Chapter 61: Brief Return Home

The Overseas Football Weekly — Top-tier set-piece assist! Tang Ye records his 7th consecutive club match assist!

China Football Daily Special Issue — Guangdong’s young star emerges! Stunning performance in the Dutch Eredivisie — will China’s national team welcome a genius midfielder?

Shandong Luneng Taishan Football Club: Tang Ye is a product of our youth academy. In May 2014, he graduated early from the Luneng Football School and joined FC Utrecht II in the Dutch Eerste Divisie for a transfer fee of 50,000 euros.

Shandong Luneng Taishan Club reposted The Overseas Football Weekly’s video highlighting Tang Ye’s assist, along with a series of introductory notes.

Soon, this post from Luneng Taishan drew the attention of fans.

The big users of Dongqiu Di took over Weibo immediately.

If you can’t tell Tang Ye’s position just by watching matches, ask his alma mater.

As Tang Ye’s alma mater, Luneng Football School should have an analysis report on him.

So many people asked that Luneng Taishan had no choice but to release part of Tang Ye’s scout report.

Tang Ye (14 years 3 months)

Player type: Possession-based midfielder / Attacking midfielder / Playmaking core

Template: Liao Lisheng, Zhang Xizhe

【666, so he really is a possession-based midfielder】

【I bet Meng Ge was good at ball control as a kid, but after moving to the Netherlands he realized his control wasn’t good enough, so he switched to faking it】

【How dare you trash my Meng Ge? Averaging one assist per game — you can’t handle it, right?】

【Is Luneng Football School really that awesome?】

【Damn, if Tang Ye keeps this up, his market value will break a million euros in the winter transfer window】

【The Eredivisie updates values in December, but I think Tang Ye won’t go too high — some of those passes, you can’t tell if he’s faking or actually playing】

【Regardless of whether it’s fake or real, Tang Ye is top of the Eredivisie assist chart!】

【But the second-place assist leader is only worth a million euros — Eredivisie goals are rare, so the assist chart has no real value!】

【Isn’t the Eredivisie a thousand times better than the Chinese Super League?】

……

After the match against Nijmegen, Tang Ye returned to his hometown in Guangdong.

The reason was simple: his visa was only valid for three months, and every time it neared expiration, he had to return to China to renew it.

FC Utrecht, as a professional club, has the ability to process work permits for foreign players, but Tang Ye signed a youth contract, not a professional player contract.

In short, due to his age, Tang Ye and Utrecht are not, strictly speaking, in an employment relationship.

There might be other ways for Tang Ye to obtain a longer visa, but he won’t bother researching them.

Getting a fixed five-day break every three months — isn’t that good enough?

“Dad, Mom”

As soon as he stepped out of the terminal, Tang Ye spotted Tang Zhengxiong and Zhang Qingqing in the crowd.

Last time he came home without notice and got scolded by Tang Zhengxiong, so this time he sent Zhang Qingqing his flight number in advance.

“Tang Ye, wow, come on! Let’s go home and put your stuff down first.”

“Wait, where’s your suitcase?”

Tang Zhengxiong scanned Tang Ye from head to toe — the latter wore only a Nike-sponsored backpack and carried nothing else.

“Nah, no need for luggage. Everything’s already here. I can buy clothes locally.”

Tang Ye said, walking over to join his parents.

“Holy shit, smart!”

Tang Zhengxiong gave Tang Ye a thumbs-up and said to Zhang Qingqing beside him: “I didn’t even think of that — your son really is…”

Tang Zhengxiong walked ahead, leading Tang Ye and Zhang Qingqing to the parking lot, where they found their black Bentayga.

“Oh, by the way!”

As soon as they got in the car, Tang Ye suddenly remembered something. He placed his backpack on his lap, rummaged inside, and pulled out a box of Tony’s chocolate, its packaging featuring a large blue windmill.

“This is a local Dutch specialty chocolate — the taste isn’t that great.”

Tang Ye handed it to Tang Zhengxiong in the driver’s seat, who extended both hands: “For me? Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Mm, fine, fine.”

Tang Zhengxiong laughed heartily, didn’t start the car right away, and examined the chocolate box carefully in his hands.

Tang Ye and Zhang Qingqing exchanged glances, raising their eyebrows repeatedly.

Tang Ye never thought of buying a gift for Tang Zhengxiong.

All this was from Zhang Qingqing’s WeChat messages!

Tang Ye had originally planned to buy Tang Zhengxiong a bottle of red wine, but it was too cumbersome to carry, and Tang Zhengxiong preferred cars over wine anyway.

Tang Ye couldn’t ship a multi-ton car to Guangdong, nor was there any need — so he followed Fan De’s advice and bought Tang Zhengxiong a box of windmill blue porcelain chocolate.

“Oh, and one more thing!”

Tang Ye reached into his backpack again and pulled out a Miffy doll.

A tiny thing, two palms wide — perfect for Mom Zhang Qingqing.

“Mm!”

Zhang Qingqing covered her mouth and took a deep breath.

She expected Tang Ye to bring a gift for Tang Zhengxiong, but never imagined he’d bring one for her too.

“Haha.”

Tang Ye chuckled and shot a glance at Tang Zhengxiong in the driver’s seat.

He hadn’t thought of buying a gift for Zhang Qingqing at all — this was all Tang Zhengxiong’s idea.

When Tang Zhengxiong courted Zhang Qingqing originally, he used a Miffy doll — but back then, he bought it in China, and it wasn’t authentic.

Tang Ye’s gift? A genuine Dutch-bred Miffy doll!

As the car drove down the road, Tang Zhengxiong told Tang Ye about the plans for the next few days. Since they had less than two full days at home, they could only wander around Guangzhou, find a few restaurants, and eat.

“By the way, are you thinking of buying a house in the Netherlands?”

Tang Zhengxiong said, driving while speaking to Tang Ye sitting behind him.

“Buy a house? Why buy a house?”

“You’re already playing for the first team — you’ll be staying in the Netherlands for a long time.”

“Houses in the Netherlands are cheap. Utrecht isn’t expensive either.”

As Tang Zhengxiong said, Dutch housing is generally modest — at least compared to Guangdong’s core areas.

“I know Dutch houses are cheap.”

Tang Ye shook his head — he’d never looked into this kind of thing.

“They really are cheap.”

Tang Zhengxiong nodded: “One house here in Guangdong could buy five in the Netherlands.”

“You’re stupid!”

Zhang Qingqing scolded: “Just buy a villa! Didn’t you see that villa in Utrecht when we sent Xiao Tang there?”

“Hey hey hey, don’t rush — they’re not the same thing. Tang Ye, how about buying a house to live in?”

“No way. I live at the training base — it’s only 150 meters away. If I lived outside, even the closest place would be seven or eight kilometers — driving’s a hassle, I’d have to bike there.”

Tang Ye wasn’t stupid — he could calculate these basic numbers clearly.

Biking several kilometers every day just to train? That’s ridiculous.

“Living in the dorm for training — Tang Ye, I respect you!”

Tang Zhengxiong steered with one hand and gave Tang Ye a thumbs-up with the other.

……

(End of chapter)