Chapter 3: Cottbus Offers an Annual Salary of 650,000 Euros?

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“Boss, honestly, this guy is absolutely the most gifted prodigy I’ve ever seen!” Mirno exclaimed as he operated the computer, speaking to Old Ma.

“You hold him in such high regard?” Old Ma’s interest was immediately piqued upon hearing his assistant of over ten years praise the young player from the youth team, Lin Hao.

After all, Mirno’s greatest strength has always been his sharp eye for talent. Several excellent substitutes on their team were scouted by him from German second-division clubs.

“Boss, seriously! Not only does this guy stand at a perfect height of 1.88 meters, but his ambidextrous shooting technique alone is remarkable! Look, this is his first goal in the Asian Youth Championship opener.”

“First, the awareness to drop back and pull the defense, then the quick, clever forward runs...”

In the office, Magath and Mirno watched all of Lin Hao’s goals and his orchestrated assists leading up to the final.

Magath, who had previously regarded Lin Hao merely as an 18-year-old U20 forward, now truly understood why his assistant called him a super genius.

Indeed!

An 18-year-old with perfect height and physicality, excellent heading skills, and ambidextrous shooting ability, whose passing also stands out among youth players—several goals by the Chinese youth national team were solely created through Lin Hao’s organizing from deep positions.

Having even one or two of these abilities would be enough to secure a place in a professional team, but this 18-year-old possesses all of them!

That’s utterly astounding.

In today’s world football, mainstream forwards are either target men like Drogba or top strikers like Ronaldo or Adriano, who can single-handedly change the course of a match.

A well-rounded forward like Lin Hao, who excels at everything, has never appeared before!

Sure, Magath had heard rumors about a so-called cursed runner-up unable to win championships and such.

But as a pure-blooded German, Old Ma could never believe in curses!

“God! I... I almost missed this!!!”

After carefully studying Lin Hao’s characteristics a second time, Old Ma suddenly slapped his thigh.

“Boss, the more I watch... this guy... the more he looks like a genius with unlimited potential.”

“Get him to report to the first team tomorrow!”

“Ah? Tomorrow?”

“Yes! There are fewer than ten days left!”

“But...”

“Sign him first, talk later!”

...

At the club, Magath had already decided to bring Lin Hao into the first team.

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Meanwhile, back at his apartment, Lin Hao, who had just returned home, quietly logged into the system that had been updated for nearly a day.

Sure enough, the long-anticipated new version of the system finally appeared before him.

The character model was still the same as before, surrounded by Lin Hao’s current stats and maximum thresholds.

As for the data, Lin Hao truly didn’t care much.

What he wanted to know most was whether that annoying debuff he had was removed with the version update.

However...

To Lin Hao’s frustration, the damn debuff from his Kane template was still there!

Although... the debuff remained, but!

The template section!

Originally only one slot was available, but now an additional vacant area had appeared.

Hiss!!!

A vacant slot???

Upon reflection... after the system update, could it mean that his originally single template slot could now be doubled?

Like... the soon-to-be world-trending smartphones... dual SIM dual standby?

This...

Damn it!

After enduring that dreadful debuff for so long, Lin Hao finally saw hope completely.

With a second template slot, he thought maybe he could activate the secondary card before the finals?

If so, maybe he could finally grab the championship for himself?

Damn!!!

At last, Lin Hao roared out in complete release.

After venting, Lin Hao turned to look at his current personal stats.

Attack: 78 (93)
Ball Control: 75 (85)
Dribbling: 80

Passing: 75 (82)
Shooting: 82 (95)
Heading: 77 (88)

Set Pieces: 70 (80)
Curved Shots: 72 (80)
Speed: 80 (82)

Foot Power: 80 (82)
Jumping: 78 (85)
Physical Contact: 83 (88)

Stamina: 84 (88)
Defense: 51
Tackling: 55

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Overall Rating: 78
Age: 18

An overall rating of 78—how to put it? Among youth players, this is absolutely top-tier. Most importantly, Lin Hao’s potential ceiling can push the overall rating up to an extraordinary 92.

Thanks to points earned from matches and daily training, Lin Hao’s stats grow far faster than others.

So, after checking his stats, Lin Hao immediately invested all the match points accumulated from six Asian Youth Championship games into attack.

Uh... awkward!

Six games, five of which were top-notch performances, yet Lin Hao only accumulated 24 match points.

No choice; the competition level in the Asian Youth Championship was truly too low!

At a ratio of ten match points per attribute point, after more than ten days of effort, Lin Hao finally boosted his attack to 80!

With that done, Lin Hao exited the system.

Almost at the same time, Old Gaisen, who had packed Lin Hao’s belongings, entered with several documents in hand.

“Lin! It’s time to make a decision! You no longer need to play in the third German division. Several second-division clubs want you, with Cottbus showing the strongest sincerity. Because of your compatriot Shao, they are very willing to buy you and form the Chinese twin stars of Cottbus.”

“Of course, besides Cottbus, Hertha Berlin, Aachen, and Munich 1860 are also interested!”

...

As he spoke, Old Gaisen handed Lin Hao the dossiers of those clubs, along with their salary offerings and contract details.

Looking at Cottbus’s nearly €650,000 annual salary, Lin Hao was indeed tempted.

Playing football was a dream, but his parents back home were still working hard, so naturally, he wanted to earn more to ease their burden.

As for why Lin Hao didn’t buy Bitcoin or invest or gamble?

Simply because he didn’t understand any of that. Besides, his meager U20 salary wouldn’t allow him to do such things!

“Um... Mr. Gaisen, how about negotiating with Cottbus?”

“Hmm! Good, Lin. I also think Cottbus suits you best. They have a chance to promote to the first division, and they are very friendly toward Chinese players. With Shao there, I believe you can quickly integrate into the team!”

Outside the window, the night had grown deep.

An old man and a young man sat together at the table, analyzing their futures.

But neither knew that an early morning phone call the next day would shatter all the hard work of the entire night...

...