Dominating Football with Perfect Ball Control

Chapter 3: 3. Guardiola’s test

Originally, Lance had been full of anticipation for the system.

He thought he could summon the Kaká template or the Ronaldo template to possess him, allowing him to dominate the football world.

Who would have thought the system could make a mistake?

His initial template was someone he had never heard of.

Who exactly is Nagi Seishiro?

Lance pulled out his phone and searched on Google, but found no relevant information.

He was definitely not a Japanese player; such a person did not exist in reality.

He searched through games and anime as well, but couldn’t find him.

He wasn’t present in football-related works like ”Captain Tsubasa” or ”Inazuma Eleven” either.

Lance even suspected that the system had just given him a random ordinary person’s template.

Then what the hell is the point of this template?

Since things had come to this, the item he had waited 1000 days for, he should at least see what it could do.

————

Player: Lance

Age: 16

Body: 181cm / 74kg

Template 1: Nagi Seishiro - S (Fusion Value 50%)

—Skill: Perfect Ball Control

Template 2: Locked

Template 3: Locked

Player Overall Rating: C↑

Rage Value: 0%

————

After roughly studying the system, Lance focused on a few key points, not bothering with the basic information.

First, Nagi Seishiro’s template rating was actually S-tier?

That was the highest level in the system’s rating!

According to the system’s prompt, only players like peak Ronaldo, peak Ronaldinho, and peak Messi would receive an S rating.

His own base strength was only D-tier, and it only became C-tier after equipping the template.

How powerful was an S-tier Nagi Seishiro? Lance could only continuously experiment and explore.

By appearing in official professional matches, he could accumulate Rage Value on the field; once Rage Value reached 100%, he could summon the full power of the S-tier template.

However, Lance speculated that it would only last for a very short period.

Most of the time, Lance only had one passive skill—Perfect Ball Control.

As he pondered the system’s situation, Lance subconsciously grabbed a football from a nearby equipment basket and started juggling it on the sidelines to get a feel for it.

Anyway, Bayern Munich’s first team was conducting their usual tactical training.

Lance was a bit bored by himself on the side.

This was his last day freeloading at the Bayern base; tomorrow, no matter what, he had to leave the base and look for his next club.

Even if Guardiola didn’t care, Lance felt uncomfortable staying at the Bayern first-team base for too long.

...

”Hey! Run! Don’t just stand there after passing the ball, run!”

Guardiola’s assistant coach, Jordi Roura, shouted loudly across the training ground.

He had been the assistant coach during Barcelona’s sextuple-winning period.

Now, he followed Guardiola to Bayern, hoping to use Barcelona’s successful experience to build an invincible team skilled in tiki-taka in Germany.

After yelling at the first-team players, Jordi Roura inadvertently glanced towards the sideline, then suddenly snapped his gaze back, eyes wide!

”Hey, Pep?”

”What?”

Guardiola was focused on observing the first-team players, identifying their issues, and had no time for other matters.

”Pep! Look there!”

”What’s there to see...? Hmm?”

Guardiola looked in the direction his assistant was pointing, only to see the 16-year-old Asian boy juggling the ball.

Players juggling the ball was common; juggling a thousand times was nothing.

However, juggling like Lance was rare.

Lance alternated his feet, kicking the ball three or four stories high each time, then effortlessly controlling it at his ankle, and continuing...

Not only that, he occasionally performed rabonas, backheel juggling, and other freestyle football moves.

It was normal for a football falling from a high altitude to be controlled steadily at one’s feet, but to continuously perform perfect ball control like him, with 100% accuracy, and maintaining the same kicking height every time, was truly extremely rare!

At least, Guardiola had never seen it!

He pondered, chilled by the implication: what did this mean?

It meant that the Asian boy in front of him had terrifying control over the football; his ball sense was almost comparable to Ronaldinho’s!

No, even if Ronaldinho himself were on the field, it would be difficult for him to achieve such perfection as Lance.

”Hiss—”

Guardiola gasped.

”Did we misjudge him? Is he an absolute genius?”

”I don’t know!”

Jordi Roura was also puzzled.

If the youth academy had such a genius, he should have been noticed long ago; they wouldn’t be completely blind.

”Let’s test him.”

Guardiola calmed down, pondered for a moment, and came up with a plan.

They couldn’t let any genius slip away, nor could they be easily deceived by appearances.

The only way to verify his value was through actual combat.

Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth!

Whether he’s a mule or a horse, let’s take him out for a spin.

”Understood.”

His assistant, Jordi Roura, was very cooperative, immediately blowing his whistle to gather the Bayern Munich first-team members.

At the same time, he waved towards Lance.

”Ah? Me?”

Lance pointed to his nose, wondering if it concerned him.

After repeated confirmation, Lance curiously ran over and stood with the Bayern players.

”Alright, that’s enough training for today. Let’s have a scrimmage... Philipp, you arrange it.”

”Okay.”

Bayern Munich captain, Philipp Lahm, nodded.

He meticulously followed the usual procedure for grouping, taking a stack of yellow bibs from the sideline and handing them to his teammates.

Players wearing bibs were on the B team, consisting of rotational substitutes and reserve players; A team players were mostly starters.

The strength gap between the two sides was quite obvious; the starting A team usually easily crushed the B team.

Winning or losing wasn’t important; the important thing was team chemistry.

Lance was surprised; he also received a bib.

”For me?”

”Yes, the coach wants you to participate in the scrimmage.”

”That’s right!”

Assistant coach Jordi Roura said personally:

”Lance, the B team is short a person, you can temporarily play as a number 10.”

”Understood.”

What the coach said was exactly what Lance wanted!

He had long wanted to test how strong the ”Nagi Seishiro” template truly was.

He might not be able to test it against an ordinary weak team, but what if the opponent was the core lineup of a ”treble winner”?

He looked at today’s opponents.

They were all starters from the 2012/13 Bayern Munich team, who had helped Bayern win the Bundesliga, German Cup, and Champions League—three championship trophies!

This lineup was definitely qualified!

————

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer

Defenders: Philipp Lahm, Dante, Jér?me Boateng, David Alaba

Midfielders: Javi Martínez, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribéry

Forwards: Thomas Müller, Mario Mand?uki?

————

In contrast, the substitute lineup wearing bibs was much weaker.

————

Goalkeeper: Tom Starke

Defenders: Rafinha, Daniel Van Buyten, Diego Contento, Holger Badstuber

Midfielders: Toni Kroos, Thiago Alcantara, Mario G?tze, Xherdan Shaqiri

Forwards: Lance, Mario Gomez

————

There was a slight difference in strength between the two sides.

Mario Gomez was past his prime, and not as good as Mario Mand?uki? this season.

Toni Kroos and Thiago were young midfielders, lacking experience; G?tze had just transferred from Borussia Dortmund and had no chemistry with Bayern.

How could such a lineup possibly compete against Bayern’s A team starters?

”Whatever, I wasn’t expecting to win anyway.”

”Hey, East Asian kid.”

”Huh?”

”Don’t hog the ball later, pass it to me a lot!”

The tall, burly forward Mario Gomez had a fierce expression.

Relying on his past as a top Bundesliga striker and Germany’s starting center-forward, he was not at all polite to Lance, ordering him around.

I’ll pass to your ghost!

Lance, today, was testing the template’s strength, so he couldn’t possibly listen to Mario Gomez, unless Mario Gomez was truly in a good position.

After warming up, Lance stepped onto the field, ready for battle.

At that moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him, and a white-haired anime character appeared in his mind!

That two-dimensional image seemed to merge with his soul!

Lance immediately felt a profound sensation!