A Scout from Tottenham? A Genius from River Plate?

Monday morning, 7 a.m.!

As usual, Xie Luotuo arrived at the team facilities early.

Although they had won yesterday's match, he didn't have any time to rest like his players did.

Their most important match of the entire season was just around the corner.

He had to make preparations as quickly as possible.

River Plate!

This match was even more important than whether they could win the championship.

After all, if they failed to win the title, he could still prepare for another run next year. But if they played poorly in the Superclásico against River Plate, not only would the fans tear him apart, the club executives might even tell him to pack up and get lost.

Fortunately, though, God had given him a miraculous young man.

He believed that as long as that Chinese kid, Su, could maintain the form he had shown in the last match!

No, no, no!

Even if he could only manage half of that performance and score two goals, Xie Luotuo would still be able to comfortably beat that damn River Plate away from home.

Bang!

Bang!

However, as he passed by the training ground, a series of booming strikes caught Xie Luotuo's attention.

This early?

The team was clearly on break. Who would be here?

Xie Luotuo turned to look.

Su Bai?

That kid!

There, on the training ground, Su Bai was standing more than thirty meters from the goal, practicing free kicks?

The training mannequins used for free-kick practice were set up in front of the goal.

Su Bai slowly backed up several meters. After measuring the distance, he began taking small, quick steps in place.

This!

It looked exactly like that Brazilian man who had taken violent aesthetics to the very extreme.

Roberto Carlos?

Was this kid trying to learn Carlos's free kicks?

Xie Luotuo smiled. After all, plenty of people in this world could bend a curling free kick, but Carlos's cannonball free kicks—honestly, no one had ever managed to imitate them.

But then, very quickly!

An exaggerated scene unfolded before Xie Luotuo's eyes.

After adjusting his steps, Su Bai burst into a rapid sprint.

Following an explosive accelerating run-up, Su Bai reached the ball.

He raised his left leg high!

Then, with his left foot tensed, he viciously whipped it into the football!

Bang!

The same explosive sound as before!

The ball at Su Bai's feet shot out like a cannonball without the slightest spin!

Xie Luotuo's eyes widened!

At that terrifying speed, the ball flew straight past the side of the wall and drilled into the top-right corner of the goal!

It was in!!!

Xie Luotuo was certain that even if a goalkeeper had been standing there, he still wouldn't have been able to stop Su Bai's shot!

The ball was too fast. That kind of speed had already surpassed the limits of human reaction.

Unbelievable!!!

This kid could actually strike a super free kick even more violent than Roberto Carlos's!!!

It was terrifying. This kid was only sixteen!

At sixteen, he could already hit Roberto Carlos-style cannonballs?

Xie Luotuo hid outside the pitch and watched for a long time.

Su Bai kept repeating the same free-kick drill.

Every single time, the ball had the same speed and found the same top corner!

Xie Luotuo's expression shifted from initial shock to calmness.

He silently turned and returned to his office.

Without any hesitation.

Sitting at his desk, he took out his tactical notebook from the drawer.

He added Su Bai's name under the free-kick takers section.

As if pondering something, Xie Luotuo quickly erased the names of the three players listed before him!

On the training ground.

Su Bai had been training since getting up a little after five in the morning, and it was now ten o'clock.

More than four hours of training had finally drained the last bit of Su Bai's stamina.

At that moment, he still had no idea that his secretly practiced Roberto Carlos thunderbolt, rewarded by the system, had been witnessed by his head coach.

Right now, his mind was filled with nothing but delight!

As expected of something produced by the system.

Once the skill card had fused with him, he, who previously knew nothing about free kicks, suddenly seemed to have gained an epiphany.

Especially after stepping onto the pitch, his understanding of power free kicks—every movement used to generate force and every point of contact on the ball—felt as though it had been engraved into his mind.

After returning to the dormitory and taking a shower, Su Bai hurriedly entered the system.

Inside the system, his attributes still looked half-dead.

Attack 71 Ball Control 72 Passing 74

Shooting 77 Heading 69 Set Pieces 68

Curl 66 Speed 85 Strength 100

Jumping 71 Body Balance 100 Stamina 85

Defense 58 Tackling 65

Overall Rating 76 Age 16

He still needed two more days for his training points to fill up. Then he would get another system point.

But even if he added it to Shooting, his damn Shooting stat would only be 78.

What he craved most now was a higher Shooting stat.

Although he had scored three goals in the last match.

That had mostly been because he had been able to shoot so efficiently without any interference.

In the upcoming match against River Plate.

The opponent would definitely devise tactics specifically to counter his cut-inside shots.

Whether he could still perform like that when the time came was impossible to say.

The road ahead was long and arduous!

He still had to train!

After sighing to himself, Su Bai quickly lay down on the bed to rest. From the afternoon to the evening, he could still train for another six hours.

Time—what he lacked most right now was time.

Buenos Aires International Airport.

A middle-aged man in a suit and sunglasses stepped off the plane.

Feeling Argentina's scorching heat.

The middle-aged man cursed as he undid the buttons on his shirt.

In barely any time at all, Argentina's weather had soaked his expensive shirt with sweat.

"I'm here!"

"Fuck, the season's about to start, and now they're making me rush all the way to River Plate to scout someone!"

"What are the higher-ups thinking?"

"Tottenham Hotspur just sold Bale. With all that money, they could've bought someone reliable, but instead they insist on looking at some young player from River Plate!"

"Those damn bloodsuckers only know how to split the money. Sooner or later, the club will be ruined by those parasites."

Hanks!

The manager of the Premier League Tottenham Hotspur scouting department.

Manager was just a title the club had given him.

His salary, commissions, and benefits were no different from those of Tottenham Hotspur's other scouts.

The only use of that title was that he had the authority to directly sign an agreement with any player he liked.

Of course, the players he supposedly liked were simply those talented but cheap players.

If it exceeded 500,000, he, as the scouting manager, would have to submit a report to the club.

He hailed a taxi!

Hanks headed straight for River Plate's club headquarters in Buenos Aires.

That summer, Tottenham had sold the team's undisputed superstar, Gareth Bale, for a record-breaking 91 million.

Furious fans had surrounded the club on the very day Bale left.

And in order to appease those angry supporters, Tottenham's executives had stepped forward and personally made a promise to the fans.

During this summer transfer window, Tottenham would use that money to make major additions to the squad. Next season, Tottenham would challenge for the Premier League title!

Yet with less than a month remaining before the season began, there had still been no sign of action following that promise.

The club's only move had been to send chief scout Hanks to Argentina, intending to bring River Plate's talented star Romero to Tottenham!

This gifted winger, born in 1991, was twenty-two years old that year. He was incredibly fast and possessed a decent cross!

That was precisely why Tottenham had taken such a strong interest in him!

Well, that was the official explanation.

Hanks knew that the only reason Tottenham had set their sights on Romero was that, while he had some fame, he was exceptionally cheap.

There was no other reason. Aside from those two notable strengths, Romero had nothing particularly outstanding about him.

Six million euros—that was River Plate's asking price, and there was likely room for negotiation!

After a half-hour ride, Hanks finally stood at the gates of River Plate's club headquarters.

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