Mainz was poor.
So poor that even their offices were spartan.
That was why, for a long time, Christian Heidel didn't work out of Bruch Road Stadium.
Even to this day, he still frequently worked from his BMW Home.
In fact, many of Mainz's most important contracts were signed there.
Of course, as a relative unknown on the German football scene, not many people paid attention to such details.
As a good friend of Heidel's, Klopp was also a regular at the BMW Home.
But this was the first time he had ever burst in so frantically, late at night right after a league match.
"What's wrong, Jurgen?"
Heidel looked up at Klopp with curiosity from his seat in the spacious, brightly-lit office.
"Why didn't you answer your phone?"
Klopp was slightly out of breath, having clearly rushed all the way over.
"I was at the stadium watching a match. The battery died," Heidel explained casually.
"You have no idea. This iPhone the Yanks came up with... the screen is so big, it just eats up the battery. It can't even last a full day. It's nothing like a Nokia or a Siemens."
That last part was purely a complaint about his phone.
Klopp chuckled. "That's not what you said when you bought it. You were the one saying it was the future."
"I've been had. This phone is useless."
Klopp shot him a look that said, 'Yeah, right.'
He'd known Heidel for more than a decade; their relationship was so close, how could he not know his personality?
The man was an early adopter, always eager to try out the latest new thing.
But Klopp obviously hadn't come to discuss phones with Heidel.
He was there to talk about Bayern sending scouts to watch Wang Shuo of the U19s.
Christian Heidel had heard the name before.
The player had only joined in mid-March; Heidel had even signed his youth contract himself.
But Heidel hadn't thought much of it.
He'd heard since then that the kid was performing well for the U19 team, and that Kramny also had high praise for the Chinese player.
Especially today.
He had even heard that Wang Shuo led the U19 team to a 4-3 comeback victory over Bayern Munich U19 in Lower Olm.
And had even scored a hat-trick.
"Bayern sent someone to scout him?" Heidel was still quite surprised.
"It's the absolute truth. Hennes already called his agent."
Hearing this, Heidel's expression finally turned serious.
It was common for Bayern to scout players, but a personal call from Hennes was anything but simple.
"You want to keep him?" Heidel frowned.
That wouldn't be easy.
Across all of Germany, when Bayern wanted to poach a player, it was very difficult for other German teams to refuse.
Especially a team like Mainz.
Moreover, Klopp's current situation wasn't exactly ideal for him to step in and convince the player to stay.
He couldn't offer any concrete, binding promises.
The team wasn't doing very well in the Second Bundesliga right now.
According to the contract extension Klopp had signed with Mainz, if they failed to get promoted to the Bundesliga this season, Klopp would almost certainly choose to leave the club.
Given his current reputation in the German football scene, there was no shortage of Bundesliga teams interested in him.
Dortmund was the most likely candidate.
Of course, if the team succeeded in getting promoted, Klopp would choose to stay, as per his contract.
Under these circumstances, what could Klopp possibly offer to convince the player to stay?
"I want to promote him directly to the first team and have him play in our matches," Klopp said, voicing his plan.
Heidel nodded. "I have no problem on my end. It's your call."
"But he's not old enough."
"His age?"
"That's right. He was born in September 1990."
Heidel immediately clicked his tongue.
As the general manager of Mainz, he was of course familiar with the rules of the German professional leagues, especially when it came to player registration.
It was common knowledge.
A brief silence fell between the two men as they both mulled over the issue.
"Over the past two seasons, more and more teams in the 2nd Bundesliga have started to prioritize and promote young players."
"For example, last season, Munich 1860 promoted the two brothers, Lars and Sven Bender."
"Last December, Kaiserslautern promoted Alexander Esswein, and this past February, Paderborn promoted Junior Hoilett."
"But all those players had a common trait: they came up through their own club's youth academy, and they were also at least 18 years old by the end of the season. This complies with the current statutes of the German professional leagues."
"I know, but there are exceptions, aren't there?"
"You're talking about Dortmund's Shahin, and Lewis Holtby from Aachen, right?"
Klopp nodded.
To date, they were the only two young players in the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga who had been granted special playing permits.
Holtby's, for instance, was in December of '07.
Interestingly, he was also born in September 1990, making his situation very similar to Wang Shuo's.
