[{"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-72":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},483758,734,"Chapter 72 - 40: Flexing Muscles, Fighting for the Main Role! Wang Shuo: Coach, I’m So Desperate to Score","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-72",72,"\u003Cp>But it sounded pretty damn impressive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Germany National Team, on the other hand, had battled their way through the European Cup, ultimately reaching the final.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lővér’s team came up against a Spain coached by Aragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp believed it was a victory for holistic football!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The four semifinalists in this year’s European Cup—Lővér’s Germany, Trim’s Turkey, Hiddink’s Russia, and Aragon’s Spain—all play holistic football!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Just like Rehhagel’s Greece four years ago!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tuchel deeply agreed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when it came to the European Cup final, his opinion differed from Klopp’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tuchel believed Aragon would win because Spain’s passing and possession were stronger, and that was the future of the sport.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp, however, supported Lővér’s Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And just like that, the Mainz first-team head coach and the newly arrived U19 head coach were at odds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the day of the final, under pressure from Klopp and Tuchel, Wang Shuo had no choice but to pause his training and watch the live broadcast with them as a witness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Spain defeated Germany 1-0 thanks to a goal from Torres.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo wasn’t surprised that Spain won. Instead, it was some of Tuchel’s ideas that intrigued him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, what he really marveled at was Torres.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’That guy is so damn lucky!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Iniesta, Fabregas, Harvey, David Silva, Harvey Alonso...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’So many playmakers feeding him the ball!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo then thought about Mainz...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Coach, I want to score goals so badly!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone burst out laughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp couldn’t help but laugh and chide, \"Don’t worry, I’m already working on it. We’ll definitely sign a playmaker this summer!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But we have a deal. Once you have a playmaker, if you still can’t score, don’t blame me for throwing you on the bench.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo thumped his chest, making a guarantee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After his special training, he could feel his skills had improved, giving him more confidence for the new season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But cruel reality dealt the unfortunate Mainz a heavy blow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The players Klopp wanted to sign most were Hamburg’s Zidane and Nuremberg’s Bosnian midfielder, Misimovic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last season in the Bundesliga, the guy made 28 appearances, scoring 10 goals and providing 3 assists.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The season before that, he made 30 appearances, with 7 goals and 10 assists.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was a master at both scoring and assisting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what was the result?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz scraped together the funds and managed to meet Nuremberg’s asking price of 4 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Misimovic ran off to VfL Wolfsburg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wolfsburg was a big club and could play in the UEFA Cup.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz’s negotiations with Hamburg for Zidane also fell through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hamburg said, \"We spent 6.5 million to buy him from you a year ago.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"His performance wasn’t great, but his value wouldn’t have depreciated that much in just one year.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their asking price was 4 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz refused, thinking it was too expensive. They were only willing to offer 2 million euros at most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hamburg was livid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Those bums in the 2nd Bundesliga are all a bunch of paupers!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, by the time the summer training camp was about to begin, the playmaker Klopp had promised was still nowhere in sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tragedy of small clubs is that they are truly poor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But being poor doesn’t mean you have to accept your fate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This summer, Mainz had raised a large sum of money specifically to sign Misimovic from Nuremberg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But they failed to sign him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The transfer for Zidane also stalled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bayern was unwilling to loan out Tony Kroos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Mainz spent 1.25 million euros to sign the 28-year-old Hungarian midfielder, Thomas Hainauer, from Karlsruhe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Schürrle, to be able to sign Hainauer, Mainz offered him an annual salary of 2 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, after joining, Hainauer became the highest-paid player on the Mainz squad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he deserved it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the last Bundesliga season, Hainauer made 32 appearances, scoring 8 goals and providing 9 assists—an outstanding performance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in the 06\u002F07 season, he had helped Karlsruhe get promoted from the 2nd Bundesliga to the Bundesliga with 7 goals and 11 assists in 32 matches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This actually reflected a characteristic of the German professional leagues at the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gap in quality between the top teams in the 2nd Bundesliga and the bottom teams in the Bundesliga wasn’t very large.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, a player like Hainauer, who excelled in the 2nd Bundesliga, could still do well after moving up to the Bundesliga.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, Hainauer’s market value was 4 million euros, but because his contract was about to expire, he was sold for only 1.25 million euros.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Correspondingly, the salary Mainz offered had to be relatively higher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After signing Hainauer, Klopp was in a great mood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The team finally had a playmaker!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other summer transfer news, Borja ultimately did not get a contract from Mainz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ecuadorian forward’s performance in the second half of last season was truly hard to put into words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most importantly, aside from scoring goals, he couldn’t offer the team much else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides Borja, other attackers like Jovanovic, Dam, and Diakite also left the team one after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two left-backs, Markov and Landka, also chose to leave, and on free transfers at that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was because they hadn’t been getting any chances to play last season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp would rather play Demetraz than let them on the field.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Marco Rose had torn a ligament, and after surgery, his recovery was nowhere in sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, Mainz chose to sign the 32-year-old Belgian veteran Peter Van der Heyden from VfL Wolfsburg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Van der Heyden was very experienced. Since joining VfL Wolfsburg in ’05, he had been the main starter on Wolfsburg’s left flank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lost his spot last season due to injury, and combined with his age, he became a free agent after his contract expired this summer.\u003C\u002Fp>",965,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.550Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","f924bcef23cd3a466cf441cb8593cdd15a89f2c9dde27ae1f4c59bcdcc8022e7","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-73","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-71",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]