Chapter Eleven: Yun Jia Tianyu Emerges into the World

The ball traced a graceful arc through the air, slanting down toward the sheep, landing with a loud thump that startled the creature. It spun around quickly and bolted back to its flock.

"This thing is great!" Azat said, barely able to contain his enthusiasm. "It feels so comfortable when you kick it, much better than kicking stones. Sometimes those stones hurt my feet." No sooner had he praised the advantages of the football over stones than Azat noticed its downside: "But after it flies away, you have to fetch it yourself. Stones are everywhere; you just kick them and pick them up afterward."

"Azat, let me fetch it for you!" Long Bisheng leapt up, ready to chase after the ball, but Azat waved him off. "Stay here, don't move. I'll get the ball and kick it back to you."

With that, Azat dashed off, quickly catching up with the ball. He glanced at where Long Bisheng stood and sent the ball flying back from a distance.

Azat's kick was precise. Long Bisheng trapped the ball with a textbook chest stop, then aimed at Azat and kicked it toward him with all his might.

But the ball veered off course, forcing Azat to run some distance to retrieve it. Long Bisheng stuck out his tongue sheepishly; he'd only ever kicked against a wall before, never over such a distance, so his power and accuracy were far from ideal.

"No worries, let's keep playing!" Azat shouted from afar. "This is a lot of fun! Much more interesting than kicking stones!"

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From that day on, Long Bisheng came here after school to play football with Azat. The two would simply pass the ball back and forth over a stretch. This routine benefited Long Bisheng greatly: his long passes became much more accurate, and thanks to constant long-distance kicks, his leg strength improved considerably without him even realizing it.

Time passed, another year went by.

Unbeknownst to them, it was now 1997—a year brimming with hope and excitement for Chinese football fans.

In the league, the rising powerhouse Yunja Skyward and Dalian were locked in a fierce, brutal chase. At the World Youth Championship, China's youth team, led by outstanding players like Nie Fei and Ai Lin, surged into the quarterfinals, matching their best-ever result. Though they lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champions Argentina, their performance filled Chinese fans with hope.

Ever since the professional league began, Long Yuyun had never missed a match, especially those of the Bayi team—he was from Heilongjiang, a province without a professional club, so naturally Bayi became his home team. Unfortunately, Bayi hadn't fared well since entering the professional league, fighting relegation for the first two years. Though last year, after their star striker Hao Dong transferred to Yunja Skyward, they unexpectedly finished fourth in the league, this year they were back to struggling near the relegation zone.

Long Yuyun still supported Bayi as always, but he found himself increasingly interested in other teams' performances. After all, no one enjoys watching their favorite team lose all the time. Thus, a club named Yunja Skyward caught his attention.

Long Yuyun was a veteran fan, having watched football since the early eighties, with over a decade of experience. Even so, before the professional league, he'd never heard of a team called Yunja Skyward in some southern city of China. In fact, before the league started, few outside Yunja itself knew the city even had football.

After all, Yunja was a province notorious for its football drought, never having produced a national team player before the professional league began. Their provincial team was always at the bottom of the table during the National Games.

But once the professional league kicked off, this virtually unknown club began to unveil its mysterious veil.

In 1994, they stormed into Jia B as champions of the second division.

In 1995, they reached Jia A as Jia B champions, even snatching the first FA Cup trophy of the professional era from the jaws of old powerhouses Guangdong, Shanghai, and Shandong.

In 1996, as league newcomers, they finished runners-up in Jia A, tussling with the mighty Dalian Orient right to the final round. If not for Dalian's last-minute winning goal in Sichuan, Yunja Skyward, having already achieved three miracles in two years, might have set another record by winning the league's top honor as a newly promoted team!

And this year, they were neck-and-neck with Dalian Orient again, chasing each other on the leaderboard—the same Yunja Skyward, rising out of nowhere!

Everyone knew how strong Dalian Orient was: three years of professional league, two league titles. Before Yunja Skyward, only teams like Shanghai and Beijing could challenge Dalian. Yet last year, Dalian left these rivals trailing by over ten points. The only club able to keep pace to the end was Yunja Skyward.

Rumor had it their owner was a self-made tycoon, the most distinctive boss in the league. Though he owned the club, he preferred to sit among the coaches disguised as an assistant or translator, appearing constantly in the media and sparring verbally with other owners—making him a media darling.

Rumor had it this club was the first in China to hire a foreign coach, who last year left for England to manage the legendary Arsenal; their new coach was also a foreigner.

Rumor had it their youth academy system was the most advanced in the country, placing the greatest importance on youth development. Apart from a few foreign and domestic signings, their entire squad was homegrown. This year, they even supplied four main players to the youth national team.

Now, in the age of media saturation, this club was the focus of all sports coverage, their matches a spectacle with attacking flair, plenty of goals, high technical quality—making them the club with the most fans from outside their home province in the whole Jia A league.

Long Yuyun became one of them. Besides supporting Bayi, his second favorite was Yunja Skyward, the club that burst onto the scene in Chinese professional football.

ps: You guys are truly amazing, haha. At first, I thought no one would notice, but you really read carefully...