The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 495: Chapter 101: Worldie! Domain Skill: Controller! The Sorrow of the Glass Man! The Rookies’ First Champions League

At that, Shen Qinghe smiled at Wang Shuo.

"Who would’ve thought, right? That one casual tweet from you could bring in such incredible business value."

"Yeah, the internet is truly amazing! Isn’t our domestic Weibo account just reposting your Twitter content? Companies and brands are already proposing collaborations, offering to pay us just to post promotional content on Weibo."

"But we’re still deliberating on that part of the business."

Chen Jialin found it incredible as well.

Wang Shuo’s influence was growing exponentially, especially after the bet over the best player in the world. His fame had simply skyrocketed.

Nowadays, back in China, his popularity was even starting to overshadow Ronaldo’s and Messi’s.

More importantly, every party involved in this affair discovered that as long as they participated and rode this wave of hype, they could profit from it.

In fact, it wouldn’t even matter who ultimately won or lost.

"How did you even come up with that?" The more Chen Jialin thought about it, the more amazing it seemed.

This was likely the first time professional football had ever sparked such a massive internet storm.

And most importantly, with the proliferation of smartphones, the momentum the mobile internet had been building for years had finally, completely exploded.

"To be honest, I never really thought about it. I just casually shared it—posted a tweet."

As he said this, Wang Shuo looked over at Shen Qinghe. "It’s just like Xiao He told me before. She was the one who taught me how to send my first tweet. She said I should post more about my daily life, that fans love to see that kind of thing, so I went ahead and posted about the bet."

Shen Qinghe beamed. "General Manager Wang, please don’t say that. You’ve already become the student who surpasses the master."

"Not at all, it’s all because Teacher Qinghe taught me well."

Watching the two of them chatting and laughing, Chen Jialin felt a bit awkward.

’Why is he calling her Xiao He, while she’s calling him General Manager Wang? What’s up with them?’

’I really shouldn’t be in this car.’

"How are the talks with Adidas going?"

After the two of them reined it in a bit, Chen Jialin asked out of concern.

"No major issues. I’m deliberately stalling them right now." Shen Qinghe, for her part, looked completely confident of victory.

Wang Shuo was in a very favorable position right now.

What mattered most, however, was his performance going forward.

A player’s core value always comes down to their performance on the pitch.

To put it simply, as long as he performed well, both Nike and Adidas would be chasing him for a contract.

He might even be able to sign a lifetime contract in the future, securing his pension for after he retired.

Of course, across the entire global football scene at present, very, very few players were capable of securing a lifetime contract.

Wang Shuo still had to keep working hard.

Just like that Avenue of Stars he had seen at the Adidas Headquarters back then.

He had once made a wish that one day he, too, would be able to leave his own mark on that Avenue of Stars.

That once-unattainable dream no longer seemed so distant!

And he owed it all to football and the fans!

And for that, he would never let them down.

...

As the first English head coach in the German football scene, McLaren arrived to manage Wolfsburg, bringing with him the Eredivisie title he had won with Twente.

He abandoned the previous two-striker system, benched Griffith, and adopted a single-striker formation.

However, McLaren’s Bundesliga coaching career got off to a rough start.

In the first round, an away match against Bayern, McLaren adopted a 4-3-3 formation.

They conceded a goal just nine minutes into the game, but in the 55th minute of the second half, a Misimovic assist allowed Dzeko to equalize.

It wasn’t until stoppage time that Schweinsteiger scored the winning goal.

Wolfsburg suffered a narrow defeat at the Allianz Arena.

Back on their home turf, McLaren switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The attacking trident of Mandzukic, Dzeko, and Zianni remained unchanged. The Brazilian player Diego occupied the number 10 role in midfield, with two other Brazilians, Josue and Cicero, forming a double pivot behind him.

Danish center-back Kjaer, a transfer from Serie A, was one of McLaren’s favorite players. He was also a highly-touted defensive prospect known for his passing and ball control, hailed as the epitome of a modern ball-playing center-back.

This made VfL Wolfsburg a very potent attacking force.

Mandzukic and Dzeko, two towering forwards from the Eastern Europe region, exerted immense pressure on opponents up front. Meanwhile, Diego and Zianni, two players with superb individual skills, roamed around them.

Josue and Cicero were responsible for defense and interceptions.

Added to that was the center-back pairing of Barzagli and Kjaer.

Playing a 4-2-3-1 with a high defensive line, Wolfsburg had their best half-hour of the match.

They scored three goals against Mainz in quick succession.

Tuchel’s team looked completely lost on the pitch.

But once Tuchel and his Mainz side found their footing, they immediately adjusted. Mainz’s counter-attacks became even more threatening, especially after Schürrle came on as a substitute in the second half.

In the end, Mainz scored four unanswered goals to successfully complete a 4-3 comeback victory over Wolfsburg.

On the afternoon of September 11, before Dortmund’s third-round Bundesliga match at home against Wolfsburg, Klopp had specifically sought out Wang Shuo to discuss their opponent.

Klopp believed that McLaren was trying to replicate his success in the Netherlands.

"But this is Germany!"

The success of a head coach’s tactics ultimately depends on the players.

At both Twente and Wolfsburg, McLaren’s defensive philosophy involved aggressive forward pressing, especially from his two full-backs, who pushed very high up the pitch.

When defending, the two wingers, Mandzukic and Zianni, would both tuck into the middle, creating a numerical advantage in the center of the park.