System Rewards

The historic championship win of the U20 Youth National Team at the Youth World Cup brought a massive and profound impact to Chinese football.

The football passion of the people was ignited to a great degree, and the negative influence caused by the failure to qualify for the World Cup vanished under the stimulation of the U20 Youth National Team's victory.

Football transformed from a topic people avoided and refused to discuss into a common subject of conversation on every street corner and during tea breaks.

Whether they were people who previously watched football or those who didn't, everyone at this moment knew that China had a team that had won a world-class tournament.

Influenced by this, the previously sluggish football market began to heat up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The number of people participating in football also began to increase significantly; not only were the pitches exceptionally busy, but even in the streets and alleys, one could see groups of children chasing after a football.

The success of the U20 Youth National Team greatly increased the importance people placed on youth football, and financial allocations and policy support for youth teams at all levels increased significantly.

In the private sector, parents were no longer as opposed to their children playing football.

As long as it didn't affect their academic performance, they could mess around with it as much as they wanted.

If they happened to make a name for themselves, they might even be able to get sent to a professional team and make a living through football.

In this era, the salary of a professional footballer was far higher than that of an average person!

Thus, this profession, which many parents had looked down upon in the past, suddenly became high-end and prestigious.

If the youth are strong, the country is strong; with so many teenagers dedicating themselves to football, why worry that the great cause wouldn't flourish?

Conversely, if even the youth stopped playing football, then Chinese football would naturally have no hope.

Beyond this, the biggest impact brought by the championship win was the change in policies from the high-level government.

After the U20 Youth National Team won the title, the high-level government proposed for the first time the concept of developing the football industry, providing greater support in terms of policy.

Football is the world's number one sport and also the sport with the best commercial development.

Playing football not only strengthens the body but also brings huge economic benefits, and can even bring about an increase in national pride and self-confidence.

In the past, the reason the authorities didn't value football was because the strength of Chinese football was poor, it was difficult to achieve results, it couldn't win medals, and it couldn't bring political achievements.

But the unexpected championship of this U20 Youth National Team allowed the high-level officials to see the hope of Chinese football achieving results.

Three years later, China will host the Olympic Games for the first time on home soil.

If this U20 Youth National Team could win the Olympic gold medal at home, the value of this gold medal would likely far exceed any other.

For the relevant officials, this would be a concrete political achievement.

Once there was hope, there was naturally the motivation to move forward; in the past, everyone didn't want to touch football because they couldn't gain any advantage and it was easy to get into trouble.

But now, the situation was different!

Thus, various support policies followed one after another.

The youngsters of the U20 Youth National Team, far away in Europe, were naturally unaware of these changes in the domestic football world.

After the Youth World Cup ended, the team did not linger in the Netherlands for too long.

Including Head Coach Klopp, everyone boarded a chartered plane and set off for home overnight.

By the time they arrived at Capital International Airport, the arrival hall was already packed with people.

Countless fans had been waiting at the airport early just to welcome the triumphant players of the U20 Youth National Team.

This left the youngsters of the U20 Youth National Team feeling flattered, and some were even startled.

When had they ever seen a scene like this?

The number of fans who had rushed to the scene must have been in the tens of thousands, right?

Even for a popular star, this was probably as good as it got, right?

"Am I dreaming? Are these people really here to welcome us? Could it be that there's some celebrity on our plane?"

"Where would a celebrity come from? We're on a chartered plane; there's no one else on board!"

Chen Tao was also a bit frightened by the scene. Although he had been sought after by many fans when playing for his club, compared to the fans here, that was completely insignificant.

"Brother Chen, have we become big stars?"

"We aren't singers or dancers, so how could we be stars? We should say we've become star players!"

Gao Lin puffed out his chest with a bit of swagger, pretending to wave at a group of female fans on the inside, trying his best to play the role of a 'star player'.

But he didn't look like one at all, drawing unanimous mockery from his teammates:

"Don't stick green onions in your nose to pretend to be an elephant—you're just not cut out for it!"

"Exactly, didn't you see the signs those female fans were holding? They have Brother Lin's name written on them! They aren't here for you at all!"

"It's a pity Brother Lin isn't here. If he were here, he could at least help us attract a lot of the attention!"

This sentence drew unanimous agreement from the other players. Among the fans at the scene, a large portion had come specifically for Lin Feng.

This guy not only played football well but was also handsome. Compared to him, the others felt like country bumpkins, wishing they could dig a hole and bury themselves.

But unfortunately, Lin Feng did not return to the country with the U20 Youth National Team and missed this spectacular scene.

The fans who came to the airport searched for a long time but didn't see Lin Feng's figure. They were immediately disappointed and could only settle for second best, going to ask Chen Tao, Feng Xiaoting, Zhou Haibin, and Hao Junmin for autographs.

The group felt quite refreshed; to think someone was actually asking for their autographs?

They all patiently signed for the fans and took group photos, only stopping when the number of gathered fans grew so large that the on-site Security Personnel had to intervene.

Just as his teammates were boarding the Chartered Plane to return home, Lin Feng also packed his things, preparing to leave.

He had been away for half a month; he arrived empty-handed, but was returning not only with two trophies, but also with 210,000 yuan in bonus money issued by the Football Association tucked in his pocket.

After the China Youth Team won the championship, the leaders of the Football Association fulfilled their promise and distributed a 3 million yuan championship bonus to the players on the spot.

As a key Player, Lin Feng received the top-tier bonus of 200,000 yuan, which, combined with the 10,000 yuan he earned for defeating Argentina earlier, brought his total winnings to 210,000 yuan.

Although it wasn't a huge sum, it was a pleasant surprise for him.

Before being recruited by Klopp, he hadn't even considered that playing for the National team would come with any pay.

After all, serving the National team is a Player's duty, and there is no salary involved in the process itself.

However, beyond this financial gain, what Lin Feng cared about most was the reward for completing the Youth World Cup mission issued by the system.

[Congratulations to the host for completing the Youth World Cup mission!]

[Personal Rating: S!]

[Mission Reward: Second Module development progress +30%, one Module Fragment Lucky Draw Chance!]

Opening the system with his mind, he took a glance and saw that the unactivated Second Module was significantly brighter than before.

Including the previous 10%, the development progress of the Second Module had reached 40%, though it was still a long way from being fully unlocked.

It seemed this thing couldn't be improved simply by playing matches, and for now, he had no idea if there were any other ways to accelerate its development besides completing system missions.

Lin Feng set that aside for the moment and turned his attention to the development status of the Kaka Module he was currently using.

Lin Feng had participated in a total of four Youth World Cup matches; except for the match against the German team where he was a substitute, he had started in all the others.

After playing against the German team previously, the system's module development progress had increased by 1%, and with the system's mission reward, his Kaka template development progress had reached 80%.

Now, after three more National team matches, the development progress of his Kaka template in the system had reached 83%.

"As expected, it's 1% progress per match; this efficiency is indeed much higher than in the league."

The reason many people felt that Lin Feng became more formidable with every match wasn't just an illusion.

Because after every match he played, he moved closer to Peak Kaka, and his strength naturally became that much greater.

If he were just an ordinary player, such an improvement might not be so obvious.

But for a bug-level existence like Peak Kaka, even a 1% improvement represented a massive change.

It was just a pity that the Youth World Cup schedule was too short, leaving him no further opportunities to grind for points.

And since the China Youth Team wouldn't have any major tournaments for a long time to come, the idea of using the China Youth Team platform to grind for progress was likely off the table.

"Sigh, if only there were more National team matches! Then I could keep grinding for points!"

"Since things have come to this, let's do the lucky draw first!"