On July 27, Yang Yang returned to the team four days earlier than expected.
By then, Benitez had already led the team through nearly two weeks of preseason training at Valdebebas. However, most of the players had been those who had not participated in the World Cup, with the biggest name naturally being their first-choice striker, Ibrahimovic.
The Sweden National Team was actually not weak, but Europe was packed with powerful teams.
Having missed the World Cup, Ibrahimovic could only vent all his resentment in the club competitions. He had been storing up his energy before the season, after all, he was about to turn twenty-nine.
For professional footballers, thirty was a hurdle. Once they crossed it, not only did their market value plummet, but it also became difficult to maintain peak form. Therefore, Ibrahimovic was determined to achieve something over the next two or three years and preserve his competitive condition as much as possible.
He had never believed that Real Madrid was running a charity, especially after Raul and Guti had left.
If even legends like Raul and Guti had been forced to leave once they grew old, what about everyone else?
Yang Yang was the first of the World Cup internationals to return to the team.
His arrival caused an enthusiastic stir at Valdebebas. Besides the First Team, several young players from the Second Team were also taking part in the training camp, including youngsters such as Morata, Nacho, Carvajal, Jesé, and Joselu.
The First Team was seriously short-handed, so Benitez had brought several players from the Second Team and the youth teams into the First Team for the training camp. It also allowed him to assess the young players, which was perfectly normal.
When these young products of Real Madrid's youth system saw Yang Yang