Chapter 292: All Out for the Crown

Chapter 292: Chapter 285: All Out for the Crown

The morning after the away game against Vitesse, De Toekomst welcomed over a hundred Ajax fans.

These were local fans from Amsterdam who had made a special trip to De Toekomst to cheer for Ajax and for Yang Yang.

This was a huge turnout, the likes of which Ajax hadn’t seen in years. Not even during the peak of the Van Gaal era did the team receive this kind of treatment from the fans, especially since they had come of their own accord.

The club also took this very seriously. Ali Van Eeden, a director also involved in the technical department, came to De Toekomst in person.

He watched with his own eyes as the fans stood outside the chain-link fence of the training ground, cheering for the players on the field.

And it wasn’t hard to see that they had all come for Yang Yang.

Whether it was the banners they unfurled or the slogans they shouted, everything was for Yang Yang.

This allowed Ali Van Eeden to further appreciate Yang Yang’s status in the hearts of the Ajax fans.

He had definitely earned it, bit by bit, through his own performance.

After the training session, Ronald Koeman received instructions from the club and specially arranged for four players—Yang Yang, Sneijder, Heitinga, and Pinaar—to interact with the fans. Their task was to satisfy the fans’ requests as much as possible.

Of course, this referred to reasonable requests like autographs and photos.

As soon as Yang Yang and his teammates arrived at the reception area, the fans scrambled to surround them, screaming and shouting. Among them were many pretty, blonde women, quite a sight to behold.

As the most popular of the four, Yang Yang maintained a humble smile the entire time, granting every request for autographs, photos, and the like.

A few female fans even crowded around him to take selfies, making the bachelors Heitinga and Pinaar quite envious.

But for Yang Yang, this was truly exhausting work.

He would rather spend an hour in the gym or the swimming pool than deal with this crowd of enthusiastic fans.

Of course, it wasn’t that he disliked the fans. On the contrary, he was genuinely grateful for their support. But he still hadn’t learned how to be a star, how to interact and communicate with fans.

Regarding this, Raiola had said that not knowing how to act like a star was a unique trait in itself.

Wei Zheng also felt that this characteristic of Yang Yang’s was very endearing to fans. In contrast, those who were very extroverted and proactive were becoming a bit less popular these days.

When he finally made it back to the locker room, Yang Yang plopped down on a soft beanbag chair, looking completely exhausted.

“Stephen, tell me, the four of us walk out at the same time, so why do all the beautiful women chase after him? Isn’t that totally unfair to us?” Heitinga complained loudly.

“Yeah, it’s straight-up discrimination! He’s a right winger, I’m a left winger, how can the difference be so huge?”

“Losing to Yang Yang is one thing, but even Wesley is more popular than us. I really don’t get the taste of these female fans anymore. Aren’t they supposed to like macho guys like me?”

Heitinga and Pinaar’s back-and-forth banter sent the locker room into a roar of laughter.

It had to be said, with his physique, Heitinga really did have the potential to be a “macho man.”

“You’re macho, alright, you’re just missing something,” Sneijder replied with a straight face.

“What?” Heitinga pressed.

Yang Yang chimed in from the side, “A brain!”

The locker room immediately erupted in another burst of laughter. Even Heitinga himself bent over laughing, then pretended to be angry and walked over, ready to “fight to the death” with Yang Yang and Sneijder. The room was filled with playful chaos.

Galasek, Hans van der Vorm, and a few other veteran players watched the group of young teammates, all around twenty years old, fooling around. They were used to such scenes. Shaking their heads, they sighed inwardly, ‘It’s great to be young!’

With so many young players, the Ajax locker room wasn’t filled with the scheming and power struggles common in other teams. Last season, the conflict between Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart was a case of fire and water; at worst, they just avoided each other completely and never resorted to dirty tricks.

This season, the atmosphere was even more harmonious. Most of the time, they all just horsed around together.

“Hey, seriously guys, I have a strong suspicion about something.”

Heitinga took off his shirt, revealing a set of well-defined pecs, as if to prove Yang Yang’s earlier jab about him being all brawn and no brains. He himself, however, was having a blast.

“Yang Yang is eighteen, Sneijder is twenty, and neither of you have a girlfriend. I seriously suspect you two are still virgins.”

As soon as he said that, the locker room immediately erupted in a chorus of jeers and catcalls.

This was some explosive gossip.

“Anyone who agrees with me, raise your hand!”

In the end, most of the guys in the locker room raised their hands, even Niklas Bendtner, who had been busy playing video games.

“Haha, Yang, I finally found something I’m better at than you!”

Everyone in the locker room practically fell over.

Even Yang Yang and Sneijder were dumbfounded.

‘This Danish kid is something else!’

