Manchester United Crown Prince, China's Genius

<Manchester United youth product! 18-year-old Chinese youngster may make his Premier League debut tonight: technique, potential, and challenges.>

<Eagerly awaited, a Chinese player appears in the top five leagues after many years!>

<The Red Devils' crown prince, a midfield superstar possessing the combined talents of Pirlo and Xavi.>

The pride of Chinese football.

<10 goals and 24 assists in a single youth season, two assists and one goal in the UEFA Youth League final; the curtain is about to rise on a legend at the Theatre of Dreams.>

Headline after headline ignited the Chinese internet.

Major media outlets scrambled to report the news, hoping that the Chinese youngster's Premier League debut tonight would soothe the pain brought to fans by the "China National Football Team 1-5 Thailand" defeat.

Night fell and the city lights flickered to life. People dragged their weary bodies home, turned on their televisions with excitement, and waited in anticipation to watch the 2014/15 Premier League season opener: Manchester United vs. Swansea City.

Two hours until kickoff.

The television screen intermittently played highlight reels of Li Luo, sending countless Chinese fans into a frenzy.

The streets were buzzing with heated discussion.

"Inside-foot cut, 360-degree turn, avoiding a sliding tackle?"

"Outside-foot cut, half-turn, neutralizing the press?"

"V-drag."

"Cruyff turn to break through."

"Step-over followed by a nutmeg!"

"Every time he escapes pressure, Li Luo always finds the perfect passing lane or dribbling path."

"Simple, unadorned, and incredibly concise escape moves—yet when he does them... why does it look like he's dancing? A genius!"

"Incredible, a Heavenly Dancer!"

"Wow! It's a Golden Legend!"

"Great! Chinese football is saved!"

Old Trafford.

The Manchester United dressing room.

The deafening anthem of the Red Devils faintly penetrated the walls, and the air was thick with the scent of disinfectant and muscle tape.

Li Luo was panicking right now...

About ten hours ago, he had transmigrated into this Manchester United prodigy who shared his name, surname, and age.

When he woke up, he found himself at the scene of a car accident, yet miraculously, he was completely unscathed.

He had briefly tried touching a football, and his mood had shifted from joy to disappointment, and finally to sheer terror.

I don't know how to play football, for God's sake.

In his previous life, he had never played football and had barely even watched matches, having only seen the Captain Tsubasa anime and a few highlight reels of star players.

In this life, Li Luo discovered that he hadn't inherited the original owner's "football skills."

Strictly speaking, he hadn't inherited the original owner's ball control, game reading, Spatial Awareness, ball trajectory prediction, tactical awareness... and so on.

"Deep Blue, add points!"

Adding points was useless.

A few hours ago, he had indeed activated the Golden Finger System.

Regrettably, the attribute panel hadn't inherited the original owner's skills either.

[Name: Li Luo]
[Age: 18]
[Height: 173cm (Still growing)]
[Physical Contact: 79; Stamina: 90]
[Jumping: 80; Kicking Power: 81]
[Speed: 86; Ball Control: 8; Passing: 9; Shooting: 6; Curve: 7]
[Defense: 9; Tackling: 9; Goalkeeping: 2]
[Heading: 8]

"..."

His physical fitness and athletic ability were top-tier. Li Luo couldn't help but reach out and touch his eight-pack abs, his smooth, aesthetically pleasing legs, and his well-defined calf muscles.

He now possessed a body comparable to a work of art, with muscles as exquisitely carved as if by a knife.

But the attributes related to football skills... were all in the single digits.

[Newbie bonus distributed: Free attribute points * 50]

"..."

"How do I add them? Where do I add them?"

Li Luo felt like a complete newbie who had just entered a game; he had attribute points but didn't dare to spend them recklessly, nor did he dare to use any resources.

He took a deep breath.

He decided to scroll through the news on his phone to adjust his mindset and do some mental preparation.

Stay calm. Keep a lake-like surface even if there is thunder in your chest.

As it turned out, the more news he read, the more panicked he became.

He was secretly shocked:

"Ah! The entire motherland is looking forward to my outstanding performance?"

"It's over, the consequences are unimaginable."

"I'm going to let down the expectations of the Party and the people."

Li Luo was very patriotic and found it hard to accept the idea of losing face in front of the whole world as a Chinese player.

He looked up at the wall clock: there was one hour and forty minutes left until kickoff... What should he do? He was in a real hurry.

