Chapter 42 - 27: Super Scout, You Misjudged

Wang Shuo scored again!

Promoted from the U19s to the first team, he had played twice for Mainz’s first team and scored in both matches!

As Mainz’s youngest goalscorer in history, Wang Shuo was starting to attract the attention of the fans.

Upon returning to Mainz and arriving at Bruch Road Stadium, two to three hundred fans were already there, chasing the team bus and shouting.

"Go, Mainz!"

"Back to the Bundesliga!"

"Great job, keep it up!"

The fans grew even more excited when the players started getting off the bus, shouting their names.

Kalhan, Foyelner, Nowitzki, Subotic, Pekovic...

To Wang Shuo’s great surprise, when he poked his head out of the bus, the crowd erupted in cheers.

"Wang!"

"Wang Shuo!"

"Keep it up, Chinese kid!"

"Way to go, Wang!"

Wang Shuo was still on the steps of the bus door when he heard the fans’ shouts. He froze for a moment.

He truly hadn’t expected the Mainz fans to remember him.

As he got off, he smiled and waved to the fans.

’Yeah, I can feel it. I’m still a bit awkward with this.’

’After a few more times, I should get used to it.’

"How’s it feel? Pretty good, huh?" Subotic asked with a smile, walking beside Wang Shuo.

Thanks to Wang Shuo’s excellent performance, Subotic had also scored a goal, so he was in a great mood.

"Right now, all I can think about is getting some rest. We have another match on Wednesday."

Anyone could see that Wang Shuo was in a great mood.

Just like the bright, sunny weather.

Because of the 2008 European Cup, all the leagues had to compress their schedules.

Even the 2nd Bundesliga.

Due to the winter break, there were still four rounds left in the 2nd Bundesliga.

All matches were required to be finished before May 18th.

Thus, the 31st round was scheduled for midweek.

Their opponent for this round was Kaiserslautern.

The competition in the 2nd Bundesliga was actually very fierce.

Out of a total of 18 teams, the top three were promoted to the Bundesliga, while the bottom four were relegated to the German Third Division.

Although Kaiserslautern had managed a 2-1 comeback victory at home against Aachen in this round, they were still ranked 15th.

Exactly fourth from the bottom.

One could imagine that in the 31st round, Kaiserslautern would fight Mainz with everything they had.

Wang Shuo’s memory of Kaiserslautern was mostly tied to the "Kaiserslautern Miracle" from years ago.

But who would have thought that in just ten short years, the team that created a miracle would not only fall from the Bundesliga back to the 2nd Bundesliga but also be struggling to avoid relegation.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Subotic was a starter for Mainz and performed exceptionally well.

In reality, he was only 19 years old.

Aside from the captain, Nowitzki, he was the first person in the locker room to talk to Wang Shuo, and they had the best relationship.

As the two of them walked into the training building side by side, they saw Borja wasn’t heading back to the locker room with the main group. Instead, he was heading straight for the head coach’s office, following Klopp.

"I’m guessing he’s going to ask for more playing time."

Subotic nudged Wang Shuo with his shoulder and gestured with his chin toward the head coach’s office.

Wang Shuo had guessed as much.

"What can I do about it?" Wang Shuo retorted with a smile.

True.

Even though he was on loan, Borja was Mainz’s top scorer this season.

There was no way he’d be completely benched just because Wang Shuo had performed well in the last two rounds, right?

’If I were the head coach, I’d also try to keep Borja happy in this situation.’

Just as Buvac had said before, a head coach needs to properly manage every player’s playing time.

"Right now, I’m just focused on doing my part and working hard to improve my skills!"

Subotic believed him.

But he clearly didn’t know that when Wang Shuo talked about working hard to improve, it involved not just training, but also the Ball God System.

In the match against Osnabrueck, thanks to their "iron bucket" formation, Wang Shuo had been kicked quite a bit.

It was painful and sometimes infuriating, but when he reviewed the match afterward, he had earned a full 9 Passive Value points.

His accumulated Passive Value had now reached 47 points.

With just 3 more points, he could get another Passive Skill Card.

Although he hadn’t collected enough Passive Value yet, Wang Shuo had already made up his mind.

’I’m going to use it for a draw this time, too.’

’What if I hit the jackpot?’

...

That night, Wang Shuo returned to his rented apartment and first checked the German newspapers and websites.

There wasn’t much coverage about him.

The Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, which had many readers in the Mainz area, gave him a small section of coverage.

The headline was: Youngster Scores in Consecutive Matches, Mainz Secures Two Straight Wins!

Compared to last time, the description of Wang Shuo was slightly more detailed.

But there wasn’t even a photo.

The report in Bild had even less content than when he had caught Bayern’s attention.

It couldn’t be helped. Bayern was the real traffic-driver in German football.

Other papers like *Die Welt* or the Süddeutsche Zeitung basically paid no attention to the 2nd Bundesliga, let alone Mainz.

However, Wang Shuo did see himself in the Second Bundesliga highlights on TV.

In contrast to the generally muted reaction in Germany, when Wang Shuo logged onto Chinese websites with his laptop, he found the response back home was much more enthusiastic.

The major portal websites, in particular, had placed his consecutive goals on the front page of their sports sections, making it very prominent.

Seeing this gave Wang Shuo a secret thrill of satisfaction.

Especially when he saw the comments under the news articles, where many fans were praising him for being handsome.

’The eyes of the masses are indeed sharp!’

’As the resident pretty boy for Mainz, it’s a title I’m not about to give up.’

This reminded Wang Shuo of the Frankfurt U19 head coach, Oscar Corochano.