“No worries, no worries, Yang, Wesley, listen to me. If you want to get rid of that ‘hat,’ I can arrange it. Anytime, anywhere, the whole package, no risks. What do you say?” Pinaar proposed with a smile.

“Stephen, you’re not talking about that old flame of yours in the Red Light District, are you?” De Jong interjected out of nowhere.

The locker room roared with laughter again, and everyone started grilling Pinaar about how he had an “old flame” in the Red Light District.

They were all a bunch of young men around twenty, at the peak of their energy, and they spent all day training and playing football. So, they got particularly excited talking about this kind of topic. Even Yang Yang was a little curious.

He wasn’t interested in finding a woman, but he was curious about Amsterdam’s world-famous Red Light District.

As for Sneijder, the guy was clearly the quiet-but-passionate type. On the surface, he looked calm, but inside, his mind was surely racing. He pretended not to care, but he was actually listening very carefully.

Eventually, the captain, Galasek, saw that his teammates were getting more and more out of line, so he stepped in and put a stop to it, ending the topic.

“Finding a proper girlfriend is the right way to go, don’t just mess around!” Galasek advised, speaking from experience.

Players are people too; falling in love and breaking up are normal.

Especially for first-team players at a domestic giant like Ajax, changing girlfriends was as easy as changing clothes. There was always a long line of beautiful young women queuing up for them, all of whom were high-quality.

The reason was simple. Everyone knew that getting together with an Ajax player was a shortcut to fame, an instant ticket to stardom. They would immediately get attention from every newspaper in the Netherlands, big or small.

And there were plenty of places for players to meet girls: bars, dance clubs, restaurants, hotels, or even some exclusive high-end resorts. There were just too many options.

Just now, Pinaar had said he could arrange everything.

But as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.

Yang Yang didn’t like these kinds of places, nor did he want to go to them. He wasn’t interested in the girls found there, so naturally, he never got involved in such things.

The Dutch media had previously tried every trick in the book to dig up some gossip on him, but after all their digging, the only thing they found was a photo of Su Ye. They came up with nothing else.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in girls, but rather that he had never been a casual person.

…

…

While the Ajax players were in the locker room chattering about the Red Light District and picking up girls, up in the head coach’s office, Head Coach Ronald Koeman, Chief Assistant Coach Luther Carroll, and Director Ali Van Eeden were discussing the team’s next steps.

“So far this season, we’re advancing in both the UEFA Cup and the league, and our momentum is excellent.”

Ronald Koeman was reporting on the current situation of the first team.

“Right now, we’re one point behind Eindhoven in the league, but I firmly believe they will make a mistake. In the meantime, we will do our best to win the remaining three league matches and help Yang Yang score. That way, even if Eindhoven doesn’t slip up, we can at least secure second place in the league.”

The top two teams in the Eredivisie qualify directly for the Champions League, so securing a top-two finish meant securing a Champions League spot.

“As for the UEFA Cup, we will give our all to win the title!”

They had already reached the semi-finals and even managed a 3-1 comeback against Sporting Lisbon in the first leg. It would be rather shameful not to aim for the championship at this point.

Winning the Champions League last season and the UEFA Cup this season… Although the UEFA Cup wasn’t as prestigious as the Champions League, it was still a high-level European competition. Winning it would definitely be a significant mark in Ajax’s century-long history.

“The team’s performance has been very satisfactory, both to me and to the board,” Ali Van Eeden replied. “I’ve already called Yang Yang’s agent, Raiola. We want to discuss a contract renewal with Yang Yang.”

Ali Van Eeden frowned, clearly not very confident about the matter.

“A few days ago, the management had a meeting. The directors all hope we can do everything possible to keep Yang Yang. From a sporting perspective, we need some time for a transition. Wesley Sonck has decided to leave. If we let Yang Yang go too, it will be very difficult to find a suitable replacement on short notice. Ryan Babel and Niklas Bendtner still need time to develop.”

These two players were promising rookies that Ajax had high hopes for, and they were currently investing heavily in their development.

There were also Demuer, Deridder, Emmanuelson, and others.

“We hope he can stay for another year, at least to help guide this group of young players and try to advance from the Champions League group stage.”

Ali Van Eeden clearly no longer considered Yang Yang a “young player,” even though he was only eighteen.

“Of course, the club will make a sincere offer for the renewal, but we hope you can give us some advice.”

Ronald Koeman and Luther Carroll were both coaches whom Yang Yang highly respected, so their opinions were also very important.

“For now, I haven’t heard anything about Yang Yang leaving. But if we want to keep him, I think the club needs to ambition, especially in the Champions League,” Ronald Koeman said.

This was something important not only to Yang Yang, but also to Ronald Koeman himself.

Luther Carroll nodded. “That’s right. To convince Yang Yang to stay, we can only do it with the Champions League.”

And to make a mark in the Champions League, they would have to continue strengthening the squad with new signings.