Betting

In the morning, the huge skate park was silent.

Yang Yang, carrying a school bag and juggling the ball skilfully, entered the residential area from the east side and went straight to the centre of the park along the winding path.

After two weeks of arduous and tedious basic training, his ball juggling skills have improved significantly. Even when juggling the ball, his walking speed was not affected at all, and he soon reached the centre of the park.

As the name suggests, the core of the park is a skateboard area. He was told that it used to be very busy every night with lots of young skateboarders. Everyone remembers this skate part, even though fewer and fewer people come here.

Yang Yang's juggling training can finally come to an end, but Zax's next special training requires a wall.

The city of Almere is very large, but it is not easy to find a wall that can be used for training. Finally, Yang Yang finds a graffitied wall in the abandoned skate park.

The location of the skate park is very good. To the north is Helen Parkhurst School, not far to the east is the residential area where Uncle Shen Ming's house is located, to the west is a river and to the south is the famous De Realiteit, which was the most visited residential area in Almere last year.

The skate park is huge and the skate area has been deserted for a long time. Even early morning runners rarely pass by here, so Yang Yang does not have to worry about disturbing others or being disturbed when he comes here to train.

After putting down his schoolbag, Yang Yang turned to the wall with a ball and stopped three metres from the wall.

His first training was in this position, kicking the ball towards the wall, waiting for the ball to bounce back and then kicking it back. This technique requires many passing techniques such as short passes, long passes, volleys and a touch pass against the wall. 

He has to do five sets of 20 repetitions for each foot.

During the boring training against the wall, Yang Yang listened to the banging of the ball in his ears, but he has to be highly concentrated as this training improves his touch and control by receiving the ball with different parts of his body at different speeds and angles as it bounces off the wall.

Zax was also constantly correcting his different touches and movements in his head, giving him suggestions for improvement.

Thirty minutes later, Yang Yang is already sweating after his 5 sets, but this is just the beginning.

Standing five metres away from the wall, Yang Yang began his second training session, hitting specific parts of the wall with different parts of his foot.

There are four parts, the inside and outside of the left and right feet, five minutes for each part, exactly 20 minutes.

Although Yang Yang has been juggling the ball for two weeks, it's completely different when it hits the wall. Especially when the ball bounces off the wall, he has to pass it with precision so that he can control it perfectly when it bounces back.

Zax's requirements are the same as before, with a total of four parts, he will have completed the training requirements if he manages to do five sets of 20 repetitions for each part without making a single mistake.

Although this is one of the simplest trainings, Zax's demands on Yang Yang are extremely high, so if there is a small mistake, he will immediately ask to start again from the beginning. The training itself requires a great deal of concentration and attention to detail. Unconsciously, he was already sweating profusely after two hours.

Focused on his training, he did not notice that not far behind him, on a park path, a couple of middle-aged men and women who were exercising in the morning stopped and looked at him curiously.

...

...

"What's wrong?" Truus asked her husband inquisitively.

"Nothing, just curious." The middle-aged Dutchman replied lightly.

Truus followed her husband's gaze and looked at the teenager training against the wall in the skateboard area in the distance. "Is he unusual?"

"Huh?" The middle-aged Dutchman obviously didn't understand.

"I mean, is it surprising to train against the wall?" Truus repeated her question.

"No, it's not surprising at all. Lots of people do it, like Bergkamp."

Because of her husband's professional career, Truus is also very involved in football. And her friends at home are all involved in professional football. She also knows many stars, not least Arsenal's brown-haired Bergkamp.

"Does he make you think of Bergkamp?" Truus asked boldly.

With her husband's eye for talent, I'm afraid that's the only way to explain why he stopped to watch during their morning run.

Unexpectedly, the middle-aged Dutchman was clearly stunned after listening.

"Him?" The middle-aged Dutchman shook his head. "He's still a long way from Bergkamp."

"Is it that bad?"

"He should be about ten metres from the wall. That is the most common passing distance in the professional league. It is also what all professional players must master and possess, and it must be a first touch."

"But you see..." The middle-aged Dutchman pointed to Yang Yang in the skateboard area. "He tries to use both feet, but sometimes he only uses one foot. You can see that this person's basic skills are terrible. So when it comes to a match, he will be even worse. At his current level, he can't even play at the amateur level. "

Truus rolled her eyes. Her husband had always been strict about football and spoke directly, without mincing his words, with a straight face.

"He looks like he's 16 or 17, he's still young, isn't it too soon to say that?"

