The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 73 - 40: Flexing Muscles, Fighting for a Starting Spot! Wang Shuo: Coach, I’m Desperate to Score
Mainz also signed 29-year-old Hungarian left-back Zsolte Lővér from fellow newly-promoted side Hoffenheim.
The player was Hoffenheim’s starting left-back in the 2nd Bundesliga last season and performed well.
But now, Rangnick preferred Austrian international Ibertsberger, who had joined in January 2008.
With only one year left on his contract and unable to agree on an extension due to a lack of playing time, Lővér was sold by Hoffenheim to Mainz for 200,000 euros.
With Van der Heyden, Lővér, and Demetraz, Mainz now had three solid left-backs for the new season.
Most importantly, they had barely spent any money.
Up front, after the departures of Borja, Jovanovic, and others, Mainz spent 750,000 euros to sign 25-year-old Burkina Faso center-forward Aristide Bancé from Ukrainian club Donetsk Metallurgy.
As an African center-forward, Bancé possessed an incredibly impressive physique.
Standing at 1.92 meters and weighing 90 kilograms, he had solid technical skill, but his key strengths were his physicality and aerial dominance.
The player made a name for himself at Lokeren in Belgium, scoring 15 goals in a single season, which caught the eye of Ukraine’s Donetsk Metallurgy.
However, he never quite performed to standard in Ukraine.
In January, Donetsk Metallurgy loaned him out to Offenbach in the 2nd Bundesliga, where he tallied 4 goals and 1 assist in 10 matches, but also picked up 2 yellow cards and 1 red card.
Some said that the reason Offenbach was relegated from the 2nd Bundesliga was because Bancé got into a major altercation with an opposing player during a match against Borussia Mönchengladbach and was sent off with a red card.
He was subsequently handed an additional five-match suspension.
Therefore, even though Mainz had now signed him, he would be unable to play in the first two matches of the season.
After signing Bancé, Mainz’s forward line now consisted of Wang Shuo, Bancé, Balik, and the Montenegrin striker Bobagavats, who was brought in on a free transfer from Paderborn.
Bobagavats was only 1.69 meters tall, but he was very fast with excellent technical skills, capable of playing as a striker or on the right wing.
Additionally, 26-year-old German player Florian Helle, signed from Oer, was a versatile utility man. He could play right winger, right midfielder, and right-back, and could even fill in at left-back or in central midfield.
This player had a solid season in the 2nd Bundesliga last year.
After Offenbach’s relegation, Mainz also signed their 21-year-old center-back, Nico Bungert.
He was a center-back who had played for Germany’s various national youth teams.
Last season, Klopp had gone to great lengths to promote young players from the youth academy, but ultimately only four of them remained with the first team.
Wang Shuo was a given, of course.
The others were Schürrle, Kirschhoff, and Roman Neustadter, the son of reserve team coach Peter Neustadter.
Roman Neustadter was a center-back who had also been performing quite well.
Looking over all of Mainz’s summer transfers, Wang Shuo had only one assessment.
’Smart and frugal!’
Christian Heidel really knew what he was doing.
Getting big results on a small budget.
After all the hustle and bustle of the summer transfer window, Mainz’s roster was looking surprisingly solid.
Goalkeepers: Witeklo, Ischdonat, Dimo Wahe;
Defenders: (Right) Hogland, Demetraz; (Left) Marco Rose, Lővér, Van der Heyden; (Center) Subotic, Nico Bungert, Nowitzki, Roman Neustadter, Bo Svensson;
Midfielders: Hainauer, Kalhan, Pekovic, Gunkel, Kirschhoff, Damir Francic, Mario Franjić;
Forwards: Foyelner, Elgin Soto, Helle, Amri, Schürrle, Balik, Bobagavats, Bancé, and Wang Shuo.
...
On the day the team’s training camp officially began, the training ground north of Bruch Road Stadium was once again bustling with its usual energy.
With the team’s return to the Bundesliga, the level of attention from the media and fans was naturally on another level.
In the morning, as the players began to arrive, a large crowd of media and fans had already gathered outside.
As a hero of the team’s promotion and a key prospect Mainz was now heavily cultivating, Wang Shuo’s appearance drew a wave of enthusiastic cheers from the fans.
