The Godfather of Football

August 28, 1999, Saturday, the weekend is here again.

The rules of Ajax's youth training camp De Tokmost are that the younger players train two days a week, from Monday to Friday in school, and only go to De Tokmost on Saturdays and Sundays, with two training sessions every morning and afternoon.

It is now 9:15 in the morning.

Group E1, that is, the players in the 10-year-old age group, have just started training for 15 minutes.

De Tokmost has a total of nearly 200 players, but they are divided into six age groups, F, E, D, C, B, and A, and each age group is divided into two groups. For example, Group E, where Ye Qiu is located, is divided into two teams, E1 and E2, corresponding to the two age groups of 10 and 9 years old respectively.

Unlike other training grounds, where coaches arrange players to conduct running and passing training under the traditional 433 tactical framework of Ajax, on the training ground where E1 is located, Ye Qiu is arranging players to play a small game.

In a 10x10m square field, the four corners are ABCD in clockwise direction, and 8 people form a group, 5 of them stand at A, BCD, and then serve from A to B. After the ball leaves his control, the server also runs to B at the fastest speed. After B receives the ball, he immediately passes it to C, and then runs to C. C and D repeat B's action.

At the beginning of this exercise, there are still people standing. After the exercise starts, it basically becomes running, changing positions, receiving the ball, and passing the ball. All players basically run after receiving the ball, and then receive and run again.

The whole process requires players to have high basic skills such as stopping the ball and passing the ball, especially to complete a touch of the ball in this fast running. There are high requirements for the quality of stopping the ball, the control of passing strength and speed, and the accuracy. Moreover, this training is very practical.

There were exactly 16 people in the E1 group. Ye Qiu divided the group into two groups and played similar games and training in two venues. He stood on the sidelines and watched, but his mind was not on the training field at all, but flew to the distant year of 2013.

Ye Qiu, taken from the meaning of knowing the autumn from a single leaf.

In 2013, he was just a very, very ordinary Chinese fan. Like everyone else, he was disappointed with the Football Association and felt sorry for the misfortune and anger at the Chinese national football team. Like everyone else, he believed countless times that the Chinese people did not lack world-class stars, but lacked the environment to produce stars.

After graduating from college, his life was to find a job, work, be unemployed, and find a job again.

The cruel society and competition have worn away the edges of his character, but they cannot wear away his love and passion for football. On the contrary, it is precisely because of his setbacks in other fields that he has invested more in football.

Perhaps, only when watching football games can he feel a little fairness!

Yesterday he stayed up late to watch the second round of the Copa del Rey semi-final between Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the end, Real Madrid defeated the home team Barcelona 3:1 away with Ronaldinho's double goal and Varane's goal.

Ye Qiu was so excited to watch this game that he even dreamed that he was at the Camp Nou stadium, playing with this group of top stars, and became the most dazzling star in this world-renowned century derby.

The dream was originally just a dream, but unexpectedly, when Ye Qiu woke up, he found that he was no longer in the familiar small rental house, but in a cheap hotel near the Arena Stadium in the southeast new city of Amsterdam, possessed by this young man named Ye Qiu, who was also 25 years old.

This unlucky guy, also called Ye Qiu, is also Chinese. He has been determined to contribute to the development of football in his motherland since he was a child, so he went directly to the Cologne Sports Academy in college, studying football-related majors. After graduating successfully, he obtained the A-level coaching certificate recognized by UEFA and entered the famous youth training hall Ajax De Tokmost for internship.

In the heart of the original Ye Qiu, he planned to return to his motherland after making a name for himself in Ajax, and use his youth training strength and football level to change the current situation of football in his motherland, but he didn't expect that he would be unlucky enough to be possessed by Ye Qiu who traveled through time.

Ye Qiu is not an innocent idealist who has no experience in the world. He has seen the cruelty of society and knows clearly that it is impossible to change the football of his motherland by his own strength, because this is not just about football and the Football Association itself, but about all aspects of society, even including the will of the top leaders.

On the contrary, the idea of ​​making a career in European football made Ye Qiu more tempted.

Although he was just an ordinary little football fan in his previous life, and even though he had an A-level coaching certificate after crossing over, he was not capable enough to coach a team alone. However, he had a treasure, which was a gift from God when he crossed over. Otherwise, how could he know how to arrange this new training for Group E1 today?

"Oh my god, since I'm here, I'll make the best of it. In my previous life, I dreamed of making a living in this football palace. Now that I have such an opportunity, I must not miss it!"

Ye Qiu found his life goal again, and his mood was relaxed. He stretched and said a catchphrase!

"I can't believe you can be so relaxed!"

Just when Ye Qiu was in a good mood, a sinister and sarcastic voice came from behind him, which immediately turned Ye Qiu's good mood from sunny to cloudy. He turned around and saw that it was Hans Westhoff, the youth training director of De Tokmost.

"It turned out to be Mr. Westhoff!" After all, he was his superior, so Ye Qiu did not dare to get angry and could only endure it.

This 49-year-old Dutchman had a lot of forehead wrinkles, a very thick mustache on his upper lip, and his short hair was also the most popular 3:7 split. His deep-set eyes projected disdain and arrogance, mixed with a seemingly kind but malicious smile, which made people feel uncomfortable.

Westerhof is a native of Amsterdam. He has been coaching alone since 1982. Later, he served as the head coach and youth training director of PSV Eindhoven. After that, he coached Groningen twice. In 1998, Ajax was in turmoil, and Michael van Praag invited him back to Ajax to take charge of De Tokmost.

"It seems that your training has not been approved by the technical department?" Westerhof originally came to trouble Ye Qiu. As soon as he saw Ye Qiu arranging players to conduct this kind of training method that he had never seen before, he immediately caught his fault.

Although Ajax attaches great importance to the unification of youth training, it has very strict requirements on youth training programs. The entire youth training has a complete system, but every coach has his own methods and tricks. Therefore, as long as there is no problem, everyone will turn a blind eye.

But the problem is that if someone wants to take advantage of the issue, it can be big or small.

"A little trick I came up with!" Ye Qiu didn't care, and he naturally couldn't tell the real origin.

Westhoff stared at Ye Qiu, the wrinkles on his forehead became deeper, and he scolded: "De Tokmost has its own rules. Who allowed you to change the training program without authorization?"

"As a coach, do you have to report and approve every training program?" Ye Qiu was unhappy. He always felt that this Dutchman was deliberately looking for trouble with him. What was going on?

"This is the rule, the rule for decades!" Westhoff sneered, as if he was happy to catch Ye Qiu's weakness.

After that, he didn't plan to continue to entangle with Ye Qiu, "De Tokmost will hold a meeting of all coaches at 10 o'clock this morning. The technical supervisor and technical director will come. I will report this matter truthfully. You'd better be mentally prepared for how to deal with it!"

Watching Westhoff turn around and leave without looking back, Ye Qiu was puzzled. Why did he meet such a guy on the first day of work after crossing over? Is he in menopause or has his period?

When Westerhof walked away, a youth coach from the field next to him came over. Ye Qiu recognized him as the youth coach of the E2 team, the Dutchman Ronald de Jong.

"You'd better be careful. I heard that this meeting was requested by Waters. Now the first team has won three consecutive games in the league. As the head coach, Waters naturally wants to continue the tradition of Ajax and take over De Tokmost, but Leo Benhakr will definitely not give up easily, so..."

De Jong didn't finish his words, but his expression of "you'd better be careful" made Ye Qiu understand more or less that he was involved in the power struggle within Ajax, but what was his situation?

Ye Qiu looked at De Jong. He had worked in many different companies before he traveled through time. He had experienced similar power struggles. He even dared to say that every company had such struggles, so he felt that the most important thing for him now was to figure out what was going on.

Thinking of this, Ye Qiu smiled and greeted De Jong, "Ronald, tell me, what's going on?"

"You can still laugh?" De Jong looked devastated.

"Why can't you laugh?" Ye Qiu asked back.

De Jong pointed at Westhoff's departing figure, and was hesitant to speak at first. Later, under Ye Qiu's encouraging eyes, he came over and whispered: "Can't you see that Hans is going to fire you?"

"No way, I didn't provoke him." Ye Qiu said so, but thinking back to what Westhoff said just now, he had to believe that what De Jong said was indeed very likely.

"In short, take care of yourself!" De Jong didn't say much and continued to return to his training ground.

Ye Qiu stayed alone on the sidelines, thinking about something inexplicably.