Chapter 290: I Will Definitely Not Lose to Him

Chapter 290: Chapter 283: I Will Definitely Not Lose to Him

West Manchester, England.

Behind United’s Carrington Training Base, there was a small hill.

The hill was covered in a layer of fine, soft turf, with a few pine trees so thick a grown man could just wrap his arms around them.

Every day after training at Carrington, a Manchester United player would come to the small hill to practice alone.

The turf was his personal football pitch, and each pine tree was like a defender.

He just practiced quietly like this, all by himself.

But he never felt lonely.

Ever since he was young, he never wanted to be disturbed while practicing. It would affect his focus.

For the past few days, he had been practicing the Cruyff Turn.

For a professional player, it wasn’t a particularly difficult skill, but he could never execute it smoothly on the pitch. The few times he had used it in training, it felt clunky and stiff.

He was very dissatisfied with this.

He wanted to be like Ajax’s number eleven, Yang Yang—as fluid and effortless as he was when he performed it in the match against Villarreal, beating his opponent in one smooth motion.

That was a stunning display of individual brilliance: a Cruyff Turn, followed by a one-two, and then the Pendulum Move…

Villarreal’s goalkeeper rushed out quickly and decisively, but Yang Yang had anticipated it.

One could say the entire sequence—from the dribble and breakthrough to the final goal—was spectacular. All of Europe was praising this eighteen-year-old genius from Ajax.

And he had just turned twenty.

His starting point was much higher than Yang Yang’s. He had debuted with Portuguese Super League giants Sporting Lisbon, and after just one year on the first team, he was scouted by the powerhouse club Manchester United and brought to Old Trafford.

The renowned Sir Alex Ferguson, famous throughout European Football, not only paid a high transfer fee of thirteen million Pounds Sterling for him but also handed him the legendary No. 7 Jersey left behind by Beckham.

From that moment on, he was destined for the global spotlight.

Afterward, his development was fraught with controversy. Some criticized him for holding onto the ball too much; others were mesmerized by his fantastic footwork. Some believed he was unworthy of Manchester United’s No. 7 Jersey, while others thought he would become the next legend to wear it.

He never paid attention to outside opinions; he only focused on improving his own abilities.

He would find one target after another for himself and challenge them.

Ajax’s number eleven, Yang Yang, was his most recent target.

Eighteen years old, twenty-four goals, and sixteen assists in the Eredivisie—such a record was dazzling enough.

What was even more surprising was that Yang Yang always managed to produce unexpected surprises.

Many people didn’t think Yang Yang was a genius, but in the match against Villarreal, he used a brilliant and imaginative performance to prove his ability in this regard to everyone.

He had repeatedly watched the highlights of Yang Yang’s match against Villarreal, and it had made a deep impression on him.

Because of this, he had been practicing the Cruyff Turn for the past few days, but the results weren’t great.

Pine trees are inanimate, but players on the pitch are alive.

Training against static objects was ultimately not as effective as training against real people.

……

……

“Cristiano.”

From the bottom of the hill, a middle-aged coach in a Manchester United training kit slowly walked up, his hair graying.

The player on the hill stopped and looked back, just in time to see Manchester United’s assistant coach, Carlos Queiroz, approaching.

He was Ferguson’s right-hand man, and it was also thanks to his strong recommendation to Ferguson that an eighteen-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo was able to join Manchester United.

But just after the Portuguese kid arrived at Manchester United, Queiroz left to coach at Real Madrid. The outcome was known to all: he failed to lead the Galaxy Battleship out of its slump and eventually returned to Manchester United as Ferguson’s assistant.

“Hey, Carlos.” Little Luo turned and greeted him.

Queiroz walked up to him and glanced at the scene on the hill; he knew exactly what was going on.

“I’ve told you before, don’t always bury your head in practice alone. You need partners,” Queiroz said earnestly.

Little Luo nodded and didn’t offer any defense, but his expression revealed that he hadn’t taken a single word to heart.

Queiroz sighed, feeling quite helpless about the situation.

The current situation within the Manchester United squad was indeed quite troublesome. Ferguson wanted to clear out a batch of veterans, including Keane, to complete a new round of regeneration and vigorously support the younger players led by Rooney and Little Luo.

But in doing so, conflict between the two sides was inevitable.

Rooney was England’s most talented homegrown star, so of course he wouldn’t be affected. But as an outsider, Cristiano Ronaldo’s personality was somewhat withdrawn, and his on-pitch style clashed with Manchester United’s, leading to criticism from many teammates.

This was also why he would rather run up the hill to practice by himself than with his teammates.

“Remember what I told you before?” Queiroz gently placed a hand on the Portuguese kid’s shoulder.

