[{"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-144":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},483912,734,"Chapter 144 - 51: A High-Quality New Idol! A Transformative Upgrade! I Want to Become the World’s Strongest Player","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-144",144,"\u003Cp>In 2005, before Messi won the European Golden Boy Award, he had signed a global sponsorship deal with McDonald’s. The contract was worth 560,000 British Pounds, which was about 850,000 euros at the exchange rate back then.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this time, Wang Shuo’s sponsorship deal was for a staggering 1 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, back then, Messi hadn’t even signed with Pepsi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Wang Shuo had signed two contracts at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To everyone’s surprise, the media soon revealed that after Adidas signed Wang Shuo as a global ambassador, the annual sponsorship fee was 1.5 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With these three contracts, Wang Shuo was bringing in 3.5 million euros a year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was that a lot?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to Europe’s first-tier superstars, it really wasn’t that much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the key was that Wang Shuo was just an 18-year-old rookie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bild posited that as the only Chinese player currently playing abroad in Europe—and performing so outstandingly with a chance to win the European Golden Boy Award—Wang Shuo was becoming a new, exemplary idol for China!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the same for players like Nakata Hideyuki in Japan and Park Jisung in South Korea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But those were just small countries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, nearly everyone was certain that in 2008, China’s GDP would surpass Germany’s to become the third largest in the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The value inherent in a population of 1.4 billion was staggering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In China, KFC had about 2,500 locations, which was only about a tenth of its global total.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But China had the fastest growth rate and was set for aggressive expansion in the coming years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Whether it’s KFC, McDonald’s, Pepsi, or Coca-Cola, using sports marketing to enter a target country has always been part of their standard playbook.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Signing Wang Shuo for such a hefty sum is, without a doubt, a huge bet on the Chinese market!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bild believed that as long as Wang Shuo could maintain his current form, more and more multinational brands would come knocking on his door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo found some time to read the article and strongly agreed with its analysis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To him, it felt like a reward from his homeland!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, it only strengthened his resolve.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to work even harder; he absolutely could not let down everyone’s expectations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>News of Wang Shuo’s sponsorship deals spread quickly through the Mainz squad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone was incredibly envious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what could they do?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had the mighty nation of China behind him, an advantage the others could only dream of.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take Subotic, the second-most valuable player on the team. Forget about him choosing to represent Serbia; even if he had chosen Germany, a player with his background wouldn’t receive much attention there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A rookie like Schürrle barely got any attention, so what chance did he have?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hainauer was in an even worse position. He was from Hungary; how much commercial value could he possibly have?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And as it turned out, the tradition of making the big earner treat everyone was quite common in Germany, too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Led by Subotic and Foyelner, the players all started clamoring for Wang Shuo to treat them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo was easygoing about it and agreed on the spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He promised to treat everyone to a nice meal after they returned from Berlin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Amri piped up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why wait until we get back? Let’s just do it in Berlin. I know some good spots.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Amri’s suggestive winks and glances, well, they were all men. Who didn’t know what he was getting at?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Berlin was, after all, a world-famous paradise for nightlife.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The word was there were plenty of women from Eastern Europe and Ukraine, and they were especially \"talented.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Captain Nowitzki walked over and gave him a solid thwack on the top of his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wang Shuo and Andrei are only eighteen! Don’t you dare infect them with your bad habits!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amri didn’t dare say another word, quickly apologizing and begging for mercy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone roared with laughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this time, Mainz’s away game in Berlin was anything but smooth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The daytime temperature in Berlin was hovering around zero degrees Celsius, but the match was scheduled for 7:30 PM.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The temperature plummeted to below freezing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Berlin’s Olympic Stadium had under-soil heating, so the pitch itself wouldn’t freeze. The problem was that the air inside the stadium was incredibly humid and stuffy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just how bad was it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The match hadn’t even started yet. By the time Wang Shuo and the others came off the field from just the pre-match warm-up, they were already drenched in sweat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When they took off their jerseys, they could wring streams of water out of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By November, injuries had begun to pile up within the Mainz squad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While none were serious, they were still a major nuisance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, Gunkel had just returned to training and hadn’t even had time to regain his form before Kalhan got injured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For this match, Klopp chose to field the young Kirschhoff.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the 24th minute, it was Kirschhoff who failed to cover the top of the arc in time. Hertha Berlin’s forward, Volosin, laid the ball off for Chal, a midfielder making a run from deep, who unleashed a furious strike that broke through the Mainz goal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz continued to employ their high-press tactics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, their form was a far cry from what it had been at the start of the season, and as a result, the tactic was less effective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just before the first half ended, during stoppage time, Wang Shuo received a brilliant pass from Foyelner. He first dropped back before making a sudden forward run, collected the ball, and used his individual skill for a Breakthrough past Hertha Berlin’s center-back, Arne Friedrich, before scoring against Hertha Berlin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Equalizing the score just before the end of the first half was undoubtedly a huge boost for Mainz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Things looked even bleaker in the second half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially after the 70-minute mark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp made three substitutions in quick succession in the 70th, 74th, and 78th minutes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was to no avail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the 86th minute, Mainz’s defense made another mistake.\u003C\u002Fp>",1010,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.829Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","917fb8af0c134dbb65b842b0d50122c6bca3ce229ff095138dce8ce1b5e3202d","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-33","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-143",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]