Free Web NovelChapter 487: Chapter 100: The Fourth Crown: No Need for Ronaldo and Messi
It was precisely because of the foundation he had already laid that this casual post went viral.
"Right now, all the major players are getting involved. Look at the German Football Association, the German Professional Football League, and even our own Dortmund—aren’t they all trying to ride this wave of hype?"
"Aren’t La Liga, the Champions League, and UEFA all cashing in on it too?"
"Also, Eevee is a social media guru. He just transferred to AC Milan, and the Milan Sports Daily asked him about it last night. His response was, ’Can I get in on this?’"
Everyone immediately burst into laughter.
This wave of hype had been engineered with incredible success.
The entire affair was not only entertaining, but more importantly, the gimmick was fantastic. Plus, every party involved got what they wanted.
And no one really lost anything in the process.
Just as France Football Magazine commented on Twitter, "The era of social media completely influencing the world of sports has arrived!"
"I’m telling you, what’s coming next is a massive, sustained amount of attention. Every match, every training session, countless eyes from all over the world will be watching, helping you count your goals, and then starting an argument about it."
When something that started out like a game or a joke becomes a public event, it’s no longer something anyone can control. You can only ride the wave.
Wang Shuo saw this trend too.
For instance, the media in Spain had always been split into two camps: Catalonia and Madrid.
They usually fought among themselves, but whenever Wang Shuo was mentioned, they united and aimed their fire outward.
Meanwhile, the German media was uniformly blasting the Spanish media.
The media in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and other countries were all quite envious.
Especially in the United Kingdom.
After looking all around the Premier League, they realized there was no one who could step up and compete with the trio’s goal count.
Rooney?
Don’t be ridiculous. Fatty Lu’s goal-scoring efficiency was actually just average.
And let’s not even talk about Serie A.
Wang Shuo had already scored 7 goals in the first 2 rounds.
Who could possibly match that scoring rate?
"Wang, besides Twitter, how are things on other platforms?" Götze asked with great interest.
"In my home country, my follower growth on Weibo is much faster than on Twitter. I’ve already surpassed ten million."
"Over ten million?" Everyone was stunned.
At the time, no account on Twitter had over ten million followers yet.
"Yeah, and there’s Facebook too. I just got a message from my assistant. Facebook contacted our team and invited us to join the platform. They said there’s a huge number of active football fans on Facebook, and the commercial value is extremely high."
The data Facebook provided showed that they currently had over 1.3 billion users, 500 million of whom were dedicated football fans.
Wang Shuo had registered a Facebook account before, but he hadn’t put much effort into managing it.
He wasn’t exactly a social media guru; it was Shen Qinghe who had first recommended he use Twitter, which was how he learned to use it.
But to his surprise, even though he hadn’t posted much of anything on Facebook, his follower count there had also skyrocketed overnight.
In truth, Wang Shuo felt quite lucky.
Previously, he had taken Shen Qinghe’s advice and started building his own media team.
Although it only consisted of three people, they were all very experienced.
Shen Qinghe was now rushing back to Dortmund overnight to lead the team. They needed to capitalize on this wave of engagement and take Wang Shuo’s social media presence to the next level.
To say nothing of anything else, after just one night, Wang Shuo’s follower count on Twitter was already the highest in the entire football world!
Interestingly, Ronaldo’s and Messi’s follower counts were also growing rapidly.
Ronaldo even secretly sent Wang Shuo a text message.
"If I’d known you could gain so many followers just by making a bet, I would’ve picked a fight with Messi ages ago!"
Wang Shuo laughed. "You should worry more about scoring goals. I’m already at seven."
"What’s the rush? Just you wait!"
Another message quickly followed. "You’d better worry about Inter Milan."
Wang Shuo smiled and turned off his phone.
Before, he would have felt that Ronaldo and Messi were worlds away.
But after interacting with them last night, he realized they weren’t so untouchable after all.
In private, they were just like anyone else.
Messi didn’t say much and was more low-key and reserved, while Ronaldo had a more high-profile, flamboyant personality.
Everyone has friends like that.
...
"For the match against Inter Milan, we’re sticking to our original game plan!"
They were playing Inter Milan that night, so Klopp had to work quickly to lay out his targeted tactics.
There wasn’t even any time left to drill them.
"Tonight, right from the kickoff, we’re going to press high and fast, looking to score as early as possible."
"Our main point of attack will be Inter Milan’s two full-backs."
Klopp went on to explain why they were targeting the full-backs.
After Benitez took charge of Inter Milan, he wasn’t given the authority to make major signings.
To a certain extent, Inter Milan gave Benitez very little support.
In the past few seasons, whether it was Mancini or Mourinho, the club had spent a considerable amount each summer.
The two players Benitez wanted to sign were Kuyt and Mascherano.
In the end, neither of them came.
This was also the weakest link in Inter Milan’s current squad.
The wingers and the defensive midfielders.
Both Benitez and Mourinho used a 4-2-3-1 formation, but their philosophies were different.
Mourinho’s defensive line usually sat deep, but Benitez liked to employ a high line.
"I’ve studied the Italian Super Cup match between Inter Milan and Rome over and over. Take a look at this."
Klopp played a clip from the match and hit pause.
The clip was paused at the exact moment Rome won the ball and launched a counter-attack.
