Chapter 266: Top Scorer

Chapter 266: Chapter 259: Top Scorer

The day after returning to Amsterdam from Tehran, Ajax faced Breda in an away match.

Heitinga was injured during a National Team match, so Vlaar started in his place, partnering with Vermaelen at center-back.

Yang Yang earned a starting spot and scored a goal for Ajax just three minutes into the game.

This was also his seventeenth league goal of the season.

Ajax played a steady and stable game away from home, and Yang Yang was substituted off for Ryan Babel in the fifty-eighth minute.

The young player from the youth academy now had a pretty good attitude towards Yang Yang.

Although he had been the top star on the second team, his status on the first team was now completely different from Yang Yang’s. If he threw the same tantrums he did on the second team, he’d be thrown right back, or even sent out on loan, in a heartbeat.

Yang Yang wasn’t one to hold grudges. Besides, there was no real conflict between him and Babel; they seemed to get along quite well. As he left the pitch, the two even shared a warm embrace, offering each other words of encouragement.

After Yang Yang was subbed off, Breda started to push hard from the seventieth minute, scoring in the seventy-sixth minute to level the score.

The coordination between Vlaar and Vermaelen still lacked chemistry, leading to a fatal mistake.

But the team had no other choice right now. With Heitinga out due to injury, Vlaar was the best option available.

In the end, Ajax wasn’t a powerhouse club; they couldn’t amass a deep reserve of talent.

Fortunately, in the eighty-eighth minute, Pinaar scored a goal, putting them back in the lead.

In the end, Ajax narrowly defeated Breda 2-1 in their away match.

The results of the other matches from this round were also announced soon after.

The Van Gaal-led Alkmaar hosted Eindhoven. After a hard-fought ninety minutes, neither side could break the deadlock, and the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

After this match concluded, everyone at Ajax erupted in celebration.

With the three points from this round, Ajax successfully reached fifty-one points, overtaking Alkmaar’s fifty. It was the first time they had reached the top of the Eredivisie league table this season. Eindhoven was in third place with forty-nine points.

However, Feyenoord crushed William II 7-0 at home this round, with the Dutch “divine forward” Kuyt scoring a brace.

In other words, with his two goals this round, Kuyt once again took the lead on the top scorers’ chart, one goal ahead of Yang Yang.

……

……

「The day after the match against Breda.」

Winston Bogard arrived at De Toekomst a little earlier than usual.

But as soon as he walked into the gym, he saw that Yang Yang had already started training alone.

Clearly, Yang Yang had come even earlier than usual.

Winston Bogard was already mentally prepared for this, which was why he had arrived early today.

He just hadn’t expected to still be so much later than Yang Yang.

Gently placing the newspaper he was holding in an inconspicuous corner, Bogard went into the locker room to change into his training clothes.

The newspaper was folded over multiple times, but the visible part showed a headline from the Dutch media praising Kuyt for his brace and for orchestrating Feyenoord’s massive victory. Everyone was praising Kuyt to the skies.

It was no wonder. This was a 7-0 victory, setting the record for the biggest win in the Eredivisie this season.

Strangely enough, under the leadership of “Braid Commander” Gullit, Feyenoord’s form was very unstable, giving off an all-or-nothing impression.

They could crush William II 7-0 at home, but they could also lose 1-2 at home to Vitesse and Groningen.

They could thrash Rosendal 4-0 away, but also get demolished 1-4 by Alkmaar.

Gullit’s team played quite well, scoring a lot of goals and frequently winning by large margins. But in terms of the efficiency of earning points, they were hardly satisfactory. After a brilliant start to the first half of the season, they soon began dropping points continuously.

After this round, Feyenoord only had thirty-eight points. If they couldn’t produce some stunning results in the remaining thirteen rounds, it would be very difficult for them to challenge Ajax, Eindhoven, and Alkmaar for a top-three league position.

But Kuyt had benefited greatly from Feyenoord’s tactical style.

With his brace this round, he had now scored a total of eighteen league goals, one more than Yang Yang.

Having worked with him for half a year, Bogard felt he had come to understand Yang Yang’s personality quite well.

‘On the surface, Yang Yang is a very friendly person. He’s polite to everyone, humble, and low-key. But deep down, he’s an incredibly competitive person.’

‘Although he’s never said he wants to compete with Kuyt, everyone knows he doesn’t want to lose.’

‘If he hadn’t scored so many goals this season, he probably wouldn’t have cared. But he just had to score seventeen, and now he’s one behind Kuyt. How could he possibly accept that?’

‘Putting myself in his shoes, any person in Yang Yang’s position, if they have any ambition at all, would find it impossible not to fight for it.’

It was precisely because Bogard knew Yang Yang’s personality and way of thinking that after reading the newspaper this morning, he had guessed that Yang Yang would definitely come to De Toekomst early for extra training. And as it turned out, he was spot on.

‘Jumping straight into masochistic training at the slightest provocation… there’s really no one else like him.’

Bogard also understood that Yang Yang’s expectations for himself were getting higher and higher.

