Dominating Football with Perfect Ball Control

Chapter 29: 29. De Bruyne

B04 (3-2) WOB

Stefan Kie?ling — — 39′

69′ — — 12. Bas Dost

83′ — — Ivan Peri?i?

Stefan Kie?ling — — 89′

Lance — — 94′

At Bayer Leverkusen’s BayArena, the sun had already set.

With the last faint rays of twilight, Kevin De Bruyne stared blankly at the scoreboard.

He had clearly given his all!

”Sigh.”

Not far away, Lance was hugging his teammates, celebrating their hard-won victory.

The Bayer Leverkusen substitutes couldn’t help but rush onto the field to join the celebration the moment the match ended.

Lance was smiling broadly amidst the crowd.

The kid who used to practice on concrete ground, accidentally falling and scraping his skin, yet still continued to practice with a bleeding leg...

Now he was a professional player his teammates could trust.

De Bruyne was quite relieved.

As children, their dream was to become professional football stars, and now they had both achieved it. It was a pity they couldn’t fight side by side, and this kid had stolen 3 points from him.

”Lance.”

De Bruyne proactively walked over to greet him.

”Kevin, what do you say, wasn’t that goal beautiful just now?”

Lance couldn’t help but show off to his friend, getting right in his face.

De Bruyne unhappily gave him the internationally recognized friendly gesture.

”Fuck off!”

”You played really well, I almost thought we were going to lose today.”

”Thanks... Next time, I’ll win it back.”

”Nan, I’d win.”

”You rascal.”

De Bruyne shook his head and gave a bitter smile. Losing today meant nothing, he just had to try his best to defeat Lance next time.

”Swap jerseys?”

”Sure.”

Lance simply took off his team uniform and exchanged it with De Bruyne.

He had originally wanted to suggest finding a place to eat dinner and catch up, but then he thought better of it.

Lance knew De Bruyne’s personality very well.

If he had won today, he would definitely have invited him to dinner.

With his competitive nature, he would surely not be in the mood after a loss; he would definitely go back and train hard, striving to get his revenge.

The two simply bumped fists and turned to leave.

The next time they met would be at VfL Wolfsburg’s Volkswagen Arena!

Unfortunately, Lance’s first shot didn’t go in. The MVP of today’s match went to Stefan Kie?ling, who scored twice.

The good news was that he once again became the super sub, helping Bayer Leverkusen turn the tide and score a last-second winner.

After the match, German football media gave Lance the highest score of 1.

He had come on as a substitute 3 times in a row, scoring in all 3 matches.

The next day, Lance opened Twitter, and his name appeared on the trending topics again.

The media had even given him the nickname ”Super-Joker”...

”Wait, buddy? Super Joker?”

Lance carefully examined himself in the mirror; his nose wasn’t even red!

However, Lance quickly realized that in German football, the word ”Joker” didn’t mean clown, but was a customary term for ”super sub.”

For example, the famous super sub in Bundesliga history, Nils Petersen,

Or Thomas Müller, who performed excellently a few years ago, often coming on as a substitute to great effect.

German media liked to describe him in this way:

”Bewiesen: Er ist und bleibt der Joker! (It’s proven: Thomas Müller is and remains the super sub!)”

Since ”Joker” already had the meaning of a trump card substitute,

The German media’s description of Lance as ”Super-Joker” seemed very complimentary.

The ace among super subs!

Lance was quite satisfied with this. He happily scrolled through his phone, watching how the German media praised him.

”16-year-old Genius Lance Scores Last-Minute Bicycle Kick Winner! Bayer Leverkusen’s Biggest Treasure Signed This Summer!” — Der Spiegel

”Super-Joker Strikes Again! The Werkself Win 3-2 Against VfL Wolfsburg!” — Bild

”Werkself 3-2 VfL Wolfsburg Match Review: KRC Genk’s Duo Shines, Lance’s Overhead Bicycle Kick Voted Goal of the Round!” — Munich Evening News

Even Turin Sports News, an Italian media outlet from southern Europe, noticed Lance.

”...The 16-year-old youngster has proven himself 3 times in a row in matches. In yesterday’s Bundesliga focus match, substitute Lance played perfectly, contributing an astonishing bicycle kick winner.

