The impression of this country is endless tulips, windmills towering over the flower fields, artificial embankments by the sea, clogs, cheese, famous European bicycle kingdoms, and the orange memory that is lingering in the hearts of all fans.

Johan Cruijff, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard... For Zhang Jun, these names represent everything in this country.

The Netherlands, the country of tulips, at 14:50 pm on August 4, 2002, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan finally set foot on this land. They are sponsored by Philips and come to experience the atmosphere of Dutch football. In ten days, they will train with the youth team of Eindhoven, one of the three Eredivisie top three, for three days, and will also visit Ajax and Feyenoord clubs to participate in Eindhoven's stadium open day.

As the first batch of college football players to visit in China, the domestic media did not pay too much attention. When the country was still making excuses for the men's football World Cup failure and ruling responsibility, the "travel" of these two people to the Netherlands was too trivial.

No one paid attention to or applauded, and the trip to the Netherlands between the two began like this.

When it comes to Dutch teams, people may mention Ajax's name first, but Eindhoven is also a team that cannot be ignored.

August 31, 1913 is the 100th anniversary of the Netherlands' independence. The Eindhoven Club was officially established under this background after a grand commemorative event. The Eindhoven Football Club is one of 19 club members named Philips Sports Club (the abbreviation of Dutch is PSV), and the Philips Stadium built that year has been used to this day.

Eindhoven officially started to participate in the Dutch Football League since 1914. After more than ten years of training, Eindhoven finally won the first league championship in the club's history in 1929, and then they won the first Dutch Cup championship in 1950. Five years later, in 1955, Eindhoven became the first Dutch team to successfully reach the final of the European Cup. It is worth mentioning that in the 56-57 season, Dylan, the greatest scorer in the history of Eindhoven, scored 43 league goals, and this brilliant record has remained until today.

When it comes to scorers, we must mention the names of Ronaldo, Romario and Van Nistelrooij. These three famous strikers have played for Eindhoven one after another. The Dutch, who is skilled, has always favored Brazilian foreign players. In 1988, Romario, the lone wolf, came to Eindhoven, and his arrival helped the team achieve

The greatest glory in the club's history. Romario's departure in 1993 did not have much impact on Eindhoven, because they introduced another talented star, Ronaldo. Although the latter only stayed in the Netherlands for two years, the aliens helped the team win the 95/96 Dutch Cup. And now Van Nistrui, who is in the limelight at Manchester United, also played for Eindhoven for three seasons.

In the mid-1970s, Eindhoven ushered in the glorious era of the club. At that time, they had many big-name stars, winning the league championships of 74/75, 75/76, 77/78 and the Dutch Cup in 73/74, 75/76. This glory came to a perfect end with their first European championship - on May 9, 1978, Eindhoven defeated the French team Bastia 3-0 at home and won the UEFA Cup.

After the glory, Eindhoven immediately reorganized and made great changes, which paid off in the late 1980s. A team composed of famous stars such as Gullit, Romario and Ronald Koeman brought Eindhoven to another glory. In the seven seasons from the 1985/86 season to 1992, Eindhoven won 6 league championships and 3 Dutch Cup championships. In the 1987/88 season, Eindhoven defeated Portugal's Benfica in the final of the Winners' Cup with a penalty kick after overtime. After winning the double championship in the local league and cup, he once again dominated the European arena and became the triple-champion.

After that, after several years of silence, Eindhoven made a comeback, and they won the league championships in the 96/97, 99/00 and 00/01 seasons.

The day after Zhang Jun and Yang Pan arrived in Eindhoven, they caught up with the "stadium open day" of Eindhoven Club. On this day, all the streets of Eindhoven were empty in the small town of Eindhoven, and all the young and old flocked to Philips Stadium. Various activities were centered on Philips Stadium, which was like a football carnival.

Looking at the cheerful Russian fans, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan deeply felt the weight of football in the minds of Europeans. That is definitely not just a sport, a game, or a thing used to kill time in physical education classes. It is an attitude of life that has been deeply integrated into the blood of the local people and passed down from generation to generation. Here, the extraordinary families of three generations of grandparents and grandchildren are supported by the same team. In fact, this is extremely common in Europe, and in China, at least, it is impossible at present.

There are various activities held in the square of Philips Stadium. Zhang Jun and others were attracted by a small football match called "Iron Cage Scorpion Fighting", which is similar to indoor football, but the competition venue is moved from indoor to outdoor iron cages. This is an event promoted by Nike (NIKE). Three people on one side, a total of six people competed in the iron cage, and the first goal scorer won and advanced. Many people gathered outside the cage to watch and cheered for both sides in the cage.

