"Dad!"
As soon as Gao Shen entered the house and got out of the car, Gao Ming, who had just been playing football, immediately pounced on him, jumping onto Gao Shen with such force that he almost knocked his frail father over.
Gao Shen didn't mind at all. He laughed and hugged his precious son, but before long, he couldn't hold him up anymore.
Without realizing it, the boy was already six years old.
By the traditional Chinese age reckoning, he was seven.
Because he had been playing football from a young age, he was very healthy, rarely got sick, taller than kids his age, and had an outgoing, cheerful personality. This was what Gao Shen and Su Qing were most pleased about.
Perhaps influenced by Gao Shen and the people around him, Gao Ming had developed a love for football very early on.
As for Gao Shen, it didn't really matter. If his son could play football in the future, that would be great. What if he really did become a superstar?
At first, Su Qing didn't think much of it. But as the child grew, she started to worry.
Especially now, with preparatory school starting at age eight, she had already begun preparing ahead of time.
For instance, they had contacted a top private school in the UK two years in advance and even sold a house near Oxford, planning to move there with their child.
In her opinion, it would be better to focus on academics and treat football as a hobby.
On this point, she and Gao Shen had some disagreements, but they agreed to let Gao Ming make his own choice when the time came.
After playing football with his son in the garden for a while, Gao Shen left him there to play on his own and went inside.
"This kid hasn't been paying attention in class ever since he heard you were coming home today. The teacher just complained to me," Su Qing said as she walked over, took the things from Gao Shen's hands, and gave him a look of disapproval.
She always felt that Gao Shen was shameless. All he did was coax the child to play and make him happy, which made their son extremely clingy to him. On the other hand, she, as the mother, had to worry about everything but got no appreciation for it.
Their family dynamic was that of a kind father and a strict mother.
"What's the harm? He's so smart anyway. Besides, we've been apart for so long," Gao Shen said with a smile.
Su Qing rolled her eyes, "It's only been three or four days, okay?"
...
This time, Gao Shen had gone down to London to take care of a lot of things that had piled up.
He not only met with Wenger and Ferguson but also attended the FIFA Football Congress and gave a speech.
Things like that had become second nature to him.
Even if he were to stop coaching today, he could live off his past achievements without ever worrying about food or drink.
And with the wealth he had accumulated over the years, not only him, but even several generations of his family could live comfortably, as long as they didn't squander it.
But at his level, it was no longer about fame and fortune. It was about reaching his own potential.
"Infantino and Ceferin both said they would organize people to study my proposal carefully when they got back. On first impression, they both think my idea is good."
Standing by the window, Gao Shen looked at Gao Ming playing football in the garden as he spoke to Su Qing.
"So, it seems like there are no major problems."
"There weren't any to begin with. I just wanted some reassurance," Gao Shen said to his wife with a smile.
He had always done things steadily and methodically, often leaving himself a backup plan.
Given his current reputation, status, and connections, even if he were to act directly, as long as nothing went wrong, FIFA and UEFA wouldn't cause trouble. But the problem is, that's not the best way to go about it.
It's always better to communicate in advance than to scramble to fix things afterward.
"How's everything on your end?" Gao Shen asked.
"Don't worry. Everything went smoothly," Su Qing replied.
She was more thorough and meticulous in her work than Gao Shen.
The separation of several departments—such as the Big Data Center, Methodology Department, and Scientific Research and Innovation Laboratory—from Leeds United didn't actually have much impact on the club's operations, and the outside world remained largely unaware.
That was to be expected.
Who pays attention to a club's daily operations?
Manchester United had been in London for quite some time, yet many fans still didn't know and thought they were still in Manchester.
Even though those departments were now independent, they were still temporarily housed at the AXA Centre in Leeds United.
Why?
Because the AXA Centre itself was an advanced facility. Leeds United had just been renting it.
Would someone as capable as Gao Shen really be using someone else's facility?
Fans had no idea what was happening inside Leeds United, or whether those departments had become independent, because these were all complex business operations. At most, it was like shifting things from one hand to the other.
"We still need to keep investing in the medical field, especially in injury prevention. That's crucial."
If one were to ask what the riskiest and least controllable factor was in the entire Gao Shen project, it would definitely be...
Injuries.
After taking over the first team of any club, Gao Shen's team would deliver a detailed plan after thorough evaluation and planning. This plan included promised results, based on the club's budget, investment, squad composition, and transfer targets.
