I Just Want to Play Soccer, but You Want Me to Be the King of Soccer

In the Great Jing Dynasty, the arts flourished while military preparedness languished. Only cuju, an ancient form of football, was wildly popular throughout the land. Xiao Ran, a student at an academy whose family had fallen on hard times, had no choice but to join underground betting matches to scrape together the money for his imperial exam journey. During a crucial match, his opponent deliberately rammed into him, leaving him gravely injured. On the brink of death, he unexpectedly awakened a golden finger: the ability to instantly master any cuju technique, see through an opponent’s formation, and even predict the ball’s trajectory.

From then on, Xiao Ran’s life changed completely. He was no longer a scholar too weak to lift a chicken, but an unpredictable midfield maestro on the pitch. Leading a grassroots team of common folk, he began with street-corner betting matches and went on to sweep all before him, take down elite clubs, and make it into the capital league, astonishing princes and nobles alike.