Sir Matt Busby Way.

Manchester United fans wore Red Devils accessories and waved team flags.

Looking out, it was as if a red river was flowing.

A certain Chinese television station, in order to broadcast the debut of the Chinese genius live, had specially sent a camera crew thousands of miles to Old Trafford.

"Good evening, viewers!"

"With an hour and a half left until kickoff, let's interview some local Manchester United fans and hear their expectations for Li Luo."

The host looked around and proactively approached a group of foreign fans.

After a brief greeting, he handed over the microphone.

The interviewees looked excited and scrambled to share their opinions in turn:

"We aren't local fans; we came from Milan."

"Li cannot make any outrageous elementary mistakes in his debut. Even if every young player is nervous during their Premier League debut, he must adjust his mindset, otherwise, he will face questioning and criticism from many Red Devils fans. Manchester United has too many fans worldwide, and they include all sorts of people. They won't coddle youth academy players like small clubs do; you can look at the experiences of Pogba and Lingard."

"Right, it's very likely he'll be like Pogba and be briefly loaned out to a league with slightly lower intensity for experience. The physical contact in the Premier League is too intense, and young players are prone to injury. Look at the young players at Arsenal... their legs were broken."

"Li will continue to grow taller and become stronger, and we are very worried that his balance control will weaken and his touch frequency will decrease."

"Looking forward to a brilliant debut from the Manchester United Crown Prince!"

The host glanced down at the barrage comments, which were all things like "milky white breasts," "her butt is bigger than my head," "what a hot body," "what material are the saddles of the British guards made of?", "they're fighting! Beer bottles and Molotov cocktails," "give the cameraman a raise"...

He hurriedly thanked them in English and signaled the cameraman to adjust the lens.

Manchester United dressing room.

The Red Devils veterans patted Li Luo's shoulders gently.

"Don't be nervous, just play like you do in training, let loose."

"Haha, why are your palms sweating, kid? You need to show the aura of a Crown Prince!"

"Don't rush off after the match; I'll take you somewhere fun."

Clap, clap, clap!

Assistant coach Giggs clapped his hands, signaling everyone to quiet down.

He then began to repeat the coaching staff's pre-match deployment.

The small magnetic flags on the tactical board were constantly moved around.

The teammates understood tacitly, nodding from time to time.

Li Luo looked bewildered, completely unable to understand: he could understand English and Spanish, but he couldn't understand the professional jargon.

A moment later.

Giggs held a small tactical board, called Li Luo aside, and gave him some face-to-face instructions.

"Li, tonight is a little different."

"Van... the boss has carefully studied the preseason footage of all the top and mid-tier clubs in Europe over the past half-month and concluded that the functions of the midfield will change this season."

"The 4-4-2 formation is gradually losing its mainstream status, with Atlético Madrid being the exception."

"You don't need to wait for the full-back to overlap before cutting inside like you did in the youth team."

"The 4-2-3-1 formation will gradually become the mainstream again for a while. Tonight, we are giving you absolute freedom. Your task is no longer to coordinate with the overlapping full-backs; instead, you must increase your coverage area, helping the team constantly establish support points and build passing lanes during the flow of play."

"During the autonomous attacking phase, you must take on a portion of the finishing duties for the forward line."

Giggs's tone was filled with regret: the tactical evolution in the top five leagues was too fast. What the youngsters learned in the youth academies couldn't keep up with the changes, and they often lacked the time or opportunity to adjust their tactical adaptability. These days, becoming an overnight sensation was incredibly difficult.

Of course, those few giants with unique styles and tactical heritage systems were the exceptions; no matter how the era changed, they only needed to make minor adjustments to their own systems.

"It doesn't matter. Your talent is very close to what I had when I was young; you will surely adapt quickly."

Li Luo remained in a daze.

For a moment, he found it hard to digest Giggs's professional jargon.

What is he babbling about?

Finishing?

Goals!

Without hesitation, Li Luo puffed out his chest and poked his finger into the air.

[Free attribute points have been allocated.]
[Heading: 8 → 58!]

In an instant, the back of his head felt slightly numb.

It was as if his body had recovered a portion of its conditioned reflexes.

Wait, that's not right.

If it's about finishing... why didn't I put the attribute points into shooting?

Li Luo, a total football novice, felt a pang of regret.

At 173 centimeters tall, he had dumped all his attribute points into heading?