There was a one-week break between Matchday 34 of the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal final.
But in reality, it wasn’t quite that long.
Because the final was in Berlin, Mainz had to travel there early to get familiar with the stadium.
These were all routine pre-final procedures.
For Mainz, from the managent and coaching staff all the way to the players, this was basically a first-ti experience for everyone. They had no experience whatsoever.
In the end, the club mobilized everyone from top to bottom to voice their opinions and suggestions, trying to figure out what needed special attention and how to handle the pre-final preparations.
As an 18-year-old "youngster" who had been in Germany for less than a year and a half, Wang Shuo naturally didn’t have to worry about such things.
After returning to his apartnt, he turned on his computer, and his QQ app, which was running in the background, started chiming. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
[Green Grass by the Field] had sent him a photo along with so words of congratulations.
The photo was of him celebrating at Bruch Road Stadium, clearly taken from the stands.
And it was taken from very close up.
’Holy shit, he was sitting that close?’
’How did I not notice?’
"You ca to Mainz and didn’t even tell ? Let treat you to a al."
After sending the ssage on QQ, Wang Shuo read it over and couldn’t help but laugh.
He wasn’t sure when it started, but treating people to als had beco more and more natural for him.
He had to admit, the more you experience, the more you grow.
When he first arrived in Germany, Wang Shuo didn’t know or think about anything besides training.
But now?
He got along well with his teammates and had made quite a few friends.
Oh, right. On Lina Gerk’s suggestion, he had also started his own YouTube account. He usually just posted highlight reels and videos of his best plays, leaving it all for Thomas Essien to manage.
But that guy was completely unreliable, only working on it in fits and starts.
Wang Shuo didn’t mind, though.
For a football player, performance on the pitch was what truly mattered.
"How could I trouble you with everything, my idol?" [Green Grass by the Field] replied.
Wang Shuo smiled.
Over the past few days, he had occasionally chatted with Old Cao on QQ, purely to check on the progress of the fan tour group.
"By the way, idol, we’ve tallied it up on our end. About 150 people will be coming to Berlin to watch the match."
"That many?"
Wang Shuo was astonished.
"Not all of them are coming from China. So are students who are already in Europe."
"You know, Chinese football has always been weak. We’ve never even made it to the World Cup finals. Of all the players who went to play abroad in the past, none of them achieved great success. It’s a rare thing for you to make the DFB-Pokal final, so everyone is thrilled."
When Wang Shuo read that, he felt an unexpected pang in his heart.
He thought of Coach Gao, Coach Ma, and Jiang Pengju.
"I called Coach Gao earlier and asked if he wanted to co to Europe to watch my final."
"Really? Is he coming? I’ll go pick him up," [Green Grass by the Field] replied instantly, sounding excited.
"He didn’t agree to it."
As he typed that out, Wang Shuo felt a wave of sadness.
He knew Coach Gao was unwilling to co because he didn’t want to cause trouble for him.
In fact, ever since Wang Shuo had co to Germany and started to make a na for himself, Coach Gao had been intentionally or unintentionally distancing himself. He wanted to prevent his own foul reputation back in China from affecting Wang Shuo.
Wang Shuo really wanted to tell him that he didn’t care.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Zhao Yifan was doing pretty well with the Mainz U19 team.
Even if he couldn’t secure a spot on the Mainz first team in the future, he should have no problem playing for a club in the 2nd Bundesliga, or even another Bundesliga club.
In the future, other players from Huairun Football School would continue to go abroad.
Wang Shuo was the pioneer, the trailblazer. The better he did, the wider the path he paved for others, and the easier the journey would be for those who followed.
Coach Gao had once said sothing to Wang Shuo over the phone.
"Every generation has its own responsibilities. I’m doing what I must do."
"In the future, when my work is done, it will be your turn."
"Wang Shuo, my only hope is that when that ti cos, you will be brave enough to shoulder the burden and forge ahead!"
Wang Shuo didn’t actually know what Gao Huairen was planning, but he felt it had to be sothing incredible—sothing that would completely transform Chinese football.
Lost in thought, Wang Shuo didn’t say anything for a long ti.
Just when he thought [Green Grass by the Field] was about to end the conversation, another ssage suddenly popped up.
"Have you ever used Twitter?" he suddenly asked.
"Twitter?"
"It’s a social dia app the Aricans ca up with. I just started using it myself."
"Is it like QQ?"
"Nope, it’s pretty weird."
"How so?"
"You can only use a few characters for each ssage."
"So what do you do?"
"I don’t know. Just write whatever, I guess."
Wang Shuo thought for a mont, then pulled out his iPhone, went to the App Store, and sure enough, he found Twitter.
With the help of [Green Grass by the Field], he registered an account.
But he still hadn’t figured out what to write for his first post.
’140 characters... that’s so few!’
"Hello, World, I’m Wang Shuo."
Wang Shuo burst out laughing. "This is so bizarre!"
Since he couldn’t think of anything, he decided to put it aside for now.
However, as soon as he registered, he gained a follower: Green Grass by the Field.
As it turned out, the account was registered as female.
"Hey, buddy," Wang Shuo asked, puzzled, "why do you always register your accounts as female?"
About two or three minutes later, he replied with a smiley face. "It’s fun."
User Comments
0 comments from readers