Although it was just a game, both parties played very seriously. The scorer would make many celebration moves to get cheers, while the loser was so upset that he was "kicked" out of the cage. Zhang Jun watched it very interestingly, so he pulled Yang Pan to sign up, but the translator Mr. Li told them that four people were required to register. Zhang Jun looked at Yang Pan and looked at him, and there were foreigners around him who had never known each other, so he had to shruggle and give up.

Entering Philips Stadium is another world, and the stadium with 30,000 people is almost full. Zhang Jun and his team can still hear the huge cheers from the stands while sitting in the private rooms provided by the club. In such an exciting environment, I believe that the players will use 200% of their strength to play football.

The highlight of this year's stadium opening day is the current Eindhoven team vs. Eindhoven veteran star team. The live commentator began to introduce the players one by one. It was obvious that the audience gave the warmest applause and cheers to the veteran star team. After all, the names of those people represent an era and a brilliant memory.

Zhang Jun doesn't know much. He only knows one Ronald Koeman in the veteran team, an outstanding player of the same era as the three Dutch musketeers. He is now the head coach of the Eredivisie giants Ajax. He is today the coach of the veteran star team. The appearance of another person made Zhang Jun excited. In fact, it is not only Zhang Jun, but also the fans of the audience. When the commentator shouted extremely sensational: "No. 11, Romario--" the audience burst into cheers and applause like mountains and seas. When the short Brazilian appeared on the court, the cheers continued for a long time. Everyone expressed their respect for Eindhoven's greatest shooter in the past decade in the most direct way.

Zhang Jun followed and kept applauding in the private room. Yang Pan was not as excited as him, but he was also moved by these fans. When could he reach such a height? He thought so in his heart.

This game belongs to Romario. His two goals in the game helped the veterans defeat the active team 2:1. Among them, the long-range hoop shot on the side won applause from all the fans. The 35-year-old "Lone Wolf" report is still old!

Zhang Jun looked at Romario's goal and raised his hands to accept the cheers of the fans, and only had one thought in his heart: a shooter, a real shooter, and a great shooter. Even if he is no longer young, he can still win so many cheers and love from so many people.

On a dreamy day, at the hotel at night, Zhang Jun was still excited about everything during the day. He pulled Yang Pan and said, "Yang Pan, have you seen it? This football field, those spectators! I really want to play in such a place! It's just enjoyment!"

"I think beautiful!" Yang Pan finally fell asleep and was woken up by Zhang Jun. He said angrily: "Not that simple! We are just here to watch high-level football. To put it bluntly, it's travel! Do you think other clubs will sign a contract with you just because you trained with the youth team here for three days? Sleep honestly! You are not energetic when training tomorrow, so you will be fooled!"

According to the plan, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan will train for three days in Eindhoven's youth team, do the most basic exercises and feel the training mode of European clubs. Because it is to feel the atmosphere, the coach of the youth team didn't care much about them, just let them follow them, and did not consider the effect of doing it. Therefore, the team practiced passing and receiving the ball, and in a group of two, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan passed and received the ball. Because they couldn't understand what the coach was calling, the two looked around and saw what the people around them did, and they also learned to do whatever they did, and they didn't make any mistakes. However, after training like this for a day, they couldn't say that they were having fun, they just felt very tired, physically tired and eyes tired.

During the group confrontation, Yang Pan's breakthrough speed surprised others. He did not use any skills, but simply used speed to easily break through the players defending him. However, in the next cross, he kicked the ball away, causing many people to shake their heads. The speed of Asian players is still a bit famous, but the skills behind speed are really not satisfactory.

Yang Pan is also very sorry, but there is no way. Who made the sneakers provided by the club bigger?

Because it is the training of the youth team, there are not many fans watching outside the court, but there are still several spectators. Adriansey is one of them, but he is not a hardcore fan. He has a different purpose here. As the head coach of FC Volendam of this year's Dutch Super League, he came to see what treasures can be dug, to put it bluntly, he is poaching. A few days ago, he went to Ajax.

There are a few that interest him. Unfortunately, in a club like Ajax, where young people are trained very mature, it is really difficult to poach people. What you value is often valued by others, and he is unwilling to pick up what others don’t want. Warren Dam is a small club. It is logical that he shouldn’t be picky. It would be nice to have someone to come, but who made me once the head coach of the Ajax youth team and the first team? He has a high vision!