Of course, the promised results could never be something like winning the league or a title.
That would be unrealistic.
In professional leagues, not winning a title is the norm. Winning one is the exception.
Isn't this different from how many fans perceive elite clubs?
In this kind of setup, if a major injury occurs, the entire plan could be thrown off. Especially if there's a sudden increase in injuries.
So injuries aren't just a player's worst enemy—they're also the biggest threat to Gao Shen's entire plan.
That's why he had always invested heavily in sports medicine.
Initially, Leeds United had partnered with Huawei on research in AI and sports medicine, as well as working with several domestic universities. Later, they collaborated with the University of Leeds, and through them, with globally renowned institutions like Oxford and Cambridge.
Massive investments had gone into this project.
If Leeds United hadn't made so much from transfer fees in recent years, they wouldn't have been able to afford it.
Other football clubs—even top ones—simply couldn't match that level of research and development funding.
However, once this research began yielding results, it would significantly improve a team's training level, injury prevention, and recovery, which in turn would elevate the quality of service that Gao Shen and his team could offer.
Have there been results?
Yes, and quite a few.
For example, sleep monitoring.
Players who sleep well perform better in training and matches, and are less likely to get injured.
Leeds United studied five to six hundred players from their youth academy, monitored their sleep, and collected extremely detailed data. They then researched how to help players sleep better.
Many fans might not know, but sleep is a huge issue for professional athletes.
Many players suffer from insomnia before games, and some have even become dependent on sleeping pills.
Leeds United's research aimed to help players fall asleep using various assistive devices and to create personalized plans for each individual, fostering healthy sleep habits through big data analysis.
These measures were already being implemented in both the youth academy and the first team.
In addition, with the advancement of medical technology and scientific training, significant progress had been made in preventing and recovering from certain injuries.
But muscle damage remained a huge challenge.
Issues like the groin injury that led to Kaka's downfall, or other soft tissue problems, were all extremely troublesome.
Gao Shen's investments in this area were divided into two parts: recovery and prevention.
Oxford University was focusing on cell therapy and regenerative medicine, which could become the future of muscle and tendon injury treatment.
Meanwhile, prevention was about lowering the injury risk through a comprehensive strategy—especially during two-match weeks—by analyzing the impact of training loads, recovery, rest, and diet on muscle damage.
In the past, most of these areas had barely been researched. Even for major injuries, prevention largely depended on the overall improvement of global medical standards. FIFA and UEFA did invest in this field annually, but the results were minimal.
If Gao Shen wanted to pursue this career path, then injury risk had to be controlled, which meant investing in this type of research.
In fact, this would become one of the core competitive advantages of Gao Shen and his team.
Just think, how would players view a training team that could offer this kind of support?
...
"Florentino called me."
Su Qing was a bit surprised. "What did he say?"
"He watched my speech at the FIFA Congress, and..." Gao Shen chuckled twice, "He received some messages and wants to talk to me for more details."
"You think he's interested?" Su Qing asked.
Gao Shen smiled and nodded. "Definitely."
"You know Florentino has a team of people who are experts at making money. If there really were a team that could guarantee relatively stable results for Real Madrid, freeing up his hands to focus entirely on the commercial side, do you think he wouldn't be tempted?"
Su Qing thought about it and nodded in agreement.
Real Madrid's exit from the Champions League Round of 16 this year had been a major commercial setback.
What's worse, Barcelona was struggling too, yet they were still leading La Liga and had beaten Real Madrid by a large margin.
Many people might think Barcelona slapping Real Madrid is good news for them.
Yes, in terms of results, maybe. But commercially, it's a disaster.
Without Ronaldo, Messi's popularity had clearly declined.
This might be hard for some people to accept, but in essence, professional football is a reality show.
No one enjoys watching matches where the outcome is predictable.
Occasionally crushing a weak team is fine, but do it too often, and people lose interest.
That's why the Premier League is more exciting and more popular.
Of course, when Gao Shen said "reality show," he didn't mean a scripted or fake one. That would be low-level. Football is the highest level of reality show.
It's the most genuine competition, where both sides are truly fighting with real weapons and full of unpredictability.
What Gao Shen wanted to do now was to become the director of this reality show.
Maybe no one would notice him. Many fans might not even know he existed. But he was about to completely overturn the existing management model and even the power structure of European football.
This was the highest level a head coach could achieve.
(To be continued.)