Among them were quite a few female fans.
This made Schürrle and Subotic, who were walking alongside him, quite envious.
’Boys will be boys, after all... heh heh...’
"Hey, Wang!"
"Hey, Marcus."
Having enjoyed a vacation of over a month, Foyelner seemed to be in high spirits.
"Wang, you got a tan," Kalhan said with a laugh as he walked over.
"And stronger, too," Wang Shuo replied with a smile, hugging Kalhan.
"I heard the three of you have been doing special training for the past month. You’re putting a lot of pressure on us old-timers."
"Training for over a month? Seriously?"
"How did I not hear about this?"
"You went on vacation with your girlfriend the second the break started. Of course you didn’t know!"
"Haha, I heard about it too. Those three kids really went all out."
"Looks like they’re aiming to snatch starting spots this season."
There were certain advantages to playing for a smaller club.
For one, while there was competition for starting positions among the players, it wasn’t overly intense.
This was especially true for a team like Mainz, which had a good mix of veterans and young talent, making for a pretty positive locker room atmosphere.
However, the newcomers were clearly having some trouble integrating.
That was perfectly normal.
The core of the current starting lineup was the same group that had battled through the 2nd Bundesliga last season.
Wang Shuo had already proven himself and earned their respect.
But all the other new signings, with the possible exception of Hainauer, still needed to prove their worth.
Upon hearing that Wang Shuo had spent over a month in special training, the expressions of Bancé and Bobagavats—both of whom were determined to compete for a starting spot—visibly hardened.
While Wang Shuo had been training hard, they had been on vacation.
Bancé took another careful look at Wang Shuo. Not yet 18, he had a tan, but he still didn’t have much muscle and didn’t look particularly strong.
This put the African player’s mind at ease.
While changing, he even made a point of taking off his shirt and pants and making a trip to the restroom.
It had to be said, the guy was absolutely ripped.
Wang Shuo was practically drooling with envy!
"If I had muscles like that, forget the Bundesliga, I could steamroll the Champions League!" Wang Shuo exclaimed to Subotic.
Subotic roared with laughter. "That’s a unique advantage for African players. No use getting jealous."
"He’s showing off those muscles on purpose. Did you see the looks on Balik’s and Bobagavats’ faces?" Schürrle snickered, gesturing with his chin and giving Wang Shuo a knowing look.
It was just like the old saying: when the top dogs fight, it’s the ones below who get crushed.
Wang Shuo was the rising star Mainz was carefully nurturing, while Bancé was the powerhouse forward they had just signed.
Balik had been a starter last season mainly because the team lacked other options. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
That was no longer a guarantee for the new season.
Klopp had even mentioned to Wang Shuo that he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of playing him on the wing.
After all, it was never a bad thing for a young player to be versatile.
If Wang Shuo moved to the wing and left the physical battles to Bancé, he could focus solely on his runs and attacking.
Of course, that line of thinking felt a bit like taking the easy way out.
Wang Shuo disdained such a thought.
Even in a head-to-head competition, he was confident he could outperform Bancé.
Besides, Wang Shuo had his own little plan.
This season’s Bundesliga was set to begin on August 16, but the DFB-Pokal started on August 8.
Mainz’s first-round DFB-Pokal match was an away game against fourth-tier side Baebesburg.
As mentioned earlier, Germany had reformed its league structure from the third tier down that summer. Baebesburg, originally a third-tier team, had been moved to the fourth tier.
But the team was by no means weak.
And for the first two league matches of the season, Bancé was suspended due to the carry-over punishment for his red card last season.
What Wang Shuo wanted to do now was seize this window of opportunity to firmly establish his advantage.
But it wouldn’t be easy.
The first league match was away against VfL Wolfsburg, and the second was at home against Frankfurt.
Wolfsburg had finished 5th last season and had spent over thirty million euros in net investment over the summer, signing stars like Italian center-backs Barzagli and Zacardo, and midfielder Misimovic.
Mainz’s spending didn’t even amount to a rounding error for them.
Frankfurt had finished 9th last season and had also invested heavily.
Neither of these teams was a pushover; both would be tough nuts to crack.
But Wang Shuo also wanted to use this opportunity to truly test the results of his special training.
It was also the perfect chance to see exactly where his own abilities stood!
