The suspense of the Ballon d'Or is about to be unveiled on May 16th, the glittering night of Swiss women's soccer, at the annual soccer feast.
The organizers cleverly designed the portraits of the 11 candidates as soccer cards, complemented by dazzling visual effects, as if it were a visual feast.
As the live DJ deliberately stretched the beat of the music, one face stood out among the many cards.
The winner of the Swiss Women's Football Ballon d'Or for the 22/23 season, Zhang Linyan from the Chinese women's soccer team!
Cheers instantly echoed through the arena as Zhang Lin Yan smiled slightly shyly and her opponents offered their well wishes.
Eight months have passed since she joined the Swiss league.
Eight months ago, in the drizzling rain in Beijing, Zhang Linyan stepped into the Swiss Embassy in Beijing to receive her visa to travel to the Swiss league.
Growing up in a team, she was often looked after by her teammates at a young age.
However, the opening of the embassy doors brings not only the tedious process of getting a visa, but also a whole new human experience.
As she turned around, a close friend called out to her:
"From now on, you're going to have to take care of yourself, Pippi."
Zhang Linyan readily agreed, but inadvertently showed a hint of nervousness. At that time, she couldn't predict that what was waiting for her would be a challenge in a foreign country, or glory.
I. Departure
In the humid air of Mumbai, India, Zhang Lin Yan stunned the world.
It was the final of the Women's Asian Cup, and China rallied from a two-goal deficit. In the 66th minute, Zhang Linyan created a penalty kick, and Tang Jiali took the penalty. In the 72nd minute, Tang Jiali passed the ball to Zhang Linyan from the right side of the field, and she jumped up and scored with a header.
Six minutes, Zhang Lin Yan will be on the verge of runner-up team back to the championship podium; 6 minutes, all of China's fans have remembered this dark-skinned, petite, childish-faced women's soccer girl.
After winning the Asian Cup, Zhang Linyan stayed calm in the face of praise. She saw the gap with her opponents, especially the rich experience of Japanese and Korean players.
And these "old rivals" have a common experience - stay in Europe.
Zhang Linyan has been paying attention to European women's soccer, and she feels that the European women's soccer system has been developing rapidly in recent years, with high-level tournaments such as the UEFA European Cup and UEFA Champions League having a great influence, and the whole system tends to be mature.
The Asian Cup victory, on the contrary, made Zhang Linyan think more about his career.
"After the Asian Cup and the East Asian Cup I felt I wasn't confident enough to adapt to the game, and I played too few high-level tournaments, so my idea of staying in the world became stronger."
In the summer of 2022, Zhang Linyan finally decided to step out of the country and join Swiss side Grasshopper.
In fact, the idea of playing soccer abroad was not a whim, but a dream she had since she was a child. However, due to injuries and contracts, this dream could only be postponed again and again.
Before deciding to go abroad, Zhang Linyan consulted women's soccer seniors Ma Xiaoxu, teammate Wang Frost and head coach Shui Qingxia.
"Before going out, I talked to senior Ma Xiaoxu about the idea, consulted with the water director, and had a conversation with Frost, and they both felt it was time to go out and see what was going on."
Although most people give Zhang Lin Yan affirmation and blessing, but the mother has encountered some "resistance".
"In the beginning, my mom wanted to keep me around, didn't really want me to go out, couldn't let me go."
After some patient conversations, Zhang Linyan's mother finally chose to support her daughter's dream.
With the encouragement of her teammates, the expectations of her parents, and her own dreams, 21-year-old Zhang Linyan embarked on a flight to Switzerland.
Upon her arrival in Switzerland, Zhang Linyan shared photos of her training and cooking on social media and wrote in a text:
"Start by memorizing names."
Apparently, Zhang Linyan has found a way to quickly adapt to her environment and fit in with her teammates - respect.
"It's a sign of respect to remember someone's name."
"First of all you have to know what people's names are in order to have a better interaction with them. This is a habit that one has always had, and it's quite necessary, unlike in China where everyone's name is better remembered, and you may remember it after saying it, many of the foreigner's names are not standardized for me to pronounce, and it's a bit more of a struggle to remember them."
"German has to be pronounced with a rolled tongue, and I can't always pronounce that sound ......"
But in the world of soccer, respect is just a means to an end, and strength is key to truly integrating into a team.
On September 11, 2022, Zhang Linyan made her Swiss debut. Grasshopper Women's soccer team beat lower league side FC Thusis/Cazis 10-0 in the first round of the Swiss Cup, with Zhang Linyan contributing 1 goal and 4 assists!
But for this "horrible" debut, Zhang Linyan is not satisfied, and even in the interview did not count it as his first game.
In the third round of the league, Grasshoppers had a derby match - against city rivals and league champions Zurich - and the moment came for Zhang Linyan's league debut. In the 50th minute, Grasshoppers attacked quickly and Zhang Linyan made a ghostly run to open up a gap, received a pass from a teammate and calmly hit the ball into the net.
Derby game, league debut, first league goal!
After the goal, teammates ran to celebrate with Zhang Linyan, who was instantly "drowned out" by the tall Swiss girls.
Zhang Linyan admitted that the derby match was the most memorable match in her year abroad.
"Zurich is the champion for more than ten years, and the team manager said that in the past the team had no chance to play against them because they were old, mature, with many international players and experienced. And this season you can see a clear improvement in the team."
After this game, Zhang Linyan started her highlight reel in the Swiss league, scoring or assisting in almost every game after that.
The show of strength also accelerated Zhang Linyan's integration into the team. There is a little game within the Grasshopper team that will have teammates write comments to each other before a game and put them in an envelope.
Lynn Yan Zhang said she gets the most comments:
"Nimble, good with the ball, outgoing and sunny."
