Football: Messi, I am your wallbreaker!

Chapter 2: Almost No Football to Play With!

"One hundred thousand hours..."

Li Jing stared at the "Pending Claim" button on the system interface, his fingers trembling.

What does this mean?

He had previously spent three years diligently pretending to be a Messi hater every day, collecting the system's monthly allowance of 100 hours, totaling 3600 hours.

For this tie-breaking mission, 2000 hours already felt like a huge sum of money.

If he were in China, he would be confident he could make it into the Chinese Super League.

The result is now—100,000.

Li Jing was utterly shocked; as expected, being reborn was a truly exhilarating story.

When he went to Zubizarreta's office that morning, he was just trying to see if he could get rid of Messi.

Those words were from a recording leaked from within Barcelona's top management around 2020, which was based on his memories from a previous life.

At that time, the Barcelona management's attitude towards Messi had become extremely hostile, with insulting nicknames such as "steroid-fueled dwarf" and "sewer rat" circulating privately among the senior management.

He simply copied it verbatim, just to give it a try, and repeated it in front of Subizarreta.

At the time, only Zubizarreta and Neymar were in the office—why was there a recording, and why was it leaked?

"Are you fucking listening to me or not?!"

Raiola's roar on the other end of the phone pulled him back from the system interface.

"I'm here, I'm here!"

Li Jing quickly switched her attention back to the present.

"Sir, I'm sorry, I did get distracted just now."

"Distracted? You still have the mind to distract yourself?"

Raiola's voice carried the dramatic anger characteristic of Italians.

Do you know your current situation?

"Santos has officially informed me that they intend to terminate your contract in the winter transfer window. It's not a discussion, it's a formal notification."

"Barcelona's legal team is already considering whether to sue you for defamation."

"Your personal social media accounts are now flooded with death threats from Messi fans."

"And you, now the whole world knows you!"

Li Jing remained silent for two seconds.

Raiola continues to deal damage:

"Do you know what this means? You're now tainted with scandal. Even with your Club World Cup performance against Barcelona, ​​even with the highlights of that game right there—no club will sign you at this critical juncture."

"Even if a team sees your talent, and Barcelona is their arch-rival, they'll still slash your value, slash it to the floor. No, slash it to the basement."

"No team would want to get involved with a rookie embroiled in scandal."

After listening, Li Jing didn't rush to reply.

Because he really didn't know how to respond.

He really hadn't expected the recording to happen.

There were only the three of them in Zubizarreta's office at the time.

"Mr. Raiola,"

Li Jing tried his best to make his tone sincere.

"I didn't think this through, and I'm sorry for causing you trouble."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Heavy breathing came through, like a bull trying to calm itself down.

Then Raiola's tone changed.

The two had known each other for many years, and their relationship was like that of father and son, which is why Raiola cursed Li Jing so fiercely.

If the relationship wasn't good enough, Raiola wouldn't be this angry even after something like this happened.

Raiola was no longer furious, but regained the composure that a professional agent would use when dealing with a mess.

Li Jing also knew that Raphael's return to this state meant that he had already started making plans.

This is the fat guy who strikes fear into the hearts of clubs all over Europe, known as the vampire.

"Listen, you remember our previous plan, right?"

"Remember."

Li Jing nodded, even though the other person couldn't see him.

"Next June, I'll join a mid-to-upper-tier European club, leveraging my performance in the Club World Cup and a six-month development period to be packaged as a rising star and enter one of the top five European leagues."

"Yes, that was Plan A. Now Plan A is scrapped."

Raiola's speech quickened, adopting the rhythm of a businessman rapidly calculating pros and cons.

"Your public image can no longer be cultivated using the 'rising star' approach. Rising stars need positive exposure and the accumulation of goodwill, and your current goodwill rating is negative."

"I was originally planning to get you some fans, but if you keep doing this, you'll probably just end up being dragged into a pigsty and used as a sex slave."

"That……"

Plan B.

Raiola interrupted him.

"A club was interested in you before, but their offer was too low and the terms weren't good. To put it bluntly, I was using them as a tool to drive up prices—we negotiated with them first, and then raised our offers when other clubs started to get impatient."

