The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 97 - 44: Long-Distance Dash! Refuse Bayern? I’m Going to Outwork the World

But that didn't stop everyone from cheering for Wang Shuo's goal at this very moment.

Nor did it stop Wang Shuo from feeling happy about winning over the Mainz fans.

...

A strange thing was happening. Despite losing the match, Mainz's morale seemed to have soared.

This was because they had spent the final minutes of the game completely dominating Bayern.

In contrast, the Bayern players, who had won 3–1, looked utterly dejected.

The Mainz players returned to the locker room, still in the middle of a heated discussion.

The topics of conversation were the live league standings and the top scorer rankings.

After losing to Bayern, Mainz had certainly relinquished their top spot in the league, just as everyone had expected.

Hamburg mounted a 3–2 comeback victory over Bayer Leverkusen to claim the top of the table.

Hoffenheim drew 0–0 at home against Stuttgart.

Borussia Mönchengladbach suffered a crushing 1–5 defeat away to Hannover 96.

The respective situations of the three newly promoted teams were quite revealing.

In the 2nd Bundesliga last season, Borussia Mönchengladbach had been utterly dominant.

But if you carefully compared Borussia Mönchengladbach's record against the other four teams in the top five of the 2nd Bundesliga, you would easily find that they were at a clear disadvantage.

In other words, if the top five 2nd Bundesliga teams had formed their own mini-league, Borussia Mönchengladbach would have been near the bottom.

Some people might find that strange.

'That can't be right. If they were so poor in matches against strong opponents, how did Borussia Mönchengladbach secure promotion with such a comfortable lead?'

By beating up on the weaker teams!

They were incredibly consistent when it came to crushing the minnows!

But this season, after their promotion to the Bundesliga, there were no more minnows to crush. Even after investing over ten million euros during the summer, they were now in the relegation zone.

Having conceded 11 goals in four matches, they had let in more goals than any other team in the first four rounds of the Bundesliga.

Borussia Mönchengladbach had one win and three losses, for a total of three points.

Hoffenheim had two wins, one draw, and one loss, putting them in seventh place with seven points.

Mainz had three wins and one loss. With nine points, they had given up the top spot but were still in second place.

The new leader of the pack was North King Hamburg.

And speaking of Hamburg, they were truly formidable at the moment.

Under the guidance of Dutch coach Martin Jol, they had sold Van der Vaart, de Jong, and Kompany over the summer, raking in over thirty million euros.

But who would have thought that this team would now be sitting at the top of the league?

How embarrassing must that be for the Southern King, Bayern, who were sitting in third?

On the top scorers chart, the leading goal-scorers were Ibisevic from Hoffenheim and Wang Shuo from Mainz, both with four goals.

Ibisevic had failed to score in this round of matches.

Wang Shuo, however, had now scored in four consecutive matches.

Both players also had two assists.

However, one of Ibisevic's goals was a penalty, while none of Wang Shuo's were.

Therefore, after the conclusion of the fourth round, Wang Shuo overtook Ibisevic to claim the top spot on the Bundesliga's top scorer chart.

Even though everyone knew it was only temporary, it was still a remarkable achievement.

Topping the Bundesliga scoring chart just after turning eighteen—could you even imagine?

Looking further down the list, those with three goals included world-class center forward Luca Tony and German international Helmes, who had joined Bayer Leverkusen from Cologne this season.

Mario Gomez?

Sorry, he'd only scored two.

VfL Wolfsburg's Griffith had only managed two as well.

And Dzeko had only scored a single goal.

The Mainz players were ecstatic, and they came over one by one to congratulate Wang Shuo.

Such an honor was a truly rare occasion for Mainz.

Of course, not everyone was genuinely happy for him.

New signing Bancé, for instance, was feeling quite dejected.

He'd been suspended for the first two matches due to a red card and had been planning to come back strong and prove himself.

But who would've thought? Wang Shuo had taken over the starting spot and simply wasn't budging.

The crucial part was that his performance just kept getting better.

'How long am I going to be stuck warming the bench?'

His teammates congratulated him one after another, with some even starting to clamor that a celebration was in order.

Amri was the most excited of them all.

That guy might not give his all on the pitch, but he was never one to miss out on a good time.

Wang Shuo, sitting in his spot, glanced first at Subotic, then at assistant coach Kramny in the distance, who was smiling silently.

The coach's eyes held a look of encouragement.

Wang Shuo thought for a moment and decided to say something before Klopp came in.

And so, he stood up.

The entire locker room instantly fell silent.

Everyone was a little surprised, but most of them watched Wang Shuo with a smile.

Most of the men in this locker room had battled their way up from the 2nd Bundesliga alongside Wang Shuo.

While there were new signings, those who weren't in direct competition with him for a position were generally happy to see his success.

"I'm not much of a talker, actually."

Wang Shuo's opening line made everyone burst out laughing.

"Don't worry about it! You're the man of the hour, so just speak your mind!" Amri cheered loudly.

The others all voiced their agreement.

"I feel like scoring isn't just about me. It's the result of our teamwork, a credit to everyone on the pitch."

His teammates were clearly pleased to hear that.

In the distance, Kramny remained silent but gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"I don't really know what else to say, but... in short, thank you all so much!"

"Let me treat everyone to dinner."

"Great idea! I'm definitely in," Subotic declared, the first to respond.

"Count me in for sure," Foyelner added.

"Me too."

"Where are we going? I'm bringing my girlfriend."