The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 415 - 89: Faster Than Messi! Who Dives Anyway? Crazy Atletico Madrid! Klopp: Wang Shuo, I Absolutely Love You

Besides, if one of the giant clubs got involved, Dortmund would be at an even greater disadvantage.

The situation with Bayern and Ribery was a perfect example.

It all started when Ribery began negotiating a contract extension with Bayern, prompted by issues over Luca Tony’s annual salary.

In the summer of 2009, after Florentino took over Real Madrid, he set his sights on signing Ribery. As a result, Bayern’s contract negotiations with Ribery have stalled and remain unresolved to this day.

And now, Barça has also entered the fray.

You might think it’s no big deal if they haven’t reached an agreement. The player is still under contract, so he can’t leave anyway.

But it’s not that simple.

When renewal talks drag on for a year, the player’s contract becomes a year shorter. This means the club has far fewer bargaining chips and significantly less leverage during negotiations.

In the end, they’ll inevitably have to offer a higher salary package.

This is the game played between clubs and players.

Chairman Laubal’s public call for a swift contract renewal was precisely to prevent other powerhouse clubs from getting involved.

Of course, an approach like Ribery’s would definitely displease the fans.

Generally, if a player genuinely wants to stay, both sides will negotiate in good faith, meet somewhere in the middle, and successfully renew the contract.

Wang Shuo was likely the latter type.

...

In the end, Dortmund defeated Atletico Madrid 3-2 at home, thanks to Wang Shuo’s two goals and one assist!

But this match felt more like a Pyrrhic victory!

Although the Atletico Madrid players lost the match, when the final whistle blew, they clearly weren’t too depressed or unhappy. Instead, they all seemed quite pleased.

To them, perhaps, losing 3-2 but securing two away goals was an excellent result.

As for Dortmund, although they had won at home, giving Atletico Madrid two away goals meant the second leg at Madrid’s Calderon Stadium would be full of uncertainty.

But no matter what, they had still won!

As Wang Shuo and his teammates did their lap of appreciation, they were met with enthusiastic cheers from the fans in the stadium.

This was Dortmund’s first season since their restructuring!

Klopp had not only brought a completely new tactical philosophy but also several new players, including a core player like Wang Shuo.

With an average age of 23, no one at the start of the season would have expected Dortmund to achieve anything.

But now, they were still leading the Bundesliga and had reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League.

What was there to be dissatisfied about?

After the lap of appreciation, Wang Shuo and his teammates returned to the locker room.

Klopp also came in and said a few words.

They were mostly words of encouragement and affirmation.

He also expressed his full confidence for the second leg in a week’s time.

Klopp left for the post-match press conference, while Wang Shuo and the others stayed behind to shower and change.

Sitting in his spot, Wang Shuo wasn’t satisfied with the match’s result.

It wasn’t that he was unhappy with anyone in particular. He simply felt the result was unfavorable for Dortmund.

If Wang Shuo’s guess was correct, Klopp would surely rotate the squad for the upcoming 32nd league match, an away game against Nuremberg. He would want to concentrate all their forces for the decisive battle at the Calderon Stadium in a week.

Having made it to the semi-finals with such difficulty, they had to give it their all to reach the final!

Besides, Dortmund had more or less already locked up the Bundesliga title.

With that thought, Wang Shuo entered the Ball God System.

"Post-match summary. Passive Value acquired: 9 points."

Wang Shuo went to the Personal Attribute Panel, checked his Passive Value, and saw it was exactly 58 points.

He immediately shifted his focus to the giant football.

He quickly selected the pentagon where the Passive Skill [Spiritual Light] was located.

"Use 50 Passive Value to upgrade the Passive Skill [Spiritual Light] from Regional Level to National Level?"

Wang Shuo chose "Yes" without hesitation.

[Spiritual Light], [Insight], and [Eagle Eye] were all Regional Level.

They were all part of Wang Shuo’s upgrade plan.

But for now, Wang Shuo chose to prioritize upgrading [Spiritual Light].

Because what he most urgently needed to improve right now was his attacking ability.

The effect from [Spiritual Light], "Capture fleeting opportunities," was more useful to him right now than [Insight] or [Eagle Eye]. It would be a greater help.

Once he saved up enough Passive Value, Wang Shuo would definitely upgrade these other two passive skills.

As for [Breathing], he was severely lacking in Passive Value at the moment, so upgrading this passive skill would have to be put on hold.

’Gotta use your best resources where they’ll have the most impact!’

After the upgrade was complete, Wang Shuo exited the Ball God System.

By this time, his teammates had mostly finished packing up, ready to leave Westfalen Stadium.

But many of them seemed to be in low spirits.

They were clearly disappointed with the 3-2 result and worried about the second leg.

This was especially true for Shahin, who had made a mistake during the game.

Subotic and Hummels, who had failed to stop Aguero, were also feeling very down.

Seeing their expressions, Wang Shuo immediately stood up from his seat and grinned at his teammates.

"What’s with you guys? Anyone who didn’t know better would think we lost the game!"

Wang Shuo’s laughter was filled with powerful confidence.

"Listen, we won 3-2 at home. It wasn’t a draw, and it wasn’t a loss. Sure, we gave them two away goals, but when we get to the Calderon Stadium for the second leg, the pressure will be on our opponents, right?"

After hearing this, everyone thought about it for a moment and realized that Wang Shuo had a point.

"Trust me. In the second leg, if we stand united, we can absolutely score against Atletico Madrid!"

"We will definitely get those tickets to the final in Hamburg!"

Wang Shuo spoke with great certainty and confidence.

The final of the inaugural UEFA Europa League would be held at Hamburg’s Northern Bank Arena!