

"Does it make a difference? Once you’re on the pitch, you just fight. Being scared will only make us lose faster and worse. Rather than that, we should just go all out and give it our all. My creed is simple: no matter who we’re facing on the field, I only have one thought—crush them!"

The players all looked at each other, quite impressed by Yang Yang’s nerve.

"To be honest, the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of was at Real Madrid’s Bernabéu, facing a team of their superstars. Before I went on, I felt a ton of pressure too. But once you’re on the field, all you can do is put your head down and fight."

Yang Yang paused here, looked at his teammates, and smiled confidently. "I’ve never actually tried it before—scoring a goal in front of more than a hundred thousand people, under their glares and boos. That must feel pretty damn cool!"

After saying that, Yang Yang gave a little wave, picked up his things, and headed off for his swim.

He left a room full of dumbfounded teammates in his wake.

Was that confidence? Or arrogance?