“You have enough talent to become Manchester United’s star player, but on one condition: you have to change your current, individualistic style of play. You have to try to trust your teammates, trust their way of playing. Pass more, pass earlier. This will help you improve.”

Little Luo silently nodded; it was hard to tell how much he had actually absorbed.

Queiroz had obviously expected this reaction from Little Luo and wasn’t surprised at all.

“You need to understand, you’re different from them. You’re still very young. They can’t improve anymore. What they are now is what they’ll be in the future. But you’re different. You can keep improving. So you need to coordinate with them more frequently, use them to help yourself play even better.”

Little Luo still just nodded silently, saying nothing.

He had always been like this—a man of few words, somewhat of a loner. This was what gave Ferguson and Queiroz their biggest headache.

It was very difficult for a player like that to establish himself in the Manchester United dressing room.

“You didn’t watch the UEFA Cup last night, did you?” Queiroz asked suddenly.

Little Luo shook his head. “I went to bed early.”

Queiroz nodded. This withdrawn Portuguese kid was actually very smart; he always knew what he wanted.

Despite being only twenty, his daily routine was so disciplined that even the most professional of players would struggle to find fault with it.

“Sporting Lisbon lost at the Amsterdam Arena,” Queiroz said lightly.

Little Luo, however, looked up, his eyes fixed on the assistant coach. “Lost?”

“One to three. Sporting Lisbon lost quite badly.”

“Who scored?” Little Luo asked, concerned.

Queiroz thought he was concerned about his former club, Sporting Lisbon, and smiled faintly. “The right-back, Rogério. Ricardo Sa Pinto got the assist.”

“Mm, Pinto is an excellent player,” Little Luo praised. “What about Ajax? Did Yang Yang score?”

Only then did Queiroz realize he had misunderstood. “Yang Yang didn’t score.”

“He didn’t?” Little Luo sounded surprised.

“Right, he didn’t. But he had three assists.”

“What?” Little Luo was stunned.

“Yang Yang didn’t start this match; he came on as a substitute in the second half. In the first half, Pinto assisted Rogério’s goal in the twenty-ninth minute. But after Yang Yang came on in the second half, he first assisted Maxwell, then Pinaar, and finally Anastasios. The three goals were each exactly ten minutes apart.”

This was a fun tidbit for major European media outlets today. Some even suspected that Yang Yang had deliberately timed his assists. Otherwise, how could one explain such a coincidence?

Little Luo fell silent again, but his eyes were clearly burning with a fiery competitive spirit.

Ever since he was a child, he had been an extremely competitive person. He would never allow himself to lose to anyone, especially not to a guy two years younger than him.

British media had previously compared Yang Yang and Little Luo, noting that both had participated in the Toulon Cup, but Yang Yang was the top scorer and best player. Both came from second-tier leagues, but Little Luo had no notable achievements in the Portuguese Super League. Yang Yang, meanwhile, at the same age, was already competing for the Eredivisie’s top scorer and even this season’s Eredivisie Player of the Year.

Such comparisons were indeed meaningless, but to Little Luo, they were unacceptable.

“Cristiano, you have to understand, in a powerhouse club like Manchester United, you can’t achieve anything alone. You have to learn to accept your teammates and, at the same time, try to accept the media.”

“Only when the fans and the media out there believe you’re an outstanding player are you truly an outstanding player. Otherwise, no matter how much you push yourself, it’s all meaningless.”

Queiroz sighed softly.

He came from a youth development background, so of course he knew that everyone has a different personality. But he felt that Cristiano Ronaldo’s current personality was beginning to limit his growth and progress.

He had to give him a reminder.

“I’ve put a recording of the match on the computer. If you want to watch it, you can check it out later. This is the first assist hat-trick of Yang Yang’s career. This morning, it’s gotten the attention of major mainstream media in the Netherlands and all of Europe. Even the boss specifically called a few of us in to ask about it.”

Little Luo’s eyelids twitched violently.

There had long been rumors that the Premier League’s top four—Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool—all wanted to sign Yang Yang. Among them, Liverpool and Arsenal didn’t have the money, while Manchester United and Chelsea were the potential teams with the best chance.

‘Right now, Manchester United has Giggs on the left and Scholes in the middle. Yang Yang is a right winger. If he came, where would they put him?’

Unconsciously, Cristiano Ronaldo’s fists clenched so tightly that his nails were digging into his flesh. He gnashed his teeth, staring straight ahead, and after a long moment, he forced out a sentence, word by word.

“I don’t need to learn from him at all, because I will absolutely not lose to him. Absolutely not!”

From that moment on, besides Rooney, he had a new rival.

That was Yang Yang!