The Second Star Skill

Sitting on the park bench, Yang Yang gently stroked the photo in his hands.

In the picture, he was wearing the Almere number nine jersey, smiling especially brightly, with Van Basten standing beside him in a suit and tie. The Dutch legend had his hand placed kindly on Yang Yang's outer shoulder, wearing a gentle, broad smile.

The only flaw was that Yang Yang looked a bit stiff in the photo. Though he hadn't struck the cliché peace sign, his hands seemed to have nowhere to rest, which easily reminded him of how he'd felt meeting his idol that night.

The photo bore Van Basten's signature, scrawled in a flourish that was completely illegible, but it still felt impressive.

Arroyo had laminated the photo for him so he could treasure it properly.

He really planned to treat this photo as a family heirloom. No matter whether he could play well in the future or how far he'd go, he could always pull out this photo and boast to his children and grandchildren that he'd once met Van Basten.

Radru and Arroyo sat nearby, quietly watching Yang Yang's expression. Seeing him carefully and reverently put the photo away in his backpack, they exchanged knowing smiles.

Van Basten was a true legend in world football, someone countless people admired, and they were no exception.

In the world of professional football, the power of idols always influences generation after generation.

Maybe people idolized Van Basten now, but in the future, countless others would idolize Van der Vaart, Ibrahimovic, Robben, and Sneijder. Who knew?

"Louis really said that?" Yang Yang asked with concern.

Just now, Radru had relayed the results of the morning's club management meeting to Yang Yang: Ajax wanted him to participate in the Talent Day selection as originally planned.

Of course, to avoid any misunderstanding, Radru mentioned both Ajax's decision to sign him after Talent Day and the benefits of participating. If he performed well, he'd have a chance to directly enter Van Basten's Second Team, which was a rare shortcut for him.

Entering the youth ranks, even if he skipped levels, would take at least a year or two to reach the Second Team. By then, Van Basten might not even be around anymore. This shortcut was very appealing to Yang Yang.

Yang Yang understood that Van Gaal knew what he was thinking and also knew about his admiration for Van Basten and Ronaldo. That's why he'd pointed out this path, and it likely also carried an element of testing and motivating him.

It seemed that the old man, who always kept people at arm's length, wasn't as stern and harsh as he appeared on the surface.

"He really did say that," Radru confirmed with a nod.

Yang Yang hummed in acknowledgment. "Alright, please tell Louis for me that I agree to his arrangement."

Radru and Arroyo were overjoyed at this, as it meant Yang Yang had decided to enter Ajax's youth training camp.

"Also, please help me pass along another message: congratulate him on becoming Ajax's Technical Director, and tell him I believe we'll meet again soon. And please also convey my thanks to Marco."

As he finished, Yang Yang patted his backpack, indicating his gratitude for Van Basten's autograph on the photo.

To him, it was a precious gift.

From the moment he started playing football, he'd heard Van Basten's name. Over the years, he'd dreamed of his two idols, Van Basten and Ronaldo, hoping for a chance to compete alongside them.

Now, Van Basten was out of reach, and Ronaldo was far away at Real Madrid. But if he had the chance to play under Van Basten and receive his training, that would fulfill a long-held dream.

"Alright, we'll make sure to pass that along."

"Thank you."

"If you think it's necessary, during the Talent Day selection, we can help you skip the first stage of testing and go directly to the second stage's Group Match," Radru suggested.

Yang Yang thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No need, thanks. Since I'm participating, I'll follow the rules. I'll go with my two teammates. I also want to take this chance to see if I've improved over the past two months."

Radru and Arroyo exchanged glances, both showing satisfied expressions, clearly sensing Yang Yang's confidence.

Given Yang Yang's assessment results at Almere, he'd likely rank around mid-to-upper level in Ajax's Talent Day selection. After all, truly outstanding prospects would usually have been scouted by Ajax already.

But with Yang Yang's dedicated training and the momentum of his improvement over the past few months, he might just pull off a pleasant surprise. If so, it would also benefit the two of them, who had been strongly recommending him.

"Alright, I'll notify you in advance. Give us a call if you need any help."

After seeing off Radru and Arroyo, Yang Yang got up, packed his things, and returned to the Chinese restaurant.

His uncle, Shen Ming, also knew that Yang Yang had always been his own person. Now that he'd decided to join Ajax's youth training camp, it was indeed a very good choice, so he naturally agreed wholeheartedly and repeatedly encouraged Yang Yang to keep pushing and strive to play for Ajax's First Team.

