Chapter 48: Chapter 31: Ace Card

Klopp always arrived at the training ground right on time.

To his surprise, he didn’t see Wang Shuo anywhere near the training ground today.

That was a little unusual.

For the past while, Wang Shuo had been arriving an hour earlier than everyone else every morning for extra training, never once slacking off.

’What’s going on today?’

’Is he injured? Or sick?’

A little worried, Klopp quickened his pace and entered the training building.

He had just reached his office and hadn’t even opened the door when he saw Zeliko Buvac.

“Zeliko, come here for a second.”

Klopp opened the door and went into his office.

Buvac followed right behind him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you see Wang Shuo this morning?” Klopp asked with concern.

“Yeah, in the gym.”

“The gym?” Klopp paused what he was doing and turned to Buvac in astonishment.

“Busenkel came by looking for you just now. Said he had something important to discuss.”

“Axel? He’s at work already?”

Klopp found that even stranger.

As far as he could remember, Busenkel was the type of guy who wouldn’t work overtime even if the sky were falling.

He clocked in at 9 AM sharp every day and clocked out the second his shift was over.

’What’s going on today?’

’Everyone’s acting so strangely today.’

Just as Klopp was puzzling over this, Busenkel appeared at the doorway and knocked.

“Hey, Axel… what’s with you?”

In Klopp’s mind, Busenkel—a former fitness coach who had become their rehab coach and now managed the gym—had always kept himself in great shape and was always full of energy.

Most importantly, since he didn’t travel for away games, his routine was extremely regular.

But this morning Busenkel looked a bit listless.

Especially when he greeted them, he seemed drained and utterly dejected.

“What’s wrong with you? Fight with your wife?” Klopp asked casually.

Unexpectedly, Busenkel seemed to take offense and replied loudly, “No! We get along great!”

Klopp and Buvac exchanged a look. They both knew something was up.

As men who’d been there, they had a pretty good guess as to the real reason.

“So, what’s on your mind?” Klopp smiled, deciding not to press the issue.

Busenkel’s face was a mask of grievance. “It’s about Wang Shuo, of course.”

“What about Wang Shuo?” Klopp’s expression immediately turned to one of concern at the mention of his name.

He was Mainz’s most important core player right now, crucial to the team’s grand plan for promotion to the Bundesliga.

Busenkel immediately launched into a rapid-fire account of everything that had happened the previous night after the match.

Wang Shuo had indeed come for extra training and worked out for a full three hours before leaving, completely satisfied.

But they had agreed to meet again, and Wang Shuo showed up at 8 AM sharp.

Before Busenkel could finish, Buvac, standing to the side, couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

’This kid is unbelievable!’

’It’s one thing to grind this hard yourself, but to drag others into it with you?’

’And of all people, Busenkel?’

’A guy who puts his wife before anything else!’

’He’ll arrive on the dot, but never a second early.’

His skills were undeniable; otherwise, Klopp wouldn’t have hired him in the first place.

And over the past few years, Mainz had sent him to numerous training sessions and advanced courses to enhance his professional skills.

Klopp now fully understood Busenkel’s distress.

He usually started work at 9 AM, but Wang Shuo had shown up at 8.

And with Busenkel’s personality, could he really just ignore the kid and let him be?

“Hey, you two! Stop laughing and think of something!” Busenkel snapped, getting annoyed.

“He’s your player, so you need to handle him!”

That only made Klopp and Buvac laugh even harder.

“Fine, I’ll handle it.”

Klopp turned to Buvac. “Zeliko, arrange a detailed physical assessment for Wang Shuo right away.”

“Axel, you go too.”

“Me too?”

“Of course. Once the report is back, you’ll design a customized physical conditioning program just for him. Make it progressive, and don’t let him keep training blindly on his own.”

Klopp’s arrangement was perfectly reasonable, so Busenkel had no choice but to agree.

“And one more thing. I promise you, if we get promoted back to the Bundesliga this season, I’ll petition management to get you an assistant. Then you’ll be off the hook.”

Upon hearing this, Busenkel’s gloomy expression instantly brightened, and he broke into a radiant smile.

“But I have one condition,” Klopp said, his face serious as he looked at Busenkel.

“Name it, name it.”

“You have to help me keep a close eye on that kid, Wang Shuo.”

“Don’t worry, you can count on me.”

Busenkel left contentedly.

Before he left, he conferred with Klopp and they decided to give Wang Shuo a half-hour extra training session every morning, scheduled from 8:30 to 9:00.

This way he only needed to come to work half an hour early.

As for extra training in the afternoon and evening, that was out of the question.

At the age of 17, it was better not to train too hard.

After Busenkel left, Klopp turned to Buvac.

“Zeliko, you need to get on this too. Him training by himself every day isn’t a long-term solution. Let’s assign a coach to him.”

Buvac frowned, thought for a moment, and agreed.

“The first team is really short-staffed. If we do get promoted, we should bring Kramny up to the first team,” Buvac suggested.

If promotion failed, Klopp would leave.

He wouldn’t need to worry about these things then.