Wasn’t he the one who, because Wang Shuo was handsome, suggested he go to England and emulate Beckham?

The strange thing was, just as Wang Shuo thought of Corochano, the Nokia on his desk suddenly rang.

It was a call from his agent, Thomas Essien.

"Wang, I have some good news for you."

"Frankfurt’s sporting director, Brueckgen, has accepted Oscar Corochano’s resignation."

"What? He resigned?" Wang Shuo was stunned.

Whether Corochano resigned or not had absolutely nothing to do with Wang Shuo.

It was mainly because he had just been thinking about Corochano, and then suddenly received this news. It was inevitably a bit surprising.

"What happened?"

"Who knows?" Thomas Essien laughed.

He wasn’t actually a full-time agent, so Wang Shuo was his only client.

This made him pay special attention to Wang Shuo.

He was very supportive of Wang Shuo’s performance at Mainz.

When Wang Shuo mentioned that Borja had gone to see Klopp again, Thomas Essien told him to be mentally prepared.

"You’re only 17, after all. Whether it’s to placate Borja or to protect you, my guess is that Klopp will choose to start Borja in the midweek game."

Wang Shuo had already expected this.

Subotic had warned him about it earlier.

"However, Kaiserslautern are no pushovers. They’ve only conceded 33 goals in 30 matches, giving them the third-best defense in the 2nd Bundesliga. That’s only two more than Mainz and one more than Borussia Mönchengladbach."

Who would have thought that a team with such an excellent defense would now be in the relegation zone.

The main reason was their terrible goal-scoring ability.

They had only scored 29 goals in 30 matches, the second-worst in the 2nd Bundesliga.

The worst was Paderborn.

But looking at it from another angle, for Kaiserslautern to maintain such a high level of defense with such a garbage offense, just how strong must their defense be?

Thomas Essien was implying that given Borja’s recent form, he might not be able to get any advantage against Kaiserslautern.

"You still need to be ready. If the attack is struggling for a while in the first half, there will definitely be a substitution in the second half."

Even without his agent telling him, Wang Shuo would give it his all.

...

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

When Bayern’s chief scout, Wolfgang Dreimler, once again knocked on General Manager Hennes’s office door, he could already guess the awkward situation he was about to face.

After Hennes called for him to enter, he walked in and was startled to see the scouting report he had previously submitted lying on Hennes’s desk. A photo of Wang Shuo was attached to the cover.

"You misjudged this one, my friend," Hennes teased his good friend with a smile.

Dreimler was a bit embarrassed.

But the Bayern general manager wasn’t about to let him off the hook. He opened the scouting report and started reading aloud.

"As I stood outside the training ground on the north side of Bruch Road Stadium and watched a full training session of the Mainz first team, I knew that Mainz had unearthed a very impressive young killer."

"And that is Wang Shuo from China."

When he reached this part, Hennes couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Dreimler became even more embarrassed.

Because he still clearly remembered that in the report, he had described Wang Shuo’s characteristics and style of play in detail.

He had praised Wang Shuo for his extraordinary speed and explosiveness.

"This tireless young forward likes to start pressing actively from the opponent’s half."

"His intelligent runs allow him to avoid excessive entanglement with defenders, making up for the disadvantage in physical confrontations caused by his lean physique."

"He is not a tactical center-forward, more like a Ranger in the Black Forest."

In this report, Dreimler had also mentioned that Wang Shuo’s fundamentals were average and his footwork was rather crude.

"Look at this... ’rather crude’..."

Hennes pointed to this part of the report, shaking his head and chuckling.

Dreimler was also extremely embarrassed.

Anyone who had seen yesterday’s Second Bundesliga match would never believe this report came from Bayern’s chief scout.

Wasn’t this just nonsense?

Given Wang Shuo’s performance—taking on three players to win a free kick in a dangerous area—’crude technique’?

"I know, it’s too late for me to say anything now..." Dreimler said with a string of bitter smiles.

He had really screwed up this time.

But he also found it very strange.

Because when he had watched Wang Shuo for a full training session, his technique really was quite average.

By Bundesliga standards, especially Bayern’s standards, calling it crude was not an exaggeration at all.

But who knew that Wang Shuo would suddenly pull something like that.

’Could it be... he was doing it on purpose that day?’

"Alright, alright, Wolfgang. I’m just joking with you. I’m not trying to assign blame. Everyone misjudges things sometimes, right?"

As he finished, Hennes couldn’t help but chuckle again.

Dreimler found it hard to keep a straight face.

’A joke?’

’Are you sure you’re not mocking me?’

"The reason I called you here is that I want you to keep a closer eye on this kid. I think he’s quite good, a promising young talent."

When it came to business, Hennes stopped smiling.

Dreimler nodded. "I’ll arrange for someone to scout him again."

"Track him."

"Track him?"

Tracking meant long-term observation.

This was something Bayern only did for players they were very optimistic about.

"We’re keeping an eye on him, and other teams surely are too. If Mainz fails to get promoted this season, Klopp probably won’t be the only one leaving," Hennes said lightly.

This was the tragedy of a small club.

Dreimler understood what Hennes meant.

The level Wang Shuo had displayed in the last two matches was indeed very high.

It was not inferior to Thomas Müller’s.

But the most important thing was his potential.

Wang Shuo’s rate of improvement was too fast. You could almost say that with every match he played, he took a huge step forward.

That was the most impressive part.

No one knew just how far a player like him could develop.

And Bayern couldn’t possibly let a player like this slip through their fingers to another Bundesliga team.

"I understand."