Early in the morning, in a wealthy neighborhood of Madrid.

Florentino Pérez finished his breakfast and, with the help of his wife, put on his blazer, straightened his tie and walked out of the villa gates.

The assistant, the driver and the car have been waiting at the door for a long time.

"Go back to the company." Florentino held his eyes on the bridge of his nose and sat in the back seat after the assistant opened the door.

At this time, within his reach, the freshly baked newspaper of this morning had already been neatly placed.

Florentino is a die-hard Real Madrid fan and has been since he was very young.

Like all Real Madrid fans, he likes to read the newspaper As, so this newspaper is always at the top.

Looking sideways, the front page headline was the cover of Yang Yang holding the World Footballer of the Year trophy high, and the front page headline was the news about him winning the World Footballer of the Year, which made Florentino couldn't help but smile.

He still remembers that in December 2005, it was the first time he met Yang Yang in Zurich.

It should be the first time Yang Yang appeared at the Zurich Opera House, and he told Yang Yang a lot, but he didn't expect that two years later, Yang Yang took away this supreme honor here.

The Asbla newspaper reported on Yang Yang at a long length, which shows that Yang Yang has quite a lot of fans and influence in Real Madrid and Spain, because newspapers are the most sensitive, which is closely related to their sales.

One of the reports that caught Florentino's attention was that the World Footballer of the Year overlapped with the top four of the European Ballon d'Or, which is relatively rare, because in the past, everyone thought that the European Ballon d'Or was professional and the world Footballer of the Year was famous.

Yang Yang, Kaka, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, this is the top four of the European Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year.

There is basically no problem with the first two places, the difference is the ranking between Messi and Ronaldo, in the European Ballon d'Or, the Portuguese is third and Messi is fourth, but in the World Footballer of the Year ranking is the opposite.

But in any case, the two lists represent the four strongest players in the world today, and there is basically no suspense.

This is not the focus of Florentino's attention, what he notices is the age of the four players.

Yang Yang is twenty-one years old, Kaka is twenty-five years old, Xiao Xiaoluo is twenty-two years old, and Messi is twenty years old.

This is the lowest average age of the top four players in the history of the European Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year.

The overlap of the two lists proves that the quality and performance of these four players are recognised by everyone, and their age is representative of a trend in today's football, which is to be younger.

Florentino is a successful businessman who likes to look at professional football from a business perspective.

In the two years since he left the presidency of Real Madrid, he has been thinking about the question, that is, why did he lose in the first place?

There is nothing wrong with the strategy of the Galacticos, and as a fan for decades, he knows this very well.

It is achievable to poach the best stars from other teams in Europe and form a strong team.

So why did it fail?

Makelele?

No, Florentino never felt that was a problem, although many fans thought it was deadly.

So what's the problem?

After thinking about it for a long time, he never had an answer.

But just now, when he saw this report, he suddenly thought of it.

Age!

Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham, Michael Owen......

One superstar a year, of course, is very eye-catching, and every summer can make the eyes of the world focus on Real Madrid, making the Galaxy the most profitable football club in the world in the shortest possible time.

But then the problem is that by the time the team is almost polished, many of the players are already old.

It reached its peak in '02, and then Figo and Zidane grew old.

Modern European football is different from what it used to be.

In recent years, professional football has gradually industrialized, attracting and spreading faster and faster, and the influence of European football has also rapidly spread all over the world, and the four major leagues, especially leagues like the Premier League, are constantly harvesting the huge global market.

This can be seen from the fact that every time the Premier League re-signs a contract, the more overseas rights are sold, the more expensive they become.

Young players are becoming famous at a younger and younger age, Yang Yang began to be Ajax's home at the age of eighteen, was the core of Liverpool at the age of twenty, and won the World Footballer of the Year and the European Ballon d'Or at the age of twenty-one.

There are also Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka, and among the players who can compete with them in European football at the moment, Fabregas, Robinho and Ibrahimovic are only about 25 years old.

Rejuvenation is a trend, but Florentino sees an opportunity in it.

It's like Yang Yang, who is only twenty-one years old now, and with his character and ability, there is no problem in playing for another ten years.

If Real Madrid buys him now, they don't need to worry about the team's attacking power in ten years, but as long as they match him with a complete team lineup, this is a team that can challenge for the title.

