The Second Star Skill

Sitting on a bench in the park, Yang Yang gently rubbed the photograph in his hands.

In the photograph, he was wearing Almere's number nine jersey and grinning brightly. Beside him stood the impeccably dressed Van Basten, the Dutch legendary superstar kindly resting a hand on his outer shoulder with a warm, benevolent smile.

The only flaw was that the Yang Yang in the photograph looked a little stiff. Although he had avoided making the utterly tacky V sign, his hands still seemed to have nowhere to go. It easily reminded Yang Yang of how he had felt when he met his idol that night.

Van Basten's signature was on the photograph, written in wild, flowing strokes that were impossible to make out, but it still looked incredibly impressive.

Arroyo had laminated the outside of the photograph so that Yang Yang could preserve it properly.

He really intended to treat the photograph as a family heirloom. In the future, regardless of whether he played well or how far he went, he could take it out and brag to his children and grandchildren: I met Van Basten back in the day.

Radru and Arroyo sat to one side, silently watching Yang Yang's expression. When they saw him carefully put the photograph away in his backpack, they exchanged a knowing smile.

Van Basten was one of the great legends of world football, and countless people had been captivated by him. They were no exception.

In the world of professional football, the power of idols was always influencing one generation after another.

Perhaps people were idolizing Van Basten now, but in the future, countless people would idolize Van der Vaart, Ibrahimovic, Robben, Sneijder, and others. Who could say?

"Did Louis really say that?" Yang Yang asked anxiously.

Just moments ago, Radru had conveyed to Yang Yang the results of the morning meeting among the club's senior executives. Ajax hoped that he would participate in the Talent Day trials according to the original plan.

Of course, to prevent Yang Yang from misunderstanding, Radru had mentioned both Ajax's decision to sign him after the Talent Day event and the benefits of taking part in the trials. As long as he performed well, he would have a chance to enter the Second Team coached by Van Basten directly. For him, that was a rare shortcut.

After entering the youth teams, even if he skipped a level, it would take at least one or two years to reach the Second Team. By then, it was hard to say whether Van Basten would still be there. This shortcut was extremely attractive to Yang Yang.

Yang Yang understood that Van Gaal knew what he was thinking. He also knew that Yang Yang idolized Van Basten and Ronaldo, which was why he had pointed out this path to him. At the same time, he might also have been testing and motivating him.

It seemed that the old man who always appeared to keep people at arm's length was not necessarily as stern and harsh as he seemed on the surface.

"He did say that." Radru nodded.

Yang Yang hummed. "All right. Help me convey to Louis that I agree to his arrangement."

Radru and Arroyo were delighted upon hearing that. This meant that Yang Yang had decided to join Ajax's Youth Training Camp.

"Also, please help me pass along one more message. Congratulate him on becoming Ajax's Technical Director. I'm sure we'll meet again soon. And please convey my thanks to Marco as well."

As he said this, Yang Yang patted his backpack, indicating that he was thanking Van Basten for signing the photograph.

To him, it was a precious gift.

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

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

"All right. We'll definitely convey it."

"Thank you."

"If you think it's necessary, we can help you skip the first round of tests during the Talent Day trials and enter the Group Match directly," Radru suggested.

Yang Yang thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, thank you. Since I'm participating, I'll follow the rules. I'll go together with my two teammates. I also want to use this opportunity to see whether I've improved over the past two months."

Radru and Arroyo exchanged a glance, both revealing satisfied expressions. They had clearly sensed Yang Yang's confidence.

Based on Yang Yang's evaluation results at Almere, he could probably achieve an upper-middle ranking in Ajax's Talent Day trials. After all, any truly promising young players had generally already been selected by Ajax's scouts.

But considering how Yang Yang had buried himself in training and the momentum of his progress over the past few months, he might really produce an unexpected surprise. If that happened, it would also benefit the two of them, who had consistently recommended Yang Yang.

"All right. I'll notify you in advance when the time comes. If there's anything you need help with, call us."

After sending Radru and Arroyo off, Yang Yang also got up, packed his things, and returned to the Chinese Restaurant.

His uncle, Shen Ming, knew that Yang Yang had always been very opinionated. Joining Ajax's Youth Training Camp was indeed an excellent choice, so he readily agreed and repeatedly encouraged Yang Yang to keep working hard and strive to appear for Ajax's First Team.

Yang Yang, however, had not yet made any detailed plans. After all, he was only sixteen.

Even Ajax, which was renowned for valuing youth development and promoting young players, found it extraordinarily difficult for a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old to appear for the First Team. Even a super-talent like Van der Vaart had already been seventeen when he played for the First Team, and he had only appeared once in his first season.

