The day after defeating Barcelona two-nil, Real Madrid held its annual Christmas luncheon in the Bernabéu's trophy room at noon. It also invited prominent figures from the political and business worlds to witness Real Madrid's freshly won FIFA Club World Cup, completing the Grand Slam once again.
The year 2017, which was about to end, had undoubtedly been a hugely successful season for Real Madrid. The team had been almost unstoppable.
Especially after just defeating Barcelona at home and successfully narrowing the gap in points, the team had rekindled its hopes.
As in previous years, Real Madrid's Christmas luncheon attracted media from all over the world. This year, there were even more of them.
For the past two months, rumors had been circulating that Yang Yang would leave Real Madrid on a free transfer at the end of the season and return to Ajax. The Dutch media had even confidently declared that the transfer was a certainty.
Yet Real Madrid's official stance had always been denial. Regarding Yang Yang's failure to renew his contract, the phrase Real Madrid Technical Director Valdano repeated most often was, "We believe he will stay at Real Madrid!"
That clearly failed to dispel the doubts in the hearts of the media and fans.
There had been no movement whatsoever within Real Madrid over the past two months. The players also refused to discuss Yang Yang publicly. Head Coach Zidane had responded several times by saying that it was Yang Yang's private matter and that he refused to comment, but he had also reiterated that Yang Yang was a Real Madrid player and the club's most important player.
Some media outlets claimed that Yang Yang had chosen to leave Real Madrid because he had fallen out with Florentino. The reason, they said, was that in October,