Li Jing already had the answer in his heart.

"Atletico Madrid."

"Plan B is now the only option," Raiola's voice came through the phone.

"Furthermore, Atletico Madrid just changed managers this year; Simeone is now in charge. They're probably in a panic and need to finalize things quickly. Going to Atletico Madrid shouldn't be a problem."

"but--"

"But they know your situation. You have no bargaining chips, and neither do I. Santos wants to terminate your contract, and you're a free agent burdened with scandal. If they make an offer, they'll only offer the lowest possible price."

Li Jing took a deep breath.

Go to Atletico Madrid.

To be honest, it's better than he had imagined.

He was initially worried that he would end up with some unknown small league team during the winter transfer window.

However, Li Jing now has over 100,000 hours of special training, so he's not afraid anymore.

He glanced down at the system interface.

One hundred thousand hours of intensive training.

It really is a case of fortune and misfortune being intertwined.

This scandal cost him his contract with Santos and ruined Raiola's meticulously planned Plan A, but it also gave him training resources that were enough to transform him.

"Okay," Li Jing said. "Atletico Madrid, I'll go."

"It's not a question of whether you go or not," Raiola scoffed, "it's a question of whether they're willing to take you on. I need to go and renegotiate with their sporting director now, and see what happens this winter transfer window—"

Raiola abruptly stopped speaking.

"What's wrong?" Li Jing asked.

"Wait a minute, another call is coming in."

The call was switched to standby mode.

Li Jing leaned back on the sofa, her mind a bit of a mess.

Life is truly unpredictable.

This morning I was still feeling smug about my two thousand hours of training, planning how to gradually make up for my weaknesses.

A leaked recording at noon plunged him into a media firestorm. But it turned out the bottom of the fire was a gold mine – 100,000 hours of work paid out.

Before I could even feel happy, I found myself unemployed.

Now suddenly there's a road leading to La Liga.

This is a roller coaster ride.

"Li Jing!" Raiola's voice came through the phone again.

The tone changed.

It wasn't anger, nor was it calm analysis; rather, it was a very subtle—unexpectedly complex feeling.

"Who made that call?" Li Jing asked.

"Simone."

"What?"

"Diego Simeone. He just took over as head coach of Atletico Madrid. He called me personally."

Li Jing was stunned.

The head coach made the call personally? This is extremely rare in transfer transactions.

Usually, it's the sporting director or the club's transfer department that contacts the agent. If the head coach goes directly to the field, it means he has a very strong personal interest in the player.

"What did he say?"

"Guess what?" Raiola's tone became subtle. "How long did that call last in total?"

"how long?"

"Eight seconds."

"...Eight seconds?"

"Eight seconds," Raiola repeated. "He practically just told me to ask if I was willing, and he even made a point of explaining that he guaranteed with his professional integrity that he wouldn't make things difficult for me because of what I said to Messi, even though he's Argentinian."

"So..." Li Jing asked tentatively, "Is this good news?"

"Good my ass," Raiola cursed, but the anger in her voice had vanished.

"Unchanged terms mean they're still offering the same rock-bottom price. I don't even have a chance to negotiate; they've basically sealed the deal off."

"They're offering you a weekly wage of 50,000 euros, and they're not exploiting you, but you don't seem to care. If you need more money, just ask me. The only thing you need to worry about is your career. Then there's the 80 million euro buyout clause. Basically, they're trying to take advantage of you and lock you up completely."

But at least—

"At least you have a ball to play with, right?" Raiola sighed.

"Pack your bags, you're flying to Madrid in a week."

"Start your brand new football career now!"

"Li Jing, I'll say it again."

Raiola lowered her voice.

"You really know how to cause me trouble."

The phone hangs up.

Li Jing put down his phone and leaned back on the sofa.

One week.

He raised his hand and clicked the flashing "Claim" button on the system interface.

[Received: 100000 training hours]

[Currently available training hours: 102347 hours]

One hundred and twenty-three hundred and forty-seven hours.

Converted to days, that's nearly eleven and a half years of pure training time.

I'm going to Atletico Madrid in a week.

Li Jing decided to work hard.

Dark Blue, add some points!

……