The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 141 - 50: Great Comeback! Hat-trick! Another Record
After the team was dismissed, major news outlets began publishing their stories, most of them focusing on the match.
The German media was also hoping a Bundesliga player could win the award.
Why?
The European Golden Boy Award had been given out five times to date. Aside from one instance where it went to Van der Vaart of Eredivisie’s Ajax, the remaining four awards were split evenly between the Premier League and La Liga, with each league taking two.
Ironically, Italy, home to the award’s founding publication, *Torino Sports Daily*, had yet to produce a winner.
Of course, this was also because Italy hadn’t produced any dazzling new talents in recent years.
Pato and Balotelli were both considered strong contenders for the award.
However, both young players had run into some issues in the new season.
As it stood, Arsenal’s Walcott, Manchester United’s Anderson, and Barça’s Boyan seemed the most likely candidates.
Atletico Madrid’s Aguero?
He’d already won it last year.
He was still eligible this year and would be part of the selection process, but it was highly unlikely he would win again.
This was a sort of unwritten rule.
The same thing had happened to Fabregas.
Meanwhile, the Bundesliga’s influence was waning, and it had virtually no superstars with a world-level impact.
Ribery?
He was certainly a strong player, but at best, he was considered European-level.
That was why the German media was so eager for Wang Shuo to win the award.
Coincidentally, at this critical juncture for the Golden Boy Award selection, Wang Shuo’s hat-trick not only helped Mainz mount a comeback against Hoffenheim to stay atop the Bundesliga table, but it also gave the media the perfect ammunition to build him up.
There’s a right way to build a star, after all!
And so, after Matchday 14 concluded, Germany’s major media outlets mobilized, all reporting in unison on Wang Shuo breaking the historical record.
This also marked the first time in history that Wang Shuo had appeared on the front pages of major publications like *Bild*, *Kicker Magazine*, *Süddeutsche Zeitung*, and the *Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung*.
Leveraging the German media’s influence, his name quickly spread across the globe.
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After Matchday 14 of the Bundesliga, Mainz completed a 3-2 comeback victory over Hoffenheim.
Wang Shuo’s 15 goals brought him level with Ibisevic.
Awkwardly enough, however, Wang Shuo still only ranked second on the top scorer chart.
This was because Ibisevic had seven assists to Wang Shuo’s five.
A few other matches from this round also caught Wang Shuo’s attention.
First up was Bayern.
The Bundesliga titans’ performance this season had been rather erratic, blowing hot and cold.
This matchday was no exception.
They were off their game for the first half-hour, with Cottbus scoring first at the Allianz Arena.
But they then fired back with four unanswered goals to overturn the result.
VfL Wolfsburg defeated Stuttgart 4-1 at home, also staging a comeback after conceding the first goal.
All four of Wolfsburg’s goals came in the second half, with both Griffith and Dzeko scoring a brace.
’That dual center-forward partnership was terrifying,’ Wang Shuo recalled. ’It looks like they’re starting to find their form.’
Werder Bremen, who had beaten Mainz in the previous matchday, lost 1-2 away to Hamburg in this round.
As the voting for the European Golden Boy Award drew closer, Wang Shuo began to feel the pressure.
After 14 matches, Mainz sat at the top of the table with 32 points from 10 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses.
Below them was Hoffenheim with 28 points.
Bayern also had 28 points, but they were in third place.
The reason was that Bayern’s goal difference was surprisingly worse than Hoffenheim’s.
So far this season, Hoffenheim was the highest-scoring team, with 37 goals.
Mainz had only scored 26 goals, fewer even than traditional powerhouses like VfL Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen in ninth and tenth place, who had both netted 32.
And of those 26 goals, an astonishing 15 were scored by Wang Shuo.
He also had five assists.
In other words, Wang Shuo alone had orchestrated 20 of Mainz’s goals.
His importance was plain to see.
Bayern had scored 33 goals, the third-most in the Bundesliga, but had conceded a whopping 21.
Hoffenheim had conceded 20.
Mainz had conceded only 16.
However, the team with the best defensive record in the Bundesliga so far was Schalke 04, having conceded only 13 goals.
Luten’s team had only scored 22 goals.
For Mainz, however, it was far too early to celebrate.
Matchday 15 was an away match against Hertha Berlin, who were currently fourth in the Bundesliga.
Matchday 16 was a home game against sixth-place North King Hamburg.
The final match of the first half of the season would be against Bochum.
The next two matches would undoubtedly be a major test for Mainz.
Especially as the season wore on, other teams were gradually figuring out how to play against Mainz.
Moreover, as winter set in, the temperature in Germany dropped lower and lower.
Mainz’s form, too, was growing colder.
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"Mainz and I have mobilized every resource at our disposal."
"*Bild*, *Kicker Magazine*, and *Süddeutsche Zeitung* have all promised to push for you with all their might. Both the German Football Association and the German Professional Football League have also clearly stated their support."
When Wang Shuo returned to his rented apartment, his agent, Thomas Essien, was already waiting for him.
He was there to give Wang Shuo the latest update.
"According to our sources at those three publications, your biggest competition right now is coming from the Premier League."
"Walcott and Anderson?" Wang Shuo guessed.
’Boyan really wasn’t getting much of a chance under Guardiola.’
"That’s right. The British media is pushing hard for them. You should know, South American players tend to have an advantage in these kinds of award selections. And Walcott, being English, is also a favorite."