"This is the most fundamental skill in football. You have to master it at the age of twelve. In Spain they pay more attention to it than we do, especially ..."

Halfway through the words, the middle-aged Dutchman suddenly looked dazed, as if he had thought of something that touched him.

Truus noticed it too.

He has been depressed ever since the incident six months ago. Even though everyone knows it is not his fault, he has not been able to come out.

Seeing her boyfriend nestle at home all day is not the way to go, so they went on holiday to Almere and bought a house in the De Realiteit villa area, with a large golf course nearby, so that they could play and forget all the problems on the football side.

What she didn't expect was that when they arrived in Almere for two days, her husband would be attracted to the boy during their morning run.

"If you think he is no good, why are you so curious?" Truus immediately changed the subject.

The middle-aged Dutchman's mouth twitched slightly, looking far away at the sweaty Yang Yang, as if muttering to himself: "I'm curious, this boring and useless work, how long can he keep it up?"

"How do you know it's useless work?"

"To do such basic training again, it will be boring for his age. At this age, boys like him are greedy and always want to learn something new. If he perseveres for a long time only to realise in the end that all he has done is in vain, he will give up. If it's not useless work, what is it? "

Truus understands the deep meaning of her husband's words when he talks about this young man, because it's basically the same situation he's in.

"I don't think so. You can't know if it's useful or useless without doing something, so you have to try first to know".

"You're too naive."

"You're too pessimistic, or shall we bet?" Truus looked at her husband provocatively. She felt that she should find something to do to save him from his crankiness.

"You want to bet?" The middle-aged Dutchman pointed to Yang Yang in the skateboard area. "On him?"

"Yes, I think he can hang on."

"No, Truus, I can tell you with certainty that you will lose, and he will not last even a month." The middle-aged Dutchman said confidently.

He had seen too much of this in his career.

"Then bet." Truus spread her hands.

"Okay, one last word has been said."

...

...

Yang Yang didn't know that he had become someone else's gamble, and just concentrated on his special training.

After practicing the wall pass training at ten metres, he went back to fifteen metres and twenty metres, and finally there were other training programmes, and they were some of the most basic.

With his current level of skill, he should start learning the most basic things that a player should learn when they are twelve years old.

In Zax's words, ball control is the base, but not the goal. With the gradual improvement of his first touch and ball control, his juggling training will gradually decrease and be replaced by other training with more practical value.

Yang Yang agrees.

After the morning training, Yang Yang carried his school bag back and walked north juggling the ball, soon leaving the skate park.

If you were to watch him now, you wouldn't notice anything but if you look closely, you will see that he has good hand-eye coordination, precise control over the movement of the ball, and good control over the angle and force of his touches. 

Helen Parkhurst School is one of the top institutions from kindergarten to high school and is also a prestigious private school in Almere.

Since two weeks ago, when Yang Yang entered the school, he is somehow popular now, but it was more for ridicule and sarcasm.

Everyone knows that Yang Yang is a good student, but playing football is another matter.

The fact that Johnny Rep has repeatedly dismissed Yang Yang has already been spread by Yang Yang's teammates, and everyone knows it.

However, Yang Yang hasn't reacted in the slightest and continues to act on his own.

There is only one way to change the way he is perceived, and that is to pass the annual assessment and stay in Almere.

At the school gate, Henk Dimer watched Yang Yang enter the campus, his eyes flashing with anger.

In the last two weeks of training, Yang Yang's performance in the team has been getting better and better, especially in the Rondo competition. Although it is still the worst performance in the team, it is difficult for everyone to make fun of him as they did before.

And since his improvement, Henk Dimer has been unlucky and has often found himself in the circle trying to catch the ball, thanks to Yang Yang. On a few occasions, Dimer couldn't help but want to beat him.

"I heard that he did well in training recently. The coaching staff intends to put him in the main squad for Saturday's game against ROC Flevoland. said an Almere youth player next to him.

"What?" Genk Dimer was stunned.

"Nick was injured. I heard that the coach asked him to play in a defensive position.

The Almere club was founded less than seven years ago, and because neither the youth nor the first team is perfect, the youth team works with the Helen Parkhurst private school. Players aged 16 and 17 represent Helen Parkhurst in the Intercollegiate League in the south of Amsterdam.

ROC Flevoland, like Helen Parkhurst, works with a fourth division amateur team in the city to develop youth training. They are not so weak that they are easy to beat.

Henk Dimer narrowed his eyes. "Then Yang Yang should start praying for himself. He was captain of the youth team and captain of the school team, but he had not received any notice.