First Appearance, Wearing the Number 10 Jersey!

Seeing all this, Lin Quan was completely fired up.

Imagine how terrifying a Messi with unlimited stamina and no injuries would be.

Retaining the explosive power and breakthrough ability from twelve years ago, while gaining the organizational and tactical skills from nineteen years of age.

How comprehensive would that be?

That's god-tier, plain and simple!

And this was the future, fully realized Lin Quan under the system's enhancement.

He could already picture himself activating these talents and becoming the terrifying overlord of the football world that everyone feared!

The match continued, and Werder Bremen's attacks came in waves.

After getting through the initial nerves, the team's young players visibly improved.

Especially De Bruyne, who was orchestrating things from central midfield—his performance was outstanding.

The entire first half was practically De Bruyne's personal showcase.

He repeatedly used his excellent vision and passing to send through several threatening balls.

But Nils Petersen, the striker on loan from Bayern Munich, seemed to have forgotten his shooting boots, squandering multiple golden opportunities one after another, leaving even De Bruyne shaking his head in frustration.

Beyond his role as the offensive tempo-setter, De Bruyne also made significant contributions on the defensive end.

After so many days of one-on-one training with Lin Quan, De Bruyne still couldn't stop him, but his defensive ability had improved dramatically compared to before.

His aggressive pressing and interceptions in the front court repeatedly nipped the opponent's counterattacks in the bud.

An average player wouldn't find it easy to break past him.

This left several coaches on Werder Bremen's bench utterly astonished.

"This kid feels even stronger than he does in team training!"

"Yeah, his attacking ability is already top-tier, but I didn't expect him to have such solid defensive skills too!"

"Pressing so hard, not shying away from contact, running tirelessly without regard for stamina—he reminds me of a certain player."

"Who?"

"Nedved."

Hearing that name, everyone's heart skipped a beat.

The Czech Iron Man was a Hexagonal All-Rounder, the symbol of Never Tire.

Was Coach Schaaf really rating De Bruyne that highly?

"This is just a friendly after all; we need to keep observing. If—and I mean if—he can maintain this level of performance, then maybe our relegation fight this season won't be so tough."

Everyone nodded in unison. This season, they had brought in three players on loan. Nils Petersen's performance had been underwhelming, but De Bruyne had given them a huge surprise.

Now only the young player brought in from Barca had yet to take the field. If Lin Quan could exceed expectations, then maybe they really could achieve their relegation goal this season.

Cottbus quickly recognized De Bruyne's threat and tightened their defense on him.

This reduced his ability to deliver threatening passes, and on top of that, they deliberately bypassed the middle during counterattacks, launching from the flanks instead.

This tactic soon paid off. After being hit by several dangerous counters, Werder Bremen's wingers grew hesitant.

They became reluctant to join the attack, focusing most of their energy on defense instead.

Without the involvement of the wide midfielders, Werder Bremen's offense lost its edge.

Thus, the game on the field fell into a stalemate.

The first half ended with the score still 0-0. Neither side could break through the other's goal.

On the sidelines, Coach Schaaf stood up and headed to the locker room first.

He had already identified the problem with the team's flanks and was ready to make adjustments.

Friendlies at this level usually drew very little attention in Asia.

Especially with the AFC U-23 Championship in full swing, most viewers preferred to watch matches featuring their own national teams—it was more engaging.

So on a domestic streaming platform, only one niche streamer who loved football was broadcasting this match.

At the same time, no fewer than ten streamers had chosen to broadcast the other AFC U-23 match between China U22 and North Korea. The viewership gap between the two was enormous.

The audience watching this friendly was mainly made up of Werder Bremen fans and older viewers who enjoyed European leagues but had nothing to watch since the Top Five Leagues hadn't started yet.

During halftime, the streamer and the audience chatted casually.

"Streamer, streamer, everyone else is streaming the national team match. Why aren't you cashing in on that hype and instead streaming a Bundesliga friendly? Look, no one's watching!"

Seeing the viewer's question, the streamer laughed and replied, "I've got a weak heart. Watching the national team play might give me a heart attack."

Hearing that, the chat room audience cracked up.

In recent years, the national football team's strength has been declining, and their match results have plummeted.

Especially last year, the highly anticipated team failed to even make it out of the Asian Cup group stage, deeply wounding the fans' hearts.

"Damn, trash national team, can't even beat North Korea!"

"RNM, refund!"

"National team, do you have any shame?"

"Lacking skill, lacking attitude, why even play football? Go home and raise pigs!"

"These bums, watching them play just pisses me off!"

"If you ask me, the national team is completely finished!"

"Did you just figure that out? They've been finished for ages..."

The chat had been going fine, but suddenly a flood of new viewers poured into the stream.

These viewers didn't even bother watching the match; they just started cursing in the comments.

Huang Wei saw his stream's viewer count skyrocket and was initially pleased.

But then he looked at the comments—all insults—and it scared him quite a bit.

Looking more closely, though, it seemed they weren't cursing him, but the national team. That caught him off guard.

So he glanced at the score on the adjacent screen.

Sure enough, the national team was trailing again!

In the 43rd minute of the first half, North Korea scored a goal, making it 1-0.

Over on other streams, seeing the national team lose to North Korea, large numbers of viewers angrily left and flooded into this previously obscure channel.

"Time to cleanse my eyes with some high-level European football!"

"Cleansing eyes +1!"

"Cleansing eyes +2!"

"Brothers, a Bundesliga preseason match—this level is way more comfortable than watching the national team!"

"True, who'd watch the national team without some heart medicine?"

With so many new viewers suddenly arriving, Huang Wei was both excited and nervous. He pulled himself together and began commentating with full focus.

He skimmed through the lineups of both teams and suddenly let out a surprised sound:

"Werder Bremen's squad list has a young player whose name looks Chinese, and it seems he's on loan from Barca!"

"WTF, seriously? A Barca player, Messi's teammate? Awesome!"

"Heh, probably bought as a mascot, right?"

"Pfft, this is Barca we're talking about—do they need to buy mascots?"

"Whether he's a mascot or not, we'll know if he actually plays, won't we?"

"Exactly. If he gets on the field for Werder Bremen, he's no mascot. But if he just sits on the bench with no playtime, then he's definitely a mascot!"

Amid the viewers' doubts and anticipation, the second half began.

Werder Bremen made the first substitution: Lin Quan, wearing the number 10 jersey, came on to replace the number 11 winger Elia.

The moment they saw Lin Quan's jersey number, the stream erupted.

"WTF, number 10 jersey? They're planning to groom him as a core player?"

"La Masia academy grad, plays winger, wears number 10—how does that not remind you of that guy?"

"Height's about the same too!"

"Exactly nine years younger than Boss Messi—perfect succession!"

"Alright, let's see if this Messi successor can actually live up to the name!"