New talents in the Bundesliga are emerging endlessly, while the once ’Mini World Cup’ Serie A seems to be in decline with a dwindling talent pool...”

In the Twitter comment section, German netizens were also exceptionally friendly in their evaluations of him.

”Wow! What an exciting match, it’s hard to imagine how calm a 16-year-old kid is to score a last-second winner!”

”Respect! The final bicycle kick really amazed me! Goal of the Round in the Bundesliga!”

”How did he do it? He was about to fall and still managed to complete a bicycle kick with an acrobatic move? Holy shit!”

”To be honest, he must have learned street dance. There’s a term for this in Breaking street dance, windmill. Lance did it quite standardly...”

Netizens were quite casual when giving Lance nicknames.

Things like ”Karate Kid,” ”Street Dance Kid,” ”Super Sub Striker,” ”Mr. Amazing”...

It made Lance unable to resist logging in with a burner account and praising himself along with everyone else.

”Wow! He is such an excellent player!”

”You’re right, brother, I also think he can make the starting lineup.”

”Bayer Leverkusen won today, and Lance is definitely the number one contributor.”

Being praised by others can be addictive.

After finishing the morning training session,

Lance finished his sauna, lay on a lounge chair by the pool, and leisurely scrolled through his phone for at least half an hour.

Until he was interrupted by his phone’s ”ding ding ding” notification sound.

Chloe: [Lance!! Yesterday’s match was absolutely amazing!! /thumbs up emoji]

Chloe: [That last bicycle kick was so cool!]

Chloe: [When I saw that winning goal, I almost went crazy!! OMG!]

???

Lance focused and carefully checked the sender.

It was Chloe, alright...

Why did it feel like such a huge contrast?

Chloe, the beautiful girl who had accidentally crashed her Porsche 911 into him last time,

They had gotten to know each other much better through their sporadic chats over these past few days.

Lance only realized later,

She was actually the daughter of the school board chairman of his high school, ”Theodor Heuss-Realschule”!

”Theodor Heuss” in the school’s name was her biological grandfather.

The current school board chairman, Oliver Heuss—a thin, refined middle-aged man with glasses whom he often saw at school—was her father.

Chloe’s full name was Chloe Heuss.

The moment Lance saw her surname, he had already solved the mystery on the spot.

No wonder she could afford a Porsche 911 sports car at such a young age.

Putting those things aside for now,

The first time he met Chloe, she was blushing and bowing her head in apology, looking flustered, clearly a sweet girl with a well-behaved personality and strict upbringing.

He never expected that when chatting online and via text messages, she would seem a bit... wild.

Every time she sent a text, she would get so excited that she’d include a string of exclamation marks.

And before Lance could even finish typing, several messages would come flooding in one after another.

She was quite the chatterbox online.

Lance: [Thanks, so you watched the match.]

Chloe: [Of course! I’m your fan!]

Chloe: [Your most loyal fan!]

Chloe: [Your first die-hard fan!]

Alright, alright, die-hard fan.

Lance felt a strange chill down his spine.

Could the young girl Chloe be one of those crazy sasaeng fans?

Or perhaps she had a hidden yandere side?

That would be interesting later on.

Lance didn’t reply to her, closed iMessage, and on a whim opened Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.

He wanted to see if there was any news about him domestically.

A 16-year-old Chinese teenager rising to fame in the Bundesliga, domestic media should be discussing it, right?

However, the discussion about the Bundesliga on Weibo was far colder than Lance had imagined.

Most domestic fans who followed the Bundesliga only paid attention to Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund, rarely looking at Bayer Leverkusen news.

Only Sports Weekly’s official Weibo account was still consistently posting updates about him:

”[16-year-old Rising Star Shines in Bundesliga! Lance’s Last-Minute Bicycle Kick Winner Helps the Werkself Comeback!]”

”Lance scores in 2 consecutive rounds! In stoppage time, he scored an incredible bicycle kick to break VfL Wolfsburg’s goal, making it 3 consecutive matches scoring as a substitute!”

”The youngster from KRC Genk’s youth academy has conquered German football with his amazing footwork and big-heart performance. #NewHopeForFootball # adds another spark! The future is promising! #LanceBundesligaWinner # #ChinesePride#”