Thinking of this, Florentino shook his head and sighed.

He didn't realize this back then, and there was no Yang Yang in European football back then.

…………

…………

The same thing is two completely different situations in the eyes of different people.

In Alkmaar, the Netherlands, Van Gaal watched the live broadcast of the FIFA Awards Conference last night, and then called Yang Yang to congratulate him as soon as possible, and in the morning he also got up early to read the Dutch newspaper.

The front page of almost all newspapers reported that Yang Yang won the World Footballer of the Year, because he debuted in the Netherlands, so the Dutch media also seemed to be honored to follow.

Over the years, Dutch football has declined a lot, and there are no top stars in the world anymore.

Van Gaal has also noticed the phenomenon reported in the media that the top four of the European Ballon d'Or overlap with the top four of the World Footballer of the Year.

But he doesn't see age, but tactical value.

The four players look to play in different positions, for example, Messi plays left winger, Cristiano Ronaldo plays left winger with right foot, occasionally right winger, Kaka is in the middle of midfield, Yang Yang is right-footed left winger, but can also play multiple positions such as striker and right winger.

At first glance, it may seem like there is no necessary connection, but in fact it is not.

Van Gaal has been in charge of AZ Alkmaar for many years, and the work is not hard, but more about thinking and accumulating.

Charging time, this is an essential stage for the manager.

Van Gaal is also aware that this represents a trend in European football.

In fact, over the past few years, the defence of European football has tended to be more and more integrated, and it is difficult to say exactly from what year, but this trend reached its peak after Greece won the European Championship in 04.

Defensively becoming more and more sophisticated, and the trend towards integrated football becoming more and more obvious, then a problem arises.

How do you play against a team that is very integrated and well-defended?

This is true of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, Benitez's Liverpool, and even the recent Liverpool game against Manchester United, when Alex Ferguson arranged for nine men to retreat.

Breaking the bucket formation is a problem for all teams, but now that the defense is becoming more and more sophisticated, breaking the dense defense has become the most important issue.

Everyone knows that the individual play of the players is an important tool.

So, in this situation, players who can rely on their individual ability to tear apart the opponent's defense and create a threat with the ball are playing an increasingly important tactical role.

In a way, Liverpool's Crouch and Kuyt, Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, AC Milan's Inzaghi and Gilardino and Barcelona's Sato'o Eto'o – these are some of Europe's most famous strikers who have the same quality in their squad, and they all have a very important role to play with the team-mate behind them.

It is no accident that European football is full of stars and flowers, but this year there is an overlap in the list of European Ballon d'Or and the top four players of the World Footballer of the Year, which is definitely not accidental, but a symptom of this trend.

Van Gaal sees this very clearly, and he is convinced that Yang Yang should continue in this direction.

So, he quickly took out his mobile phone and sent a long message to Yang Yang.

…………

…………

Yang Yang was elected World Footballer of the Year!

This news quickly sparked heated discussions around the world, and it can be said that it has attracted worldwide attention.

As in previous years, after Yang Yang was elected World Footballer of the Year by an overwhelming margin, major media around the world have dug up the inside story.

Soon, the mystery of the votes of the head coach and captain of the top 20 national teams in the world was dug up by the media.

This is also a long-standing tradition, and it represents a certain authority.

What is surprising is that the first choice of the top 20 national team coaches and players this year is surprisingly consistent, almost all of them choose Yang Yang, only the Brazilian national team coach Dunga chose Pirlo, Drogba and Xiao Xiaoluo.

According to the rules, the Brazilian coach can't choose Kaka, but Dunga is obviously not willing to choose Yang Yang and Messi, so he chose Pirlo, a big upset, obviously to support Kaka.

But except for Deng Jia, the first choice of the head coaches of the other nineteen national teams is Yang Yang.

The top three of Chinese national team coach Alihan and captain Li Weifeng all chose Kaka, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and they each called Yang Yang separately before the ballot to ask him about the ballot.

Yang Yang doesn't care, he can't be elected anyway, whoever chooses is the same, so it's better to be fair.

When the results came out, the media and fans around the world were surprised again, because they could finally be sure that Yang Yang was really unanimously favored by all professionals.

Such a consistent choice, what else can be said except to prove that Yang Yang is what everyone expects?

Therefore, when the news spread, Yang Yang's reputation reached a new high.