All-Round Defensive Midfielder: From Cape Verde to World Cup Champion

Ma Ernei, a 16-year-old youth-team prospect, is widely regarded in football circles as an all-around utility player. He can play seven positions, from winger and attacking midfielder to defensive midfielder and fullback, and can run for 120 minutes without tiring. Yet he is stuck at home because he cannot afford the fees for an overseas trial. After staying up late to watch Cape Verde, a nation of just 500,000 people, make its first-ever World Cup appearance while China’s national team suffers another early exit, he is so furious that he faints on the spot and accidentally activates the Mirror-Binding System. He plans to bind with Neymar or Olise and cruise to a championship rating, but while flipping through the options, he slips and selects Cape Verdean goalkeeper Vozinha: a 40-year-old veteran on the fringes, valued at just 50,000 euros, with a whole team worth less than a fraction of a powerhouse club’s roster. The System grants him only the most basic abilities: a 5% boost to stamina recovery, a 0.1-second reaction-time bonus, and vague positioning hints. With so little to work with, he still helps Cape Verde draw with Spain, tie Uruguay, and hold Argentina through extra time in a grueling battle. They are eliminated in the Round of 32, but he earns a perfect S-rank evaluation. Reborn just before the World Cup begins, he uses his foresight to bet on dark horses and achieve financial freedom, then heads to Europe with a max-level all-around System. Starting in a Portuguese youth academy, he works his way into a Premier League powerhouse, then leads China’s national team through a difficult qualifying campaign to the 2030 World Cup. In the final, standing over the penalty spot, he scores the winning goal and personally lifts the World Cup trophy for Chinese football.