"This is a lot of trouble. You have to understand, Shahin and Holtby are both nationally recognized as prodigious talents. But even so, it took a massive effort for Dortmund and Aachen to secure their special playing permits."
At this, Heidel looked Klopp straight in the eye. "Do you think it's necessary for us to do all this for Wang Shuo?"
"Yes!"
Klopp blurted it out, his tone utterly certain.
But soon after, the Mainz head coach shook his head in frustration and let out a sigh.
"You saw the match against Aachen this evening. I've done everything I can, but it's like our players have suddenly forgotten how to play football."
"Especially our forwards. It's as if they've forgotten how to score. I'm really running out of options."
Having known each other for over a decade, Heidel knew Klopp's personality well.
Klopp wouldn't be speaking like this unless he were truly at his wit's end.
This was a clear reflection of Klopp's current state of helplessness.
He knew the team had a problem, and he even knew roughly where it was, but he had no way to fix it.
"Zeliko and I have studied it. In past seasons, to get promoted from the 2nd Bundesliga to the Bundesliga, you need at least 60 points."
"Right now, with only seven rounds left in the league, we're at 43 points. We have virtually no more room for error."
"And don't forget, among the remaining seven matches, we still have to play Cologne away, as well as teams like Augsburg, Kaiserslautern, and St. Pauli. None of those will be easy games."
Both Klopp and Heidel placed a great deal of importance on data analysis.
Mainz was one of the first teams in the German professional leagues to adopt data and video analysis.
So, Heidel easily picked up on the clear signal in Klopp's words.
To reach 60 points, they needed to earn at least 17 points from the seven remaining league games.
At the absolute most, they could only afford to lose one more match.
But Heidel knew all too well how disastrous Mainz's recent results had been.
"Both Zeliko and I believe that Wang Shuo can be a player who brings a change to our frontline. He's the player we need right now."
"No one knows what he can change, but at the very least, it's a chance."
Upon hearing this, Heidel nodded firmly. "I get it."
"I'll head to Frankfurt tomorrow. I'll figure out a way to persuade them, and I'll do everything in my power to get the playing permit. But it will certainly take some time."
Klopp grinned. "Then I'll promote him to the first team right away. That'll make Dreimler's trip a waste."
After a pause, Klopp scoffed. "I'd like to see Hennes dare to come to the first team and ask me for one of my players!"
Heidel could only give a wry, helpless smile.
Regarding the incident where Klopp nearly became the coach of Bayern, Hennes was indeed the one at fault.
Given the current relationship between the two, Hennes probably wouldn't dare approach Klopp.
Of course, Heidel could also tell that Klopp was still harboring some resentment.
Coaching Bayern is a tremendous honor for any German head coach.
Klopp included.
But right now, he was definitely seething with anger at Bayern.
...
Wang Shuo had no idea what had happened the previous day.
The next morning, when he arrived at the training ground, Kramny hit him with the news.
"Pack your things and report to the first team, now!"
'The first team?'
Completely bewildered, Wang Shuo packed his things and headed to the first-team area, two hundred meters away.
The first team had only one training pitch, slightly larger than a standard football field, located right next to the north stand of Bruch Road Stadium.
The players' locker room, lounge area, gym, training equipment room, and the coaches' offices were all housed within a white, steel-structured building in the northwest corner of the stadium grounds.
As Wang Shuo arrived at this training building, a place every Mainz youth player dreamed of entering, the first-team players were just beginning to arrive and check in.
On the first-team training pitch diagonally across from him, Klopp and Buvac were setting up the training session with the rest of the coaching staff.
"You must be Wang Shuo, right?"
Just as Wang Shuo was about to push open the door to the training building, a booming voice sounded from beside him.
He turned his head and saw a burly, well-built player wearing a red Mainz jersey.
Compared to many of the German players around, his skin seemed darker, more like that of an Asian player.
Wang Shuo recognized him in a single glance. It was Mainz's current captain, the Macedonian center-back, Nichols Nowitzki.
"Yes, I'm Wang Shuo. Hello, Captain."
After Direct Lineage center-back Friedrich transferred to Bayer Leverkusen, Nowitzki had taken over the captain's armband.
"Jurgen just told me about you. