Chapter Sixty-Six: The Arrogant Yun Jia Tianyu

After more than a day of travel, on the evening of September 29th, the group from Yunjia Tianyu Football School finally arrived in Beijing.

They did not see the Beijing they had imagined, nor the bustling Wangfujing or Xidan. After getting off the train, they immediately boarded the buses that had been waiting outside the railway station, and were taken to a rather remote guesthouse beyond Beijing’s Third Ring Road. This was the accommodation arranged by the Football Association for Yunjia Tianyu, with two staff members assigned to receive them.

At first, these two staff members thought this would be an easy task. The guesthouse, though not large, could easily accommodate seventy or eighty people. Based on the standard squad of twenty-three players per team, Yunjia Tianyu had brought three squads this time (with the U-15 and U-17 squads separately accommodated), totaling sixty-nine students. Including coaches and others, eighty would be more than enough. But when Yunjia Tianyu’s three buses arrived, the two staff members nearly lost their minds—there were nearly one hundred and thirty people across the three squads, and with coaches and drivers, the group amounted to a hundred and forty!

“You’re not trying to bankrupt the Football Association, are you?” The two staff members were on the verge of tears. “We’ve heard your boss gets along well with our superiors, but how can you treat us like this?”

“Don’t worry,” Xia Liquan replied with a hearty laugh. As the deputy head coach of the Yunjia Tianyu squads, he had dealt with the Football Association often and knew these two staff members well—they’d even had drinks together. “Only the players on the official roster will stay here. The rest are just here to observe, and we’ll find our own accommodations for them.”

The two staff members finally relaxed. “But there’s only one other guesthouse in this area—we checked, and someone has already booked it out. Do you have another place to stay?”

Xia Liquan laughed again. “Sorry, but the one who booked that guesthouse is our club.”

“You people are something else,” grumbled the older staff member through clenched teeth, while the younger one looked on in admiration. “Wow, that guesthouse is top-notch. The rooms are half again as expensive as here.”

“Our club always treats people well,” Xia Liquan said cheerfully. “So, interested in working with us? Our pay and benefits are the best in the country, and we’re actively recruiting talent.”

“Don’t you go poaching our people,” the older staff member retorted. “We’re shorthanded at the Football Association too—you’re digging at the wrong corner!”

While Xia Liquan bantered with the two staff members, the students from Yunjia Tianyu were already, under the coaches’ guidance, getting settled into their rooms in an orderly fashion.

The players who were not on the official twenty-three-man roster, along with three coaches for each age group, remained on the buses, preparing to head to the other guesthouse.

Even here in Beijing, the students’ training regimen was not to be relaxed in the slightest. The club had specially contacted several universities to rent their sports fields for practice. Though not as well-equipped as their own facilities, these fields sufficed for tactical drills and basic training.

This was why the club was willing to spend extra to bring all eligible students to Beijing. Not only did it allow those not selected for the roster to feel they were still part of the school, but it also maintained the continuity of training.

***

“Honestly, this room isn’t as good as our dorms back home,” Zhou Wei commented, shaking his head as he surveyed the conditions after settling in. “Aside from squeezing four people into a room, it’s just too small.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Dai Guangming interrupted with a laugh. “We're in Beijing, the emperor’s city, where every inch of land is precious. Just having a place to stay is good enough. We’re here to compete, remember?”

“As if you’ve been to Beijing before,” Zhou Wei retorted.

Long Bisheng chuckled from the side. “Don’t forget, when we watched ‘Zhang Damin’s Happy Life,’ we saw how cramped Beijingers lived. Six people in Zhang Damin’s family squeezed into just a few dozen square meters, and that was considered ‘basically good housing.’ Another master’s family—three generations—lived in seven square meters. Those houses were packed like ant nests!”

“That was the eighties, before massive urban redevelopment. Don’t think I don’t know,” Zhou Wei sniffed.

“Alright, enough arguing. Get some rest early,” Wu Bufan said. “After traveling day and night, if you’re not tired, I am. Wash up and sleep—we have training tomorrow.”

“I heard those not on the roster are staying at another guesthouse, and apparently the conditions are way better than here. I’m jealous,” Zhou Wei said as he climbed onto his bed.

“Jealous? Want me to tell the coach to swap you with one of them? I bet they’d jump at the chance,” Dai Guangming replied.

“No way! Forget I said anything,” Zhou Wei hurriedly waved his hand.

Long Bisheng smiled quietly. Zhou Wei was extremely talented but had a somewhat irreverent attitude. Besides the coaches, only Dai Guangming could make him behave. In fact, Dai Guangming, Zhou Wei, and Wu Bufan—three boys from Hubei—formed an unspoken trio, with Dai Guangming as the implicit leader. In their dorm, they had a subtle rivalry with the Dalian contingent, led by Hu Gandan and including Li Jie and Zhang Yi. But this rivalry only surfaced during training.

***

The next day, under the guidance of two coaches, the first-year students took a bus to their training ground at Beijing University of Business and Technology. The other two squads trained at Beijing Jiaotong University and Beijing Agricultural University. The Football Association had arranged the use of these university fields, as they had for all squads from other football schools. Universities, with their expansive campuses, could afford the space for training without interfering with students’ studies. The Football Association also hoped that bringing in these professionally trained youths would inject more football enthusiasm into the universities.

The national college football league had been running for two years now, but compared to CUBA, the national college basketball league, student passion for football still lagged behind. The Football Association was doing everything possible to promote football among all students.

“This field isn’t bad, except the grass is a bit yellow. What do you think, Coach Zhao?” Ding Yu asked, pressing his foot into the turf.

“For a university field, this is pretty good,” Coach Zhao replied. “With so many people using it every day, it’s enough for basic training. We can also arrange some scrimmages to test their form and ability. For Yunjia Tianyu, anything short of a championship is failure!”

Ding Yu laughed. Yunjia Tianyu certainly had the right to make such bold claims. For years, their youth squads had been among the best in the country, and even ordinary coaches took great pride in that.

“Don’t forget the true purpose of our youth training,” said Mourinho, the fourth head coach of Yunjia Tianyu, who brought a shift in philosophy after taking over: “Our task is to produce talent; results are secondary. It’s been years since we’ve developed a real standout who can break into the first team. Most of our graduates go elsewhere. Right now, a single player who can become a first-team regular is worth more than ten average substitutes. Take that U-17 Messi, for example—he just turned fourteen and can already hold down a starting spot in U-17. That’s the kind of player we need to focus on developing.”

“I understand. Still, even if they’re not geniuses, adding more good players is always a plus,” Coach Zhao nodded.

“Of course! That’s the whole purpose of our football school. We need to excel on all fronts,” Ding Yu said with a hearty laugh. “I’ll be accompanying Assistant Head Coach Xia to the Football Association for the draw. I’m leaving training here in your hands.”

“No problem. Bring back a good draw!” Coach Zhao replied with a smile.

“We’re not worried about that!” Ding Yu called back as he headed off campus—the bus was waiting outside.

While Ding Yu and Coach Zhao chatted, the students were already warming up before training. They didn’t need reminders or guidance; warming up before practice had become second nature.

Around the field, a crowd of university students had gathered to watch. University life was leisurely, and students loved a bit of excitement. Having heard that Yunjia Tianyu’s squads were coming, their curiosity was piqued—they wanted to see what professional youth training looked like.

The players themselves hardly noticed the university students gathered around. In their minds, they would one day play in professional leagues, where the onlookers wouldn’t be a few hundred students but tens of thousands of fans. If they couldn’t handle this, how could they hope to succeed?

So, as they warmed up, the group chatted about their lodging the night before. Liu Lin, grinning, exaggerated the conditions at the other guesthouse where those not on the roster were staying, making it sound as if they were in a five-star hotel.

Only when Coach Zhao and Ding Yu finished their conversation and shouted for them to begin did the chatter finally cease.

PS: I’m finally catching up. Tomorrow, I’ll be back to two chapters a day. Thanks to all the brothers who kept supporting me during this busy period.