Chapter 1 They Won the Derby and Were Promoted

Just as Zhou Yi and the Mark family were celebrating their derby victory and promotion to the U19s, Klopp was at his desk, reviewing Ricken's match report.

He hadn't just signed Zhou Yi and left him to fend for himself in the youth team. On the contrary, he had been paying close attention to Zhou Yi's progress, so he was aware of every step Zhou Yi took.

He also had no objection to Ricken's decision to promote Zhou Yi directly from the U17s to the U19s. Since Zhou Yi had demonstrated such ability, it was only natural for him to move up to a higher team.

However, Klopp wasn't so much concerned with Zhou Yi's outstanding performance in the game as he was with a sentence Ricken had mentioned in the match report.

"Zhou Yi's physical confrontation ability is far too lacking. He's not strong enough, making it too easy for opponents to entangle him during the game. He falls over with a single bump…"

When Zhou Yi first arrived at the U17s, his physical fitness was a major issue. He couldn't even meet the most basic requirements for playing time, so Klopp arranged for Bartlewski to give Zhou Yi some extra training.

Two months of extra training allowed Zhou Yi to improve his physical fitness rapidly.

And now, it seemed like he would have to give Zhou Yi some extra training to build up his muscle strength…

With this in mind, Klopp turned on his computer and began to draft an email to Ricken.

※※※

In the evening, Zhou Yi entered the FIFA Online 3 system and found that his team had indeed been changed from the U17s to the U19s. This team was much more unfamiliar to him, as the teams he had played against in the China team were mainly from the U17s.

Apart from Mark, who had been promoted with Zhou Yi, Götze and Schneider were the only people he knew in this U19 team.

He didn't know anyone else.

But that didn't matter. Not knowing them now didn't mean he wouldn't know them in the future.

Zhou Yi wasn't concerned about that.

He would naturally get to know them after training together for a while.

As usual, after joining the new team, Zhou Yi first opened the attribute panels of his teammates and checked their attributes one by one.

Among these players, Götze was still the most outstanding.

"He really is a man aiming for the first team…" Zhou Yi sighed.

Looking at Schneider, he was also quite good, although not as good as Götze.

However, what concerned Zhou Yi was that Schneider's data in the U19s was about the same as it had been a few months ago in the U17s when he had faced Zhou Yi and his teammates. There hadn't been much change. Some data had increased, but the increase was very limited, and some data had even decreased…

For example, his stamina attribute had decreased by three points.

This was really hard for Zhou Yi to understand.

After going to the U19s, the training intensity there should be greater than in the U17s, and the training level should also be higher. After all, the next step up was the reserve team and the first team, the world of adult professional football, and the U19s had to prepare for that.

How could some of Schneider's attributes decline?

After getting to know all his teammates, Zhou Yi began his first training session with his new teammates.

※※※

Just as Zhou Yi was drifting off to sleep, Borussia Dortmund U19 coach Peter Geballa received a call from Ricken.

Ricken told him on the phone that two U17 players would be promoted to the U19s starting tomorrow.

It wasn't uncommon for U17 players to be transferred to the U19s, but what Geballa cared about was who was being transferred.

"Who are the people being transferred to my team?" he asked.

"Zhou Yi and…"

Hearing this Chinese name, Geballa frowned. "Why him?"

"What's wrong, can't it be him, Peter?" Ricken was a little surprised to hear Geballa say that.

"If I remember correctly, he's only been in the youth team for less than three months, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it possible to have the ability to play in the U19s in such a short period of time?"

"Peter, haven't you been paying attention to the recent U17 matches?" Ricken asked.

"I'm the U19 coach, Lars."

"Okay…" Ricken said. "Simply put, Zhou Yi has performed well in a series of U17 warm-up matches, and he also had a very good performance in the recently concluded U17 Ruhr derby. I think his level has exceeded the U17 level. If he continues to stay in the U17 matches, it will be of limited help to his growth, and he should be allowed to come to the U19s where the level is higher."

"How did this afternoon's game go?" Geballa only now remembered that today was the U17 Ruhr derby.

"We beat Schalke 04 2-1. Zhou Yi completed an assist and also indirectly assisted another goal. Of course, just looking at the data, you may not be able to see how good his performance was. If you had been on the sidelines and watched the entire game, I believe you would have the same feeling as me."