As for Ryan Babel, the widely recognized prodigy in the Youth Training Camp, he still had not appeared for the First Team.

Therefore, Yang Yang had a clear sense of reality. He knew that his most important task now was not to pin his hopes on the First Team, but to focus on improving his ability, establish himself in the youth team as quickly as possible, and ideally enter Van Basten's Second Team.

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

He understood Van Gaal's intentions and naturally hoped to achieve good results in the event, so he needed to make up for his shortcomings as quickly as possible.

"Can I learn a second Star Skill?"

When he returned home for his midday nap, Yang Yang entered the Super Training Ground and asked Old Bing about it first thing.

Over the past two or three months, he had been burying himself in training Ronaldo's Rush. Most of his time had been spent practicing the Pendulum Dribble. After mastering this famous Ronaldo technique, he had begun practicing the other skills within Ronaldo's Rush, such as consecutive changes of direction while pulling the ball.

But now, as he progressed—especially after his performances in Almere's amateur matches—Yang Yang had gradually exposed more problems, such as his basic skills. That was his biggest weakness.

Even now, Yang Yang still practiced juggling every day. Wherever he went, as long as conditions allowed, he would juggle the ball while running instead of taking a vehicle, all so that he could spend as much time training as possible.

His feel for the ball was no longer a problem, but his first touch was still far too weak, especially when facing pressing and pressure.

Controlling the ball from a stationary position and controlling it while moving were completely different difficulties. The latter was many times harder than the former.

Therefore, Old Bing had incorporated basic-skill training into every aspect of Yang Yang's daily practice. For example, several exercises during his wall-passing drills involved first-touch control, and all of them required a first touch while moving.

But improving his basic skills while moving, especially under intense pressing and pressure, would require Yang Yang to spend more time.

It was also something that could not be improved quickly in the short term.

Yet while playing amateur matches, Yang Yang had already clearly felt his bottleneck. He needed to improve himself further.

"You can." Old Bing's indifferent voice sounded beside his ear. "What do you want to learn?"

"Do you have any good suggestions for addressing my current weaknesses?" Yang Yang asked.

"You have a lot of weaknesses. First touch, passing, crossing, shooting... Aside from one-on-one dribbling, you're weak in almost every other area."

"Could you put that a little more tactfully?" Yang Yang's face darkened. "Isn't that a little too blunt?"

"I'm only stating the facts."

"All right." Yang Yang helplessly spread his hands. "Then analyze them for me."

"For ball control, Bergkamp's Control is excellent. As for passing, many players have superb passing fundamentals, and that can be divided into long passing and short passing. For shooting, it would definitely be Van Basten. There are also quite a few options for crossing, but Beckham's crossing from the right wing is uniquely outstanding. He could be considered number one."

These were all major weaknesses Yang Yang had exposed, and they were also the areas he needed to work hard to improve next.

Bergkamp's Control was indeed excellent. Moreover, according to what Van Gaal had said, Bergkamp's control and technique had also been developed through passing against a wall. But that required extremely strong fundamentals. If his fundamentals had not yet reached a certain level, forcing himself to practice it would absolutely produce half the result with twice the effort.

For Yang Yang, a poor first touch had already become his defining trait. After many teammates learned his tendencies, they did their best to pass the ball in front of him and make him chase it, allowing them to avoid his weakness as much as possible.

Yang Yang's training time each day was limited. A huge amount of basic training already took up most of it, while the Ronaldo's Rush he relied on also required practice and refinement. If he poured a large amount of time into painstakingly training his ball control now, setting aside the fact that he would get half the result with twice the effort, it might instead affect training in other areas, making it a poor trade-off.

Of course, he would have to train his ball control sooner or later. A superb first touch was simply too important to a professional player's performance on the pitch. It was impossible not to practice it. But he needed to wait until his fundamentals had improved to a certain level and he had enough time available before devoting himself to intensive training.

Passing was not Yang Yang's first choice at present, either. After all, he was currently positioned as a wing dribbler, and he would continue playing that role at Ajax.

As for shooting, Yang Yang would probably have difficulty obtaining that authority for now. It might have been possible at Almere, but at Ajax, he would still have to begin as a wing dribbler. The team could not possibly give him that kind of license to shoot.

It was said that even Ibrahimovic and Van der Vaart did not have such authority in Ajax's First Team.

That left only a handful of options.

For Yang Yang, the one thing that could most improve his competitiveness in a short period was undoubtedly crossing.