That year, the Seven Sisters of Serie A were at their peak, the Bundesliga was arrogant, the La Liga was the dark horse, and the Premier League encountered the hegemony of the Red Devils.
That year, Barcelona continued to be in turmoil, Real Madrid ushered in the change of the century, Manchester United ushered in the peak of making history, Bayern swept across the Europa League and was invincible, and Chelsea had not yet waited for the Russian rubles.
That year, Mourinho still had a promising job as an assistant coach at Barcelona; Del Bosque was still leading the second team at Castilla and occasionally played as a firefighting coach; Guardiola was confused and hesitant about his future; Benitez was still studying in Italy and England.
That year, a Chinese named Ye Qiu came to Ajax's Detok Most training camp and began a legendary journey.