"You're right, Lars, I have to see it with my own eyes to know if he has the ability to cope with the U19 matches," Geballa said, as he believed in the principle of "seeing is believing."

"You'll be able to see him tomorrow, haha!" Ricken laughed. "By the way, I've sent you the player information in your email. Take some time to look at it, Peter."

"Okay. I'll look at it now," Geballa said.

After ending the call, he opened his email, and sure enough, there was an email from Ricken.

There were several attachments in the email, the first two of which were player information.

The first one was Zhou Yi's.

Geballa took a look.

The information recorded Zhou Yi's match data in the U17s, including warm-up matches in addition to the Ruhr derby.

The match date, match opponent, playing time, assists, and goals were all included.

The more Geballa looked, the more surprised he became.

Because Zhou Yi had an assist in every game, and occasionally a goal.

The number of goals wasn't high, but the number of assists was terrifying!

Geballa roughly scanned it and found that Zhou Yi assisted on more than half of the goals in almost every game.

This kid… is he really that strong?

Regarding Zhou Yi, Geballa, although he was the coach of the U19s, had also heard of him.

After all, he was the first Chinese player in Borussia Dortmund's club since its establishment.

So, although Zhou Yi was still in the U17s, the youth team coaches would eat and chat together, so they naturally knew about Zhou Yi.

However, Geballa wasn't very interested in Zhou Yi, so his understanding of Zhou Yi was limited to knowing that there was such a person, but he didn't know the specifics of this person. In his mind, this Chinese kid still had a long way to go, and he would have to stay in the U17s for at least a year, which was still a long way from himself, the U19 coach.

He didn't expect that it would be less than three months!

He was about to report to his team!

At first, when he heard this news, Geballa refused. He doubted whether there was a mistake somewhere.

Now that he had seen Zhou Yi's information, the doubts in his heart were even deeper.

But whether he was really that good, Geballa had his own standards—he didn't believe in match statistics, he only believed in what he personally observed on the sidelines.

What was Zhou Yi's strength? Wouldn't he know when he came to his team for training and matches?

Geballa closed Zhou Yi's information and then remembered that Ricken had said "two people," so who was the other person?

He opened the second set of information.

A name came into view: Mark Wagner.

Who is this?

Looking at this name, Geballa fell into a brief silence, searching for this name in his mind.

He couldn't have not heard of any outstanding young players in the Borussia Dortmund youth training camp. He had been paying attention to Schneider when he was in the U17s, and Götze goes without saying…

But who is Mark Wagner?

After thinking for a long time, Geballa gave up. He really couldn't figure out who this Mark Wagner was.

Then let's look at the information and see what abilities he has that allowed him to be promoted to his team?

It was okay not to look at this information, but as soon as he glanced at it, Geballa was dumbfounded—how could there be so many goals!?

The dates of the matches he played in highly overlapped with Zhou Yi's.

This information made Geballa frown. He seemed to realize something. So he reopened Zhou Yi's information.

He placed the two sets of information side by side on the table and compared them one by one.

Soon, he released the mouse and leaned back in his chair.

Just as he had guessed, Zhou Yi's assist times and Mark Wagner's goal times were exactly the same, with a high degree of overlap.

What does this mean?

It means that basically all of the goals scored by this kid Mark Wagner were assisted by Zhou Yi.

He scored eighteen goals during the warm-up matches, and all eighteen of these goals were assisted by Zhou Yi!

What does this mean?

Do Zhou Yi and Mark Wagner have a good relationship?

Does Mark Wagner have a strong ability to seize opportunities?

Or is there something else…

Faced with such data, Geballa fell into deep thought.

Just then, the phone on the table suddenly rang.

Geballa picked it up and saw that it was still the youth training director Ricken calling.

"Hey, Lars, what's up?"

"Ah, Peter, I forgot one thing… that, Sasha asked me to pass on a message to you. He said that Mark Wagner and Zhou Yi must be together to perform better, and suggested that you don't separate them."

"Is that all?" Geballa asked.

"That's right, that's all. In the U17s, these two are a golden duo!" Ricken laughed.

"Okay, I understand, I'll seriously consider this point."

Geballa put down the phone and muttered to himself: "A golden duo… is it?"