The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 233 - 63: I Need Wang Shuo on My Team

Back then, Klopp had made a promise: if Mainz failed to secure promotion to the Bundesliga, he would come to coach Dortmund.

So, as the two sides discussed working together again, they were already quite familiar with one another.

For Klopp, Dortmund was a much bigger and more prestigious club than Mainz.

Interestingly, both clubs shared the same anthem: "You’ll Never Walk Alone."

But the situation now was completely different from a year ago.

"Hummels played well for us last season. Bayern wanted to bring him back, but the player refused their request. He doesn’t want to return to Bayern."

Sporting Director Zorc was briefing Klopp on the club’s current transfer dealings.

"We’ve reached a preliminary agreement with Bayern. They’re willing to sell Hummels to us for 4.2 million euros."

Hummels had been Dortmund’s starting center-back last season.

Especially in the second half of the season, he, Subotic, and Santana formed Dortmund’s central defensive trio.

This was arguably the strongest part of the Dortmund squad.

Klopp had no objections to this decision.

"In the midfield, we’ve decided to sign the youngster Sven Bender from Munich 1860, but it will be a swap deal involving our Serbian right-back, Rukavina."

Rukavina had joined Dortmund for 2.5 million euros, but he failed to secure a starting position last season. He was loaned out to Munich 1860 during the winter break, where he became a regular starter and played exceptionally well.

The Bender brothers at Munich 1860 were key players in Germany’s victory at the U21 European Championship.

Dortmund had originally wanted to sign both brothers, but Lars Bender had caught the eye of Bayer Leverkusen.

Klopp didn’t place much importance on Rukavina either.

Sven Bender, on the other hand, was a different story. Klopp had heard of the brothers’ reputation back when they were playing in the 2nd Bundesliga.

So far, Dortmund’s transfer activities were all proceeding according to Klopp’s plan.

And in agreeing to coach Dortmund, he had laid out three conditions.

The first was the simplest: sign Foyelner on a free transfer.

The Mainz player’s contract had expired, and he was a player Klopp rated very highly.

Another was Zidane from Hamburg.

The player’s current transfer fee wasn’t high.

But the final condition was the most important.

"Sell one of our two forwards, Valdes or Frei. I want to sign Wang Shuo from Mainz!"

This past season, Frei had scored 12 Bundesliga goals, while Valdes had scored 7.

Neither forward was a particularly prolific goalscorer.

They were both around 1.8 meters tall, very similar to Wang Shuo.

But in Klopp’s eyes, Wang Shuo was the striker who perfectly fit his tactical requirements.

He might be a bit short and physically weak, but his average of 12 kilometers covered per match was simply insane!

The Dortmund executives sitting across from him had already been briefed and had discussed the matter amongst themselves.

"Our club is currently in serious debt."

CEO and CFO Marcus Kneipen spoke up.

"Forget about selling just one of Valdes or Frei. Even if we sold both of them, we’d only get 10 million euros at most. Wang Shuo’s transfer fee is definitely more than that."

Previously, Bayern had offered up to 15 million euros, and Mainz hadn’t even budged.

"Twenty million euros!" Klopp provided the answer.

He had discussed it with Heidel.

If they were willing to pay that price, Mainz would let Wang Shuo go.

For Mainz, this was an incredibly lucrative deal.

At the start of 2008, Wang Shuo had joined Mainz on a free transfer.

Over the past season and a half, he had not only helped Mainz achieve promotion to the Bundesliga, but had also secured the unofficial "autumn championship" and won the DFB-Pokal.

Now, to get a 20-million-euro transfer fee on top of that... Mainz had to be laughing all the way to the bank.

"Jurgen, we’d love to sign Wang Shuo too, but it’s going to be very difficult to come up with that kind of money!" Zorc said, speaking up again.

Klopp looked up, his sharp gaze fixed on the core members of Dortmund’s board. After choosing his words carefully, he continued, "I’ve coached Wang Shuo. I know his skills, and more importantly, I know his potential."

"Nobody knows Wang Shuo’s value better than I do!"

At this, Klopp’s voice grew heavy. "I am willing to sell any one, two, or even three players from this squad, as long as it means we can raise enough funds to sign Wang Shuo from Mainz!"

"Believe me, he is the kind of player who brings victories, who brings championships!"

"He will become the best player in the world!"

Klopp’s words carried immense weight.

The implication was clear: if they really had no money, they should sell players to raise it.

He was willing to part with several valuable players just to sign Wang Shuo.

This made everyone on the other side of the table understand just how highly Klopp valued Wang Shuo.

More importantly, Wang Shuo’s performance was indeed beyond reproach.

Twenty-nine Bundesliga goals in a single season!

A hat-trick against Bayern in the DFB-Pokal final!

And all before the age of nineteen.

All of this was enough to inspire immense expectations for Wang Shuo.

’Twenty million euros... was it really that expensive?’

The problem was that Dortmund was currently drowning in debt.

Their debt in 2008 was nearly 150 million euros.

After a year of working to reduce that burden, the debt had shrunk, but the pressure was still immense.

To raise money to buy Wang Shuo at this juncture would be an enormous gamble.

A gamble on the future of Wang Shuo and Klopp at Dortmund.

This was precisely why core board members like Laubal were all in attendance.

"Let me be clear. I didn’t come to coach Dortmund for the upcoming Bundesliga season, and certainly not for the UEFA Europa League. If that were my ambition, I would have stayed at Mainz to lead them in the Champions League!"

Klopp was reminding everyone that the team he had just led would be playing in the Champions League next season.

He had given up the chance to manage a team in the Champions League to come to Dortmund.

What did he want in return?

"My goal is simple. I don’t just want a title. I want a dynasty. I want to overthrow Bayern Munich’s domination of the Bundesliga!"

"I want to lead Dortmund to topple Bayern, to make our mark on the European stage, and to restore Dortmund to its former glory!"

As Klopp spoke, his eyes were fixed intently on the Dortmund board members before him.

"And for that, I need Wang Shuo on my team!"