Nesta headed the ball clear, but it went high without any distance.
Several players fought for the second ball as it bounced toward the edge of the penalty area, but before it could even reach halfway, Su Hang threw himself into a bicycle kick and sent it back.
The ball ripped into the net.
Four–three!
Real Madrid delivered a last-gasp winner against AC Milan!
They successfully defended the Champions League title!
Su Hang, who scored twice, and Kaka, who finished with two goals and one assist, both received the highest match ratings—but the Man of the Match was unquestionably Su Hang.
Real Madrid created a Champions League miracle, becoming the first team since the competition's restructuring to defend the title successfully!
With sixteen goals and five assists, Su Hang claimed the Champions League Golden Boot and Best Player awards for the second consecutive year!
But Real Madrid's season was far from over.
On May 26, La Liga Matchday 36, Robinho returned from injury.
Su Hang scored twice to secure all three points for the team.
Meanwhile, Barcelona collapsed and lost their match.
That meant Real Madrid needed just one more point from their final two games to secure the La Liga title.
...
June 9, La Liga Matchday 37.
Real Madrid traveled away to face Zaragoza.
This was Su Hang's lucky opponent.
His very first appearance for Real Madrid had come against this team.
His first La Liga title with Real Madrid had also been sealed by a big win over them.
And this time… there were no surprises.
Su Hang scored twice to lead the team to victory.
Real Madrid clinched the La Liga title one round early!
At the same time, Su Hang raised his single-season La Liga goal tally to thirty-nine, surpassing the thirty-eight-goal records held by Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra and Real Madrid icon Hugo Sánchez—rewriting history.
...
June 17, La Liga Matchday 38.
Su Hang finally took a rest, sitting out the match and letting the records be.
Even so, the high-spirited Real Madrid side still defeated Mallorca.
The La Liga season came to an end.
With thirty-nine goals and five assists, Su Hang perfectly embodied the meaning of a goal machine.
He unquestionably claimed the European Golden Boot!
His numbers were untouchable.
...
June 23 marked Real Madrid's final match of the season.
The Copa del Rey final.
It was a completely one-sided contest.
Facing a Real Madrid side that had already secured two major trophies, Barcelona's mentality visibly collapsed—especially after Su Hang opened the scoring with a thunderous long-range strike in the ninth minute.
In the end, Su Hang completed a hat-trick!
Zidane scored twice and delivered two assists!
Beckham, Raul, and Van Nistelrooy all got on the scoresheet!
Real Madrid crushed Barcelona 8–2, letting them taste humiliation firsthand.
Real Madrid became European treble winners for two consecutive years!
They completed a La Liga three-peat!
They won the Copa del Rey three times in four years!
A true trophy-harvesting machine!
Earlier in the season, they had also claimed the Spanish Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Club World Cup.
Count it all up—another six-trophy haul.
Yes, some trophies could technically be counted twice. As long as they were happy, that was all that mattered.
Su Hang's individual statistics this season were even more terrifying.
Sixteen goals in the Champions League.
Thirty-nine in La Liga.
Eighteen in the Copa del Rey.
Seven in the Club World Cup.
Five in the Spanish Super Cup.
Three in the UEFA Super Cup.
Seventy-eight goals in total!
Twenty-one assists!
One hundred and nine goal contributions in a single season!
Completely unprecedented.
For a time, Real Madrid stood nearly invincible across all of Europe.
But after invincibility came total disintegration.
...
On June 25, Zidane held a grand retirement ceremony at the Bernabéu.
Stars and celebrities filled the venue.
Su Hang personally invited Jennifer to co-host the ceremony with him.
The King of Football officially retired.
Soon after, Beckham announced his move to LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer.
His performances in the second half of the season with Real Madrid had been sensational, attracting offers from Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, and other giants.
In the end, the Americans were forced to pay eighty million dollars—three "franchise tickets," one each for Zidane, Su Hang, and Beckham.
After that, Carlos's contract expired, and he left on a free transfer to Fenerbahçe in the Turkish league.
Of the original seven Galácticos, only a handful remained.
Emerson also moved to AC Milan, with more than sixty percent of Real Madrid's star players departing.
The club entered a new round of recruitment.
Robben, Pepe, Sneijder, Heinze, Metzelder, Dudek, Saviola, and Drenthe were all signed.
Baptista returned after his loan spell ended.
On the surface, it looked like a clean and complete transformation.
But the powerful defensive midfielder Essien—specifically requested by Su Hang—never arrived. Instead, Real Madrid continued stockpiling attackers.
This was because, during the offseason, the media reported that Su Hang had stopped training.
In previous summers, Su Hang had always trained relentlessly.
