The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 103 - 45: The Bundesliga’s Beckham! Wang Shuo: I’m Being Targeted by the Entire Bundesliga
The broadcast packages they were given were all for unattractive matches—the ones nobody else wanted.
Take this round, for example: Mainz versus Bielefeld.
Before the season started, this would have been a match that absolutely no one cared about, right?
But now?
Who could have imagined Mainz would actually be second in the league?
No, Mark Williams had noticed the live score of another match.
At the end of the first half, VfL Wolfsburg was already leading Hamburg 3-0.
In other words, after beating Bielefeld this round, Mainz would be returning to the top of the table.
It’s insane, right?
But since Premiere Television held Mainz’s broadcast package, of course they had to capitalize on it and promote them heavily.
More importantly, Mark Williams was well aware that News Group had already made a decision: in March 2009, Premiere Television would be officially rebranded as German Sky Television.
This was a sign they were gearing up for something big!
As the CEO of Premiere Television, Mark Williams needed to seize the moment, produce better results as quickly as possible, reverse the current downturn, and increase his influence in the new company.
Young, handsome, skilled, with an outstanding performance record. Plus, he was brand new—a fresh face practically dripping with youth!
"Thomas, I need you and all the teams to go full throttle. Give me everything you’ve got and push him hard!"
"I’m going to make him the Bundesliga’s Beckham!"
As an executive at a News Group subsidiary, Mark Williams knew all too well just how much benefit Beckham alone had brought to the entire corporation during his years in the Premier League.
If he could really build Wang Shuo into a star, even if he only achieved half of what Beckham did, they would make an absolute killing.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Wang Shuo had to keep performing exceptionally well.
But Mark Williams decided to place his bet now, to get ahead of the curve.
If he waited until Wang Shuo had already proven himself, the opportunity would be long gone.
Arena Television, Bild, the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, and other German media outlets were no pushovers.
...
"WOOHOO!!!"
On the team bus heading south from Bielefeld, the Mainz players erupted in a collective cheer.
The roar was so immense it felt like it might send the speeding bus careening out of control.
Startled, the driver gripped the steering wheel even tighter, terrified of causing an accident.
But the next moment, the driver started cheering along with them, emphatically laying on the horn.
Drivers in passing cars probably wondered, ’Is the Mainz bus driver going through puberty?’
So rowdy!
But everyone’s excitement was for good reason.
After their 1-0 away victory against Bielefeld, Mainz was back at the top of the Bundesliga table!
Surprised?
Shocked?
No one could have imagined that North King Hamburg, the previous league leaders, would suffer a crushing 0-3 away defeat to VfL Wolfsburg this round, getting kicked clean out of the top four. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
In a single round, they plummeted from first place to outside the top four!
The other promoted dark horse, Hoffenheim, was even more incredible.
Playing at home, they beat the Dortmund team coached by Dom 4-1, thanks to a brace from Ibisevic.
Another massive upset!
Even Bild found it hard to believe.
This season, the Bundesliga’s promoted teams are trying to defy gravity!
Fortunately, the other promoted team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, put in a dismal performance, losing 0-1 at home to Hertha Berlin and severely dragging down the average for their fellow newcomers.
But the biggest, most shocking upset of the round was Bayern Munich’s crushing 2-5 home defeat to Werder Bremen.
What’s more, they only managed to claw back two goals in the final stages of the match after having already conceded five.
It was a complete and utter rout!
Full of ups and downs, twists and turns—who doesn’t love a Bundesliga like this?
Most importantly, after five matches, Mainz had four wins and one loss, earning them 12 points and putting them back in the top spot.
Right behind them was Schalke 04 with 11 points.
Hoffenheim, Stuttgart, and Hamburg all had 10 points.
Bayern?
They were all the way down in 9th place.
Klopp was so excited he looked like he wanted to do a striptease.
However, you win some, you lose some.
Wang Shuo scored again in this match, extending his scoring streak to five consecutive Bundesliga games.
For a rising star of only 18, this was absolutely incredible.
Unfortunately, however, he had been surpassed on the top-scorer chart.
Ibisevic scored a brace, raising his league goal count to six.
Bayer Leverkusen’s Helmes scored a hat-trick during their 4-0 home demolition of Hannover 96, also bringing his goal tally to six.
Currently, Ibisevic, with two assists, ranked first on the top-scorer chart, with Helmes in second.
Wang Shuo, with his five goals, could only rank third.
Still, Wang Shuo wasn’t disappointed.
He was only 18, after all.
Ibisevic and Helmes were both 24.
Wang Shuo had absolute confidence that in two or three more years, he would definitely be better than them!
...
Mainz Returns to the Top of the Table!
This immediately became another bombshell story for the German media.
Although Wang Shuo had lost his top spot on the scorer’s chart, by scoring the crucial goal in the 1-0 victory over Bielefeld, he once again became the focus of the German media’s reporting and attention.
But much of the praise had already been sung to death in previous weeks.
This time, the German media came up with a new angle.
They started making comparisons.
An 18-year-old scoring in five consecutive opening rounds.
Forget the Bundesliga—looking across all of the Five Major European Leagues, what other young rookie could accomplish that?
Bild listed several of the hottest young rookies in the European football scene, those born in ’89 or ’90.
