Chinese football is a global joke.
Seventeen-year-old Lu Ming crouched beneath a car at the repair shop while the TV showed another family’s 17-year-old prodigy scoring eight goals in eight games. He filled out a talent application form and hesitated for ages over the “Special Skills” section before writing just two words: scoring goals.
At a trial for a struggling China League Two team, his fitness barely scraped by and his technique was average. For the first 70 minutes, he vanished from the game. Everyone thought he wasn’t good enough, until the 85th minute, when he stole the ball, sent the keeper sprawling, and tapped it into an empty net. The coach stood up and asked, “What’s your name?”
From a China League Two substitute earning 2,400 yuan a month, to a rookie whose teammates said, “You’re new. Don’t touch the ball,” to a stubborn mule who pinned screenshots of his critics’ comments above his bed, Lu Ming lived by one rule: If you don’t give it everything, you’ve got no chance.
He awakened the Gift of God’s Hand, which dramatically heightened his instincts inside the box. But he soon discovered that talent was only a ticket in. The real hell was Chinese football itself.
Fighting for promotion, reaching the top flight, playing overseas, returning home, hitting rock bottom, then clawing his way back up: when the whole world said China didn’t deserve to win, he led a team of laughingstocks onto the pitch for the World Cup final.
No one believed in them. So he would let the whole world watch.
The content has its ups and downs, the characters are interesting and smart, quite good, and the protagonist brings glory to the country.
It's great. I finally found a novel I like.
Football fans, I love reading this novel
It's good-looking and has a strong three-dimensional effect. I like watching the protagonist's counterattack.
What a shocking story, well written
The protagonist was terminated from the youth training, struggled in the bottom league, encountered injuries, doubts, and opponents, but still insisted on his love.