Yang Yang didn't have a detailed plan for that yet, after all, he was only sixteen.

Even for Ajax, a club renowned for valuing youth development and promoting young players, it was extremely difficult to debut for the First Team at sixteen or seventeen. Even a super talent like Van der Vaart was seventeen when he played for the First Team, and he only played one match in his first season.

And Ryan Babel, a highly touted young talent in the youth camp, hadn't yet debuted for the First Team either.

So Yang Yang was self-aware enough to know that his priority now wasn't to hope for the First Team, but to focus on improving his strength, quickly establish himself in the youth team, and ideally enter Van Basten's Second Team.

With his short-term goal clear, Yang Yang soon turned his attention to the upcoming Talent Day selection.

He understood Van Gaal's intentions and naturally wanted to perform well in this event, so he needed to quickly address his weaknesses.

"Can I learn a second Star Skill?"

Back home during his lunch break, he entered the Super Training Ground and immediately asked Old Bing with concern.

Over the past two or three months, he'd been focused on training [Ronaldo's Rush], spending most of his time on the Pendulum Dribble. After mastering Ronaldo's signature move, he'd started practicing other techniques in [Ronaldo's Rush], like continuous direction-change drags.

But now, with his progress, especially after Almere's performance in the amateur matches, Yang Yang had gradually exposed more issues, such as his fundamentals, which were his biggest weakness.

Even now, Yang Yang still practiced juggling every day. Wherever he went, as long as conditions allowed, he'd juggle while running instead of taking the bus, all to squeeze in as much training time as possible.

His ball feel was fine, but his first touch was still too weak, especially under pressure and pressing.

The difficulty of stopping the ball while stationary versus in motion was completely different; the latter was far harder.

So Old Bing had integrated Yang Yang's fundamental training into every aspect of his daily practice. For example, in wall-pass drills, several exercises trained his first touch, and they were dynamic first touches at that.

But to improve his fundamentals in motion, especially under high-intensity pressing and pressure, Yang Yang still needed more time.

This was something that couldn't be rapidly improved in the short term.

Yet, while playing amateur matches, Yang Yang had already clearly felt his own bottleneck—he needed to push himself further.

"Sure," Old Bing's faint voice sounded in his ear. "What do you want to learn?"

"Given my current weak points, what do you suggest?" Yang Yang asked.

"You have plenty of weak points: your first touch, passing, crossing, shooting... It seems like, aside from one-on-one dribbling, everything else is pretty weak."

"Could you be a little more tactful?" Yang Yang's face was lined with exasperation. Wasn't this a bit too blunt and direct?

"I only speak the truth."

"Fine." Yang Yang shrugged helplessly. "Then break it down for me."

"For controlling the ball, Bergkamp's Control is excellent. For passing, plenty of players have very solid fundamentals, split into long and short passes. For shooting, it's definitely Van Basten. There are also many good crossers, but Beckham's crossing from the right wing has its own unique flair, arguably ranking first."

These aspects were all major shortcomings Yang Yang had exposed, and they were the areas he needed to work on next.

Bergkamp's Control was indeed superb, and from what Van Gaal said, his touch and technique were honed by training against a wall. But that demanded a high level of fundamentals—if his basics hadn't improved to a certain point, forcing that training would yield half the results with twice the effort.

For Yang Yang, a poor first touch had already become his trademark. Many teammates, after learning his traits, tried to pass the ball ahead of him so he could chase it, which minimized his weakness.

Yang Yang's daily training time was limited. A mountain of basic drills took up most of it, and the [Ronaldo's Rush] he relied on also needed practice and refinement. Throwing a lot of time into grinding ball control at this stage would not only be inefficient but might also hinder other training, making it a net loss.

Of course, ball control was something he'd have to train sooner or later—a precise first touch was far too crucial for a professional player's on-field performance to skip entirely—but he'd have to wait until his fundamentals improved enough and he freed up sufficient time to dive into it.

Passing wasn't Yang Yang's top priority either, since his current role was that of a winger and dribbler, and he'd continue playing that part at Ajax.

As for shooting, Yang Yang probably wouldn't get that privilege anytime soon. At Almere, maybe, but at Ajax, he'd still start as a winger and dribbler, and the team wouldn't grant him that kind of shooting freedom.

It was said that even in Ajax's First Team, players like Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart didn't have that authority.

So the remaining options were few and far between.

For Yang Yang, the quickest way to boost his competitiveness in the short term was undoubtedly crossing.