[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills":3,"chapter-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-121":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},483873,734,"Chapter 121 - 47: European Golden Boy Award! Is He Really Wang Shuo? The Bundesliga’s Biggest Change in a Decade","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-121",121,"\u003Cp>Just look at the ticket prices in the Bundesliga. They still have cheap standing-room tickets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The broadcasting fees are low, too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of the three main revenue streams, commercial income is negligible for Mainz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ticket revenue isn’t high, and broadcasting fees aren’t high either. You can imagine their predicament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On top of that, the German Professional Football League has very strict financial regulations with regular audits. If a club goes into debt, it’s a huge problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, what’s the solution?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sell players, of course!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They’re not thinking of selling me, are they?\" Wang Shuo said with a wry smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’I should be worth a few million euros by now,’ he thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Didn’t Bayern offer 5 million euros for me before, only for Mainz to refuse?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I don’t know. It depends on the buyer, and on whether Klopp can fight to keep you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klinsmann complains about not having transfer authority at Bayern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In reality, that’s the norm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Bundesliga, transfer authority is usually held by the general manager or sporting director. The head coach can only make suggestions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo reflected, scanning the current Mainz roster. The only players who could command a high price were himself and Subotic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Foyelner?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guy hadn’t even finalized his contract renewal with the club. He might even leave on a free transfer next summer when his contract expires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that situation?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How much could they possibly get for him?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To be honest, besides Bayern, no other team in the Bundesliga is competitive right now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The only commendable thing is their financial stability.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But look at Transfermarkt, a website created by us Germans. Not a single Bundesliga player makes the top 10 most valuable players. In the top 20, you’ll probably only find Ribery.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then look at the overall business side. Did you know? The Bundesliga’s television broadcasting rights only go for 20 million euros a season, sold to Arena Television, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then, the Bundesliga’s naming rights and internet multimedia broadcasting rights were bundled together and sold for a mere 40 million euros.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of that adds up to just 60 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And a portion of that has to be shared with the Football Association, the 2nd Bundesliga, and youth development programs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How much money does each Bundesliga team end up with?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And while there are other sources of income, you also have to consider investments and expenditures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take youth development, for example.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>German youth development has been praised all over the world in recent years, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But since 2002, German clubs have had to invest a huge amount of money each year to build up their youth academies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youth development investment for the 18 Bundesliga teams has grown from 48 million euros in 2002 to nearly 80 million euros today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The television broadcasting fees aren’t even enough to cover that cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the German government, the Football Association, and local governments all subsidize youth development.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the clubs still bear the brunt of the cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, television rights have been undervalued, resulting in lower revenue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what could they do?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Kirch Group went bankrupt, Deutsche Telekom was left as the sole dominant player.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Premiere, a channel under News Group and a sister company to Sky Sports, is Germany’s largest pay-TV channel, but it stands no chance of competing. It can only get a subcontract from Deutsche Telekom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Oh, right, Deutsche Telekom is that giant \"T\" on the front of Bayern’s jerseys.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo was only just beginning to make a name for himself, but he could already see the ceiling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz was destined to be a stepping stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Wang Shuo believed the Bundesliga was, too!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before making that leap, Wang Shuo had to give it his all, using every resource at his disposal to constantly improve himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both his skills and his influence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thomas, do you think I have a chance to compete for the Golden Boy Award?\" Wang Shuo asked, concerned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The award’s influence was in a strange spot—not massive, but not insignificant either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But right now, the internal conflicts at Bayern were the main focus of the German media.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The 40-man shortlist?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who cared?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Wang Shuo had been thinking about it constantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That’s really hard to say.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thomas Essien was a bit surprised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the first time he had seen Wang Shuo so clearly reveal his ambition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, he considered it a good thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Napoleon said, a soldier who doesn’t want to be a general is not a good soldier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The same held true in the world of football.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But any award is ultimately decided by people.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In Germany, three media outlets are involved in the voting: Bild, Kicker Magazine, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And whenever the media is doing the voting, there’s always room for influence. The powerhouse clubs definitely have an advantage.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Look at the last five winners: Van der Vaart from Ajax, Rooney from Manchester United, Messi from Barça, Fabregas from Arsenal, and Aguero from Atletico Madrid.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Which one of them wasn’t heavily backed by a top team?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Ajax, the least imposing of the group, is a famous European powerhouse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, from the moment he debuted, Van der Vaart was hyped as the next Cruyff, hailed as the Dutch golden boy and a future leader of the national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s similar to how the Germans view Bayern’s Thomas Müller.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Players from powerhouse clubs have a clear advantage. If you want to contend for it, you have to deliver a performance that’s impossible for anyone to ignore.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo understood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simply put, he had to make everyone feel that the award would lose its authority if it wasn’t given to him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So what if Mainz wasn’t famous enough to give him a boost?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t matter. The club could become famous because of him!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hearing what Thomas Essien had to say, Wang Shuo knew what he had to do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had already accumulated 61 Passive Value points.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could exchange them for another Passive Skill Card.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During their meeting today, besides discussing all this, Thomas Essien had another piece of news for Wang Shuo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had successfully brokered a second collaboration between Huairun Football School and Adidas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first stop for the trials would be Mainz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the player coming was Wang Shuo’s best partner from his time in China, the midfielder Zhao Yifan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo talked Thomas Essien out of his plan to go speak with Tuchel about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That guy has a bit of a weird temper. If you’re the one to bring it up, it might backfire. It’s better if I find a chance to mention it to him.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thomas Essien thought it over and agreed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo was on pretty good terms with Tuchel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was strange. Tuchel, with his foul temper, didn’t seem to care for anyone, yet he had a particular fondness for Wang Shuo.\u003C\u002Fp>",1146,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.829Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","ceaa92322489e9838ef7d6a47eb112245f1096ba692743994a7263eee2a3e1f5","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-17","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-16",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]