But after this season ended, he did the opposite—traveling, sightseeing, and enjoying himself.
He also turned down several charity exhibition matches.
If the former could be explained as him finally learning to relax, the latter made no sense.
After all, Su Hang had always been extremely active in charity matches, much like Zidane, rarely refusing invitations.
Some media began speculating that Su Hang's body might be in trouble.
Tempted by money, a mole within Su Hang's team leaked information, claiming his back injury carried a serious risk of recurrence and that his career could be cut short entirely.
This was precisely why Calderón scoured Europe for a top striker.
That summer, he even contacted Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimović, Tevez, Huntelaar, and Henry—both rising stars and established legends.
But with Su Hang still at Real Madrid, every one of them declined the offer.
...
In August, Real Madrid began preseason training.
Su Hang did not report back.
He personally held a press conference, revealing the truth: his back injury had relapsed, he needed time to recover, and he would not be able to return to the team anytime soon.
Real Madrid fans grew anxious.
Calderón, however, was delighted. He immediately dismissed Simon and appointed his favored head coach, Schuster.
The fans were furious.
Yet, to everyone's surprise, Su Hang made no public statement at all.
This convinced Calderón that Su Hang's injury was serious enough to keep him from contributing.
During the preseason friendlies, Real Madrid performed well, using a string of big wins to make fans forget about Su Hang and Simon.
But when the Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup arrived, Real Madrid suffered consecutive defeats, missing out on the chance to defend a five-trophy haul.
Once the new season began, Real Madrid's form fluctuated wildly, leaving them second in the league.
Robben, in particular, thrilled fans with dazzling performances and constant highlights.
Then he got injured.
After finally returning, he played only two matches before getting injured again.
This collapse led to Real Madrid finishing third in their Champions League group and dropping into the Europa League.
In the Copa del Rey, careless squad rotation saw them eliminated as well.
Half a season in, Real Madrid looked like a shell of its former self.
Only then did people begin to miss Su Hang.
But after six months, everyone knew his injury had worsened.
Even if they longed for his return, it was unrealistic.
All they could do was hope for reinforcements in the winter transfer window—or dream of signing Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka next summer.
Under Calderón's narrative, Su Hang's massive salary became the main reason Real Madrid could not strengthen the squad.
Discontent toward Su Hang began to surface.
Even some of the new signings felt it was unfair that Su Hang did nothing yet still earned the highest salary on the team.
Others wanted higher status and pay.
They admitted Su Hang had once been great—but last season was already history.
Nothing would ever return to the way it was.
...
By late November, the Ballon d'Or ceremony arrived.
Su Hang's achievements over the past year were undeniable—whether it was contributing to ninety-nine goals in a single season or leading the team to defend their treble.
Even though he had not played a single match in the second half of the season, he still won the Ballon d'Or without controversy, claiming it for the second year in a row.
Zidane, having retired, was nominated for the Ballon d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award and excluded from the official rankings.
Kaka, who had led his team to the Champions League final the previous season, won the Silver Ball.
Cristiano Ronaldo, whose individual numbers exploded as he led Manchester United back to the Premier League title and into the Champions League semifinals, finished third.
In the group photo, Su Hang stood in the center, his achievements the greatest.
Yet most eyes were drawn to the two players beside him.
This ceremony felt less like Su Hang's coronation—and more like the opening act of the era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka.
...
By late December, the FIFA World Player of the Year ceremony was held.
Su Hang won by an overwhelming margin, claiming the award for the first time and reaching the pinnacle of individual honors.
At the same time, it marked the lowest point of his actual playing strength.
The mismatch between reputation and form meant that even as he lifted the trophy, he endured countless cold stares.
Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo finished second and third once again.
At the same age, one was still rising—while another had already begun to fall.
Some media outlets even started using Su Hang as a negative example, writing him into cautionary case studies.
While Su Hang held both awards, Calderón revealed his ruthless side.
He demanded that Su Hang complete a contract extension before the winter break.
But calling it an extension was misleading—it was essentially a renegotiation.
The terms were brutally harsh.
The contract was only three years long, with a massive pay cut.
Previously, Su Hang's base salary had been close to eight million euros.
Under Calderón's offer, it dropped to just two million—roughly the level of an ordinary first-team starter.
Even then, Calderón felt generous.
In his view, paying Su Hang for another three years was already a waste.
More importantly, Su Hang's original super contract still had three years remaining.
Why would Su Hang ever sign this?
Before long, Calderón spread the story everywhere, smearing Su Hang's name.
He claimed Su Hang spent his days traveling and enjoying himself, doing nothing—yet still collecting eight million euros a year from the club.