‘But is that a bad thing?’

Bogard didn’t think so.

If Yang Yang hadn’t constantly raised the bar for himself, how could he have had such an outstanding performance this season?

Last season, he only scored one goal in the Eredivisie, but this season he had already scored seventeen. It was progress by leaps and bounds.

Following the current trend, it wouldn’t be difficult for Yang Yang to score twenty goals this season. He would become Ajax’s first scorer in nearly a decade to surpass twenty goals, scoring more than even Cruyff, Van der Vaart, and Ibrahimovic.

And he was only eighteen years old, in just the second season of his professional career.

When Bogard came out after changing into his training clothes, he saw Yang Yang resting on the Smith Machine. Seeing him drenched in sweat, he couldn’t help but wonder, ‘If this kid keeps training like this, what heights will he reach in the future?’

“Winston, it’s getting a little light. Starting tomorrow, add some more weight,” Yang Yang said to Bogard, pointing at the barbell.

Bogard nodded with a wry smile. “Alright, I’ll have it ready.”

“These past few days, I feel like there’s a fire inside me waiting to burst out. I’m full of energy.”

“That’s perfectly normal. It proves your body is gradually reaching its peak condition. What we need to do next is work to maintain this state, extend it for as long as possible, and in turn, allow you to perform at a high level on the pitch for a long time,” Bogard explained with a smile.

To be honest, coaching Yang Yang was a very easy job because he was extremely self-disciplined.

He completed all tasks assigned by the coaching staff without cutting any corners.

When other players did their fitness training, Bogard had to watch out for them slacking off. But Yang Yang was different; Bogard had to watch out for him secretly adding extra training when the coaches weren’t looking.

This difference made Yang Yang’s body grow stronger, his strength gradually increased, and his physical condition was also adjusted very well. The timing of him hitting his peak form was about the same as the coaching staff had previously estimated.

……

……

After Yang Yang finished his morning’s extra training in the gym, drank a nutritional shake, and rested, he went directly to the training building’s stairwell to do shuttle runs up and down the stairs.

By the time he was done, most of his teammates had arrived.

Led by captain Galasek, a group of them were playing a game of rondo on the training pitch that morning.

Yang Yang was still in the middle trying to win the ball back. This was something he always requested, and he never used [God’s Vision], relying purely on his own ability to intercept the ball for better training.

After the warm-up session ended, Pinaar, Sneijder, and others gathered around Yang Yang.

“Yang Yang, be honest, do you want to fight for this Top Scorer title?” Pinaar asked with concern.

“Yeah, Kuyt has made it clear he’s going for it. He’s already announced to the media that he’s going to do his best to win the Top Scorer title this season. I think you should make a statement too and compete with him. We all support you!”

“That’s right! Kuyt has basically declared war on you. If we don’t accept the challenge, we’ll look like cowards.”

“Yang Yang, it’s been ten years since anyone from Ajax won the Top Scorer title.”

“Feyenoord is giving Kuyt their full support, so we’ll give you our full support. Go to war with him!”

His teammates’ words, one after another, were making Yang Yang feel quite tempted.

“What does the boss say about it?” Yang Yang asked, concerned.

“Don’t know, but I bet he won’t object. However, getting past Kluivertenburg might be tough. He’s the one who controls our playing time right now.”

Kluivertenburg was the head of the fitness coaching staff and strictly monitored the players’ physical conditions. If any issues arose, he had the authority to prevent a player from playing. Yang Yang was an important player he kept a close eye on. It was Kluivertenburg who had previously advocated for Yang Yang not to play in the Dutch Cup, and against Breda, he was the one who only allowed Yang Yang to play for sixty minutes.

Of course, Yang Yang had no complaints about Kluivertenburg. On the contrary, he was very grateful for Kluivertenburg’s strict oversight, because it meant taking responsibility for the players’ physical well-being.

“I definitely have to fight for the Top Scorer title. I’ve come this far; not fighting for it would be too cowardly,” Yang Yang declared.

“Right! Fight for it! You have to fight for it!” Sneijder also declared.

“We all support you!”

Yang Yang looked gratefully at his teammates around him. “But the team’s victory comes first. To be honest, compared to the Top Scorer title, I’d rather help the team win the championship.”

If Ajax could win the championship this season, it would be the first title Yang Yang won as a key player, leading the Ajax team.

At the same time, he was even more excited for next season’s Champions League, because he would once again challenge for the title as a key player.

Last year, when the team won the title at AufSchalke, he had scored the winning goal, but everyone only remembered Van der Vaart and Ibrahimovic. Yang Yang had just been a substitute, a supporting character.

At last year’s UEFA awards ceremony, Yang Yang didn’t even qualify to be nominated for an award. They only remembered the team’s two biggest stars, which had left Yang Yang feeling very frustrated at the time.

He longed for the opportunity to lead the team in the European Arena as the team’s star player.

As for this season, his greatest wish was to help Ajax win the championship.

Now, he had another goal: to compete with that “divine forward” from the Netherlands, Kuyt, for the Top Scorer title!