Adrianser found himself distracted and shook his head. The recent recruitment work was not going well, which made him very distressed. In order to celebrate his promotion to the super, the club gave him 1.3 million euros for him to use to attract players. The money can only be used to introduce third-rate players, or a second-rate player. If you want to buy a good one, you can only go to the youth team to discover it yourself. A few days ago it was Ajax, today it was Eindhoven, and in a few days it was Feyenoord. It can only be found in the Netherlands, which is a big limitation. Even so, people are unwilling to come. The first-class players are useless in his opinion. It is difficult to help the team relegate.

He threw financial issues aside and looked at the training ground where the five-man competition was held. Today, until now, the notebook in his hand was still blank, and Eindhoven disappointed him.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. The white team's No. 13's quick breakthrough on the right created a cross opportunity, but he kicked the ball away. Like everyone else, Adriansey shook his head. Could it be another waste who only plays by speed? He sighed in his heart, it's a pity for his speed... Wait! This black-haired No. 13 is very strange! According to him, there should be no 13 and another No. 21 in the Eindhoven youth team.

Adriansse suddenly remembered that he heard yesterday that two Chinese college students came to Eindhoven as participants in a communication event. Adriansse began to pay attention, after all, he and China still had a short fate.

Ten minutes later, Adrians changed his evaluation of No. 13. No. 13 took the ball and went to the bottom again. Perhaps because of language improperness, he rarely communicated with the other three Dutch people on the court. He crossed the ball to find the No. 21 point, and failed the first two times. But this third time, he took the ball under the interference of the opponent's defender. No. 21, who followed up in the middle, jumped a powerful header and the ball entered!

Zhang Jun was like in the Luoyang Shuguang Stadium. Yang Pan made a cross, he headed the ball, and then the ball went in!

The red-haired goalkeeper had no reaction at all. Maybe he didn't expect that this Chinese, who was 1.83 meters tall, could reach the top in front of the 1.88 central defender, right?

Zhang Jun ran to Yang Pan with some excitement. Just like countless times before, he jumped up, and Yang Pan opened his arms and hugged him.

The coach of Eindhoven youth team just turned his head slightly: "Oh, these two Chinese people still have a tacit understanding!"

But Adriansey definitely wouldn't think so. He has been the head coach of the Ajax youth team and the first team coach of the first team. He has seen countless people in his life and has never seen one. This time, he believed that what he saw was two big diamonds!

In the subsequent game, Adriansey completely threw Eindhoven aside and his eyes followed the two Chinese.

When the training ended, his notebook had been filled with several pages. As the training deepened, he became more and more confident in his intuition. The club gave him absolute power in personnel management and player transfers, and now he is going to exercise this power.

After the day of training, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan were lying on the bed, both of which were very tired. Although the training volume of the youth team was not large, the intensity was not small. In addition, the first time I participated in such a formal training, I was inevitably a little nervous and fatigue was natural.

There was a knock on the door.

"Comingplease!" Yang Pan shouted politely in English, sitting up at the same time.

The door opened, and it was their translator. Mr. Li from Philips (China) company. He was followed by a tall Dutchman, who didn't know him. "You are all here? Just in time! I'll introduce you to someone." Mr. Li pointed to the Dutchman beside him. "Mr. John Adriansey, who was once the head coach of the Ajax youth team and the first team, is now the head coach of the Dutch new team, FC Volendam. These two are Zhang Jun and Yang Pan, a college player who came to the Netherlands from China to visit."

"Nicetomeetyou!" Yang Pan and Zhang Jun took the initiative to say hello to each other.

"Nicetomeetyoutoo!" Adriansey replied in English.

After we were kind, Mr. Li went straight to the point, "Mr. Adriansey was very interested in you after seeing your training in Eindhoven Youth Team, so he found me and he wanted to invite you to join the Warrendam Club where he is coaching now."

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan were stunned. Warren Dam had never heard of it before, but Mr. Li said that he had just been promoted to Super and was also a professional team. Now their head coach came to ask them to join. Are they dreaming?

Seeing the two of them not believing, Adriansse spoke Dutch to Mr. Li, and then Mr. Li turned to them: "He said please don't worry, today is not April Fool's Day. He came to invite both of them. He saw your training in the sky and thought you were fully capable of playing professional leagues. Of course, this requires good training. But please believe in his level. He guaranteed that you can be competent with Ajax's reputation. Warrendam is a small club that has just been promoted to a super club, but it is a very ambitious club. The chairman gave him the greatest power to select players. There are experienced old players and young players in the team, and the team is very united."

With Mr. Li’s retelling, Zhang Jun and Yang Pan also calmed down a little.

