Seeing Messi's astonished expression, Xavi and the others were a little surprised as well.
Even he himself thought it looked similar?
"So, how did it feel? Was it very similar to the way you played?"
Little White Iniesta leaned over and asked.
Messi nodded seriously.
"It was very similar. You could even say his dribbling skills were no worse than mine!"
This assessment greatly surprised Xavi, Iniesta, and the others. Messi actually rated him that highly?
"Which team's player is he? He looks familiar somehow..."
"He is Coach Guardiola's adopted son and a Barca youth academy player. He used to play for the youth team, but he was loaned to the Bundesliga two months ago and is currently playing for Werder Bremen."
Xavi, the eldest among the three, spoke up to explain.
The others might not have known Lin Quan very well, but as the successor the club had prepared for him, Xavi had paid close attention to this junior from the youth team.
"Our player? Why don't I remember such an impressive winger in the academy?"
Messi asked doubtfully.
Because of his sudden rise, many players in Barca's youth academy had received enormous attention.
Among them were quite a few like Bojan, who performed brilliantly in the youth team but failed to make it in the first team.
If Barca's youth academy really had such an outstanding winger, he should have become famous long ago. Messi should not have heard absolutely nothing about him.
"Ahem, he used to play defensive midfield. He only switched to winger after arriving at Werder Bremen."
Xavi explained.
Everyone was speechless. That was possible too?
Defensive midfielder and winger were fundamentally different types of positions. Could someone really switch between them?
Barca's sporting director Subizarreta and youth team Head Coach Enrique were equally speechless.
"Thomas Schaaf actually moved him from defensive midfield to the front line as a winger?"
The television before them was replaying Werder Bremen's friendly against Cottbus.
Since Lin Quan had only come on as a substitute in the second half, the two skipped the first half and started watching directly from the second.
When Enrique saw Lin Quan come on as a substitute and take up the winger position rather than defensive midfield, he was completely stunned.
"Hmph, that just proves Schaaf has a good eye and knows how to use players. Look at him—this kid is thriving as a winger. I have a feeling his market value is about to skyrocket!"
Subizarreta had obviously already watched the match, so he fast-forwarded directly to the sequence where Lin Quan dribbled past the entire opposing defense and scored.
"Look at this!"
After Enrique finished watching, he was dumbfounded.
If he had still harbored doubts about whether Lin Quan could play winger before, then at this moment, every last doubt had vanished.
The winger position was practically tailor-made for him.
Lin Quan showed no discomfort at all in that position. Instead, he was completely at home.
Even Enrique could not help beginning to doubt himself.
Had he truly failed to recognize talent and used the player in the wrong position?
"Coach Enrique, I need to remind you that Lin Quan has less than a year left on his contract with the club, and his release clause is only five million euros.
"Once he shows this kind of outstanding performance on the Bundesliga Field as well, people coming to buy him will wear down Barca's doorstep. Unless the player himself is willing to stay, we simply will not be able to keep this rising star!"
Calsada, the head of market operations and marketing, spoke seriously to Enrique and Subizarreta.
He did not know what the two of them had been thinking. Why had they loaned out a youth academy player without first extending his contract?
Now the player showed signs of soaring to greatness, while they had been left in a passive position regarding the contract.
"Don't worry, Manager Calsada.
"It was only a friendly. The real Bundesliga Field is completely different from a friendly of this level. Lin Quan will not perform so crazily there!"
Enrique was actually panicking inside, but he put on a calm front as he said,
"Once he suffers setbacks on the Bundesliga Field and fails to produce such outstanding performances, the media and the public will not pay him as much attention.
"Then we can extend an olive branch to him and call him back with a first-team substitute role. He will definitely choose to return to Barca and renew his contract with us!
"After all, no one can refuse Barca's call!"
He spoke with complete confidence and conviction, and no one present refuted him.
Barca's results over the past few years spoke for themselves. Since the 2007–08 season, Barca had won the Champions League twice and had never fallen out of the top four.
In La Liga, Barca had even achieved three consecutive league titles.
Although they had lost the title last year, that had merely been a temporary slip!
Given Barca's current foundation, no one doubted that they had the strength to win the Champions League again.
With such a formidable record, combined with the appeal of a Giant Club like Barca, there was no need to worry that the other party would not be tempted.
Biersada was persuaded. Enrique and Subizarreta had been the ones who arranged Lin Quan's loan.
Since neither of them was worried, there was no reason for him to get worked up either.
On the day the match ended, Lin Quan lay on his bed and opened the system with his consciousness.
When he opened the System Shop interface, he indeed saw that the Points column, which had previously been at zero, now displayed the number one.
Because his Points had changed, some items in the System Shop had become available for exchange.
Lin Quan gave it a rough glance. Aside from the Energy Drink, which could sustain him for half an hour and was somewhat appealing to him, everything else was useless.
And this Energy Drink required one Point to exchange, which was a little too expensive for Lin Quan.
With only one Point to his name, he was naturally reluctant to spend it on a Stamina Potion.
Besides, the coach currently had no intention of starting him.
As a substitute, his current stamina was enough to handle matches, so there was no need to exchange for such a thing.
Compared to consumables like Stamina Potions, Lin Quan wanted top-tier talents and luxurious equipment even more.
For instance, he had taken a liking to the Injury Immunity talent. What speed-based players feared most was injury.
Once they were injured and their explosiveness declined, their threat level would drop dramatically.
Although Messi was not a speed-based player, his dribbling also required tremendous explosiveness.
Without explosiveness, Messi's dribbling ability would decline noticeably.
This had been especially obvious in Messi's performances before and after his injury in 2013.
If he could obtain this talent, Lin Quan would no longer need to worry about injuries. That would make him less hesitant when dribbling past opponents.
When competing for the ball, he would also dare to challenge for fifty-fifty balls.
However, top-tier talents like this were extremely expensive. Exchanging for it required 100 Points.
Lin Quan's current Points only amounted to one percent of the requirement.
This left Lin Quan feeling rather melancholy. He was still so far away!
"System, do I only get one Point for winning each match?"
If that was the case, he would need to win 100 matches.
Even if friendlies, cup matches, league matches, and everything else were all included.
He would still need to play for at least two or three years before he could possibly exchange for this talent.
If the team's results were poor, that time would be pushed back even further.
[Points rewards differ according to the level of the match. Winning a Top Five Leagues-level match rewards 2 Points.] [Winning a Champions League-level match rewards 3 Points!] [Winning a World Cup finals match rewards 5 Points!] [In addition, the Golden Boot Award and assist leader awards for the league, Champions League, and World Cup each come with rewards. Specifically: the league Golden Boot Award rewards 20 Points, and the assist leader rewards 10 Points; the Champions League Golden Boot Award rewards 30 Points, and the assist leader rewards 20 Points; the World Cup Golden Boot Award rewards 50 Points, and the assist leader rewards 30 Points.]
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