However, the road to pursuing her dream was not always smooth. Although Zhang Linyan quickly gained a firm foothold in Grasshopper with her strength, the nightmare of injuries still played a little joke on her from time to time.
In a game in January, Zhang Linyan suffered a hard injury, and even though it wasn't serious, the team doctors told her to take a month off.
During this time, Zhang Linyan felt the loneliness of a foreign country.
Unlike the domestic team who can see the team doctor every day, the Swiss club just gave Zhang Linyan a schedule grid to follow for her recovery.
"Sometimes it's a very free day with not much to do, but then I worry about a bad recovery, and sometimes I just feel so alone."
During the period of injury, Zhang Linyan often call the domestic team doctors, tell them their situation, hear the opinions of the old team doctors, Zhang Linyan hanging heart slowly put down.
On the other hand, the Paypal Women's Overseas Home has specially found a rehabilitator for Zhang Linyan to give her regular massages to help her recover.
"In fact, Alipay's help is multi-faceted, right, such as to help me find online and offline teachers, has been giving me language classes to help me learn English, in addition to specializing in finding me a life assistant, there are any problems can always look for her, to help me solve the difficult problems of life, such as translation, in the hospital to help me and the doctor to communicate, and also an epidemic to help me buy life supplies and so on. Accompany me through the most difficult period of stay in the ocean."
III. Blooming
Grasshoppers hosted Basel on May 14 in the second leg of the quarter-final of the Swiss Women's Super League playoffs.
In the 31st minute of the first half, a Grasshopper player grabbed the ball back outside the opponent's penalty area, Zhang Linyan saw the situation and started to sprint, his teammates knew what to do with a short pass to the ground, Zhang Linyan received the ball comfortably, crossed the line and ended the game with a wonderful shot from a small angle.
Zhang Linyan scored in both rounds of the playoffs, becoming the biggest contributor to his team's advancement to the semifinals.
Two days after the match, the Swiss Women's Premier League awards ceremony was held, with Zhang Linyan winning both the Player of the Season (Golden Ball) and the Eleven of the Season awards.
This is the first time a Chinese player has won this type of award in an overseas league.
More crucially, the Swiss Women's Premier League Golden Ball Award is organized by the players' union and voted for by the players of each team, and carries a lot of gold.
For the Golden Globe Award, Zhang Linyan admitted that she didn't expect to win.
"It was totally unexpected, at first I thought the guys on our team would vote for me, I didn't realize the guys on the other team would vote for me."
"It's probably because I'm smaller and have a distinctive skill set that impresses them more to end up winning the vote."
Many players congratulated her at the dinner following the awards ceremony.
"They all told me 'you're worth it' and that made me especially happy because it came from their own mouths."
What makes Zhang Linyan even more happy is that through this award, many Swiss people know that she is a soccer girl from China, and it also makes them understand the former glory of Chinese women's soccer.
"I realized that they knew very little about Chinese players, and subconsciously asked if Chinese players were generally like me, shorter and more technically subtle, and tended to play Japanese soccer. I told them that this is not the case, like the national teammates who came to Europe to train, there are also tall and strong types, all kinds of styles of players."
Up to now, Zhang Linyan has played 21 matches for the club, scoring 11 goals, and she has created a "Chinese women's soccer whirlwind" in the Swiss women's soccer world with her strength.
When Zhang Linyan decided to leave at the end of her contract, many of the team's staff and the local media expressed their dismay at Zhang Linyan, while some of her teammates told her they didn't want her to leave.
There is no doubt that Zhang Linyan's first foreign trip was a success, a perfect blossoming of the resounding rose in a foreign land.
And her success lies not only in the fact that she has conquered her opponents and fans with her strength, but also in the fact that she has integrated herself into the local soccer culture with her cheerful personality.
Of course, this kind of integration is not overnight, Zhang Linyan also said that she did not speak German at first, and only a little bit of English, and there is also a strong accent, but she dared to ask, dared to speak, keep asking, keep saying.
"Foreigners love it when you interact with them, and the more you interact the happier they will be to share with you, and the faster you will fit in. If you are too quiet and unwilling to communicate with people, others slowly may not try to help you. Only by showing your enthusiasm will people be happy to help and be nice to you."
In addition to total immersion, the solitude of a foreign land did not break her self-discipline.
During her stay, Zhang Linyan made a detailed schedule for her daily schedule, and on the refrigerator, she wrote this sentence:
"Go to bed at 10:30 and don't make yourself regret it!"
In addition, the more professional soccer environment in Europe also shocked Zhang Linyan.
Hundreds of fans watching the game, professional soccer stadiums, close interaction with fans, and the atmosphere of the derby, all of which Zhang Linyan has not felt in the domestic atmosphere.
And all these experiences and feelings will be her capital for a bigger stage in the future.
Bidding farewell to Grasshoppers at the end of the season, but Zhang Linyan won't stop chasing her dreams.
After playing with the national team in this year's Asian Games, World Cup and other major tournaments, she said she would like to continue to stay in the world, saying she aspires to the world of La Liga and would like to visit the English Premier League as well.
"There are a lot of domestic matches in the second half of the year, I want to focus on the national team now, and after that I can continue to play matches to keep my form when I return to Wuhan. I'm still young and I'll definitely have another chance to go out and stay in the ocean in the future. Whether I go to La Liga or the Premier League next, we'll see what happens."
Ten years ago, not long after kicking the ball, Zhang Linyan had expressed her most domineering goal in a tender childish voice during an interview:
"I'm going to surpass Sun Wen."
At that time, the audience was amused by her, and she now says that she was a child at that time.
But after having seen her past and present, after having seen her self-discipline and determination, who can deny that the goal of that year will not be the reality of the future?
