The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 86 - 42: Attaboy, Wang Shuo! The First Upset of the New Season! Clickbait and Image Rights

Chapter 86: Chapter 42: Attaboy, Wang Shuo! The First Upset of the New Season! Clickbait and Image Rights

The match was at 1:30 PM, which was 7:30 PM back in China—a perfect time slot, so a huge number of fans were watching the live broadcast.

Just like that, Wang Shuo’s fame skyrocketed.

Discussions erupted all across China: a 17-year-old Chinese prodigy had landed in the Bundesliga and put on a stunning performance in the very first round.

Among the many news articles, one from his hometown caught Wang Shuo’s attention.

In his hometown of Quanjiang City, a former national training team player named Jiang Pengju was taking the lead in organizing the inaugural city-wide school football tournament. It was set to be held in the new school year, with divisions for elementary and middle school students.

Jiang Pengju revealed that the school football tournament had already been running for many years in Lingshan State, producing quite a few young players, including Wang Shuo, who was now playing abroad in the Bundesliga, and Zhang Xiaopeng, who was playing at the Huairun Football School.

The two were from the same grade, were classmates, and even came from the same village.

But this time, every elementary and middle school in the entire city would be participating.

Wang Shuo felt quite happy when he saw the news.

He immediately gave Jiang Pengju a call.

"Old Jiang, I’m going to transfer you some money. Can you help me donate some of it to the tournament’s organizing committee, some more to our school, and give the rest to my parents?"

Jiang Pengju, on the other end of the line, was quite surprised.

He knew about Wang Shuo’s family situation. They were dirt poor.

He hadn’t expected him to be so generous.

"Looks like you’re earning quite a bit," Jiang Pengju said jokingly, not refusing Wang Shuo’s kind gesture.

"Besides my annual salary, I also get appearance fees, goal bonuses, and championship bonuses." Wang Shuo himself was frugal, but when it came to things like this, he was more than willing to spend.

He himself had gotten his start in the Lingshan State school football tournament.

During his years at the Huairun Football School, he knew very well that Coach Gao wanted to reform youth training and had been constantly pushing for the development of school football.

The most interesting part was that in Wang Shuo’s contract, the championship bonus from Mainz was set incredibly high.

A full one million euros.

Because absolutely no one believed Mainz could win the Bundesliga or DFB-Pokal title.

Since it was considered impossible anyway, setting the bonus high just made the club look more generous.

Wang Shuo also told Jiang Pengju that he could use his image rights for free to promote school football in Quanjiang City.

It wasn’t like he’d let just anyone use them.

The key was that he trusted Jiang Pengju.

"You can’t make promises like that so easily, Wang Shuo. Coach Gao specifically called me about this and warned me repeatedly. So you see, I only dared to mention it in passing. I won’t bring it up again, and I certainly won’t use your image rights for promotion."

"Why not?" Wang Shuo found this very strange.

"Think about it. If I use them this time, what about next time? What about other people? Local officials, the Football Association, or even your old school—if they all start using your image rights whenever they want, won’t things get chaotic? What if it leads to some kind of legal dispute for you?"

Wang Shuo had never dealt with anything like this before. Now that he thought about it, he realized Jiang Pengju had a point.

Never mind anything else, if he got dragged into a commercial dispute and someone sued him, he’d have to fly back to China. The thought alone was a massive headache.

"Here’s what Coach Gao and I have been thinking. We’re planning to establish a company in your parents’ name, specifically to manage your image rights. On top of that, Coach Gao is already helping you register your personal trademark."

Trademark squatting was another incredibly troublesome issue.

The first thing that came to Wang Shuo’s mind was that news story about Ronaldo and Kaka supposedly endorsing a certain brand of throat lozenges.

"I get it. Thanks, Old Jiang. And please thank Coach Gao for me, too."

"Don’t mention it. You just focus on working hard and playing well over there in Europe. Don’t worry about the rest."

"We folks back home can’t offer you much support, but the least we can do is not hold you back."

After hanging up, Wang Shuo called Thomas Essien to tell him about the donation.

He had a personal account, but wiring money back to China was a hassle, especially with all the tax issues. It was best to let Thomas Essien handle it.

Wang Shuo paid taxes in Germany, but the money would probably have to be processed again back in China.

He had no intention of evading taxes; he would leave it to the professionals to figure out exactly how much was owed.

With those matters settled, Wang Shuo had nothing left to worry about.

He began to focus completely on recuperating and preparing for the next match.

A week later, on August 24th, Mainz faced Frankfurt at home for the second round of the Bundesliga.

This was a team that had been on Wang Shuo’s mind.