Yang Pan had already fully understood and began to consider it to a deeper level. "Well, Mr. Adriansey, we are not professional players, nor do we belong to any club. We just registered as an amateur player in the Chinese Football Association when we were playing in the university league in China. How do you sign with us?"

Adrian nodded while listening to Mr. Li's retelling, and then told Mr. Li that he had been responsible for retelling it to the two of them.

"He said there is no problem with this. Although the Dutch Super League has a labor certificate requirement, it is far from as harsh and complicated as the Premier League. If you don't belong to any club, it will be easier to handle it. Warrendam can sign an apprenticeship contract with you. As an apprentice, you don't have to consider the labor certificate issue. Then from the apprentice to the official player, he is the coach who has the final say. The Dutch Football Association cannot interfere. At most, you have to go to the Dutch Labor Department to sign a labor qualification certificate. But you don't have to worry about this. The club will do it all for you, including going to the Chinese Football Association to become a professional player, as well as visas, etc., and there are special people who will handle it for you. All you have to do is pick up a pen and sign the contract."

After saying that, Adriansai looked at Zhang Jun and Yang Pan quietly. He had to say everything he should say, and the rest was up to their own.

Yang Pan looked at Zhang Jun, and he suddenly realized that Zhang Jun’s “nonsense” yesterday had become a fact. They really could become professional players and play on behalf of professional teams! “Zhang Jun, look…”

"Do you think we still need to hesitate? Yang Pan!" Zhang Jun was very excited, but he was trying hard to keep his restraint. He didn't want to be too rude in front of outsiders.

Yang Pan turned his head to look at Mr. Li again.

Mr. Li smiled: "I will make a statement first. The company's responsibility is to sponsor you to come out and feel the atmosphere of Dutch football. As for you to sign any contract with any team during this period, you will not interfere. If necessary, we can even strongly support you. After all, we are the first players to go out in the league. We will be responsible for opening up the Chinese Football Association."

In this way, there was no worries. Yang Pan said: "Okay, please tell Mr. Adriansey that Zhang Jun and I agreed to sign a contract with Warren Dam."

After hearing Mr. Li's retelling, Adrians stood up excitedly and slapped her: "God!" Then he stretched out his hand to shake hands with Mr. Li, Yang Pan and Zhang Jun one by one. "That's all! I'll use the contract to show you tomorrow night. If you have any opinions or questions, please mention them! Haha! Li, do you want to have a drink? I'll treat you!" He smiled happily, which was the expression of picking up gold.

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan also laughed, the expression was hit by gold.

After Adriansey bid farewell to Mr. Li, Yang Pan slowly closed the door and stayed for two seconds. Then he suddenly threw himself on the bed and shouted: "Long live! So happy! Zhang Jun, aren't we dreaming, are we?"

Zhang Jun punched Yang Pan in the face and asked with a smile: "Does it hurt?"

Yang Pan rubbed his face and smiled and said, "It hurts!"

"That's not a dream, idiot! Haha!"

"Ha! Yes, but you guy dare to play with me! I want you to be nice! Foshan's shadowless feet, ah!"

The two were playing and joking on the bed, venting their ecstasy in their hearts. When they were tired of fighting, they sat side by side on the ground against the window. "Huh! To be honest, I really feel like I'm dreaming, it's too sudden!" Yang Pan gasped and said, "Isn't that Adriansé lying to us, right? Have you heard of the Warrendam team?"

"No, my understanding of Dutch football is limited to Cruyff, the three Dutch musketeers, and the three Eredivisie. Hoho! But no matter what it is! As long as there is a ball to play!" Zhang Jun said with a smile.

"You are always like this. From childhood to adulthood, you can just play the ball. But you are right. Now we can just play the game!"

"Ho ho, I'm thinking, what expression would be if Zhang Fan and the others knew?"

"I forgot if you don't say it. I guess we don't even have the chance to say goodbye to them in person."

Zhang Jun looked at Yang Pan: "No?"

"The Dutch Premier League is about to start at the end of August. Before, we must go to the club to register, participate in training, and integrate into the team as soon as possible... Maybe we will go home and pack our luggage at most and come again. Where can we go back to school to say goodbye to them?" Yang Pan usually pays attention to various magazines and newspapers introducing European football.

Zhang Jun opened his mouth: "What a pity, but I just left like this. Isn't it a bit unfair..."

"What's wrong with it? We are also for the future of Chinese football. I believe they will understand it!" Yang Pan patted Zhang Jun's shoulder, stood up, and walked to the bathroom, "Go to sleep, there will be training tomorrow! Don't be too happy, affecting tomorrow's training. It's too unfavorable to leave a bad impression on Adrians."
Chapter completed!