“I’ve already spoken to Heidel. Regardless of whether we get promoted, Kramny will join the first-team staff. He was the one who developed Wang Shuo, so he’s the most suitable person to work with him.”

From this, it was clear that Mainz was planning to invest all its resources into developing Wang Shuo.

Christian Heidel came from a business background and had a very sharp nose for opportunities.

He knew perfectly well that Wang Shuo was the kind of player who could be sold for a hefty price.

Klopp asked himself honestly: if he were to coach another team, he would want to buy Wang Shuo too.

The player was young, but incredibly effective, improved rapidly, and had a promising future.

“The U19 side has already found a replacement for Kramny.”

“Who?”

“Augsburg II’s head coach, Thomas Tuchel.”

Augsburg was fighting for survival in the 2nd Bundesliga this season, and their second team’s performance was even worse.

Thomas Tuchel had come up as a coach in the Stuttgart youth system and had also been a professional player, so his abilities were well-regarded.

“Let’s prepare well. We have to win this weekend’s match against Wein Wiesbaden!”

Klopp said with a look of pure determination.

The remaining three matches are all finals!

And Wang Shuo had become the ace up Klopp’s sleeve.

…

That weekend, in the 32nd round of the 2nd Bundesliga, Mainz hosted Wein Wiesbaden at Bruch Road Stadium.

In the 47th minute of the match, just into the second half, Wang Shuo suddenly darted out and stole the ball from Wein Wiesbaden’s center-back, Christian Gliebo, sending the entire stadium into an uproar.

After winning the ball, Wang Shuo sprinted straight ahead with it at his feet.

His speed got faster and faster.

The other center-back, Dajang Simaqi, scrambled back desperately and closed in on Wang Shuo. But the 26-year-old Croatian knew he had no chance of stopping him.

’Just let him charge into the box?’

’No!’

Simaqi made his move. Just outside the penalty area, he grabbed Wang Shuo’s jersey and yanked him to the ground.

The cheers at Bruch Road Stadium instantly turned into a cascade of boos.

“Red card! That has to be a red!”

“That center-back is shameless. Fouling at a critical moment just to stop Wang Shuo’s one-on-one.”

“He was the last man! It has to be a red card.”

“That’s right, if he hadn’t acted, Wang Shuo would have been in the box.”

“Wang Shuo’s been pretty unlucky tonight. In the first half, Mainz’s opening goal from a free kick came from a foul on him by the center-back, Gliebo.”

“After that he assisted Gunkel’s goal.”

“And now when he gets his own chance, he gets fouled again.”

“What rotten luck!”

“I see it differently. It proves that the 2nd Bundesliga teams are taking Wang Shuo more and more seriously, constantly tightening their defense on him.”

“The previous commenter is right. I agree. Wein Wiesbaden was clearly focused on defending against Wang Shuo in this match.”

“Who cares if he didn’t score? Wang Shuo’s performance today was brilliant enough!”

The referee, as expected, gave a red card.

Dajang Simaqi was clearly expecting it. After seeing the red card, he didn’t argue and simply turned and walked off the pitch.

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

Mainz now had a two-goal lead and was a man up.

As Wang Shuo took Foyelner’s hand and got up from the turf, he was in a pretty good mood.

He might have missed a clear goal-scoring opportunity, but the opponent had received a red card for it.

“Well done, Wang!” Foyelner slapped Wang Shuo firmly on the shoulder.

His young teammate’s performance was getting better with every match.

Most importantly, even if he was restricted and couldn’t score himself, he could find opportunities to contribute to the team and create chances for his teammates.

This was the biggest difference between him and Borja.

If Borja couldn’t score, his contribution was very, very small.

Just then, both Wang Shuo and Foyelner saw Klopp on the sideline, gesturing to him.

His two hands formed the number thirteen.

This was to remind Wang Shuo that he would be substituted around the 60-minute mark.

It was about the same for Foyelner.

If nothing major changed, he would likely be subbed off between the 65th and 70th minute.

The reason was simple: the next away match against Cologne was the real showdown.

Klopp and Mainz needed to pour all their resources and have the team in peak condition for that game.

Only by taking down Cologne would Mainz have a chance to overtake them on the league table.

With Klopp’s instruction understood, Wang Shuo and the other Mainz players began to slow the tempo of the game, playing more conservatively.

At the 64th minute, Borja came on as a substitute, replacing Wang Shuo.

In the 70th minute, Elgin Soto replaced Foyelner.

In the 76th minute, Balik assisted Kalhan, who made a forward run and scored against Wein Wiesbaden.

In the end, Mainz secured a resounding 3-0 home victory over Wein Wiesbaden.

Wang Shuo’s goal-scoring streak of three consecutive matches came to an end.

But after the match, Klopp once again singled him out. “Wang was the best player on the pitch today, out of everyone on both teams! He’s our sharpest weapon on the field!”

At that moment, everyone knew that, barring any surprises, Wang Shuo was guaranteed to be a starter in the decisive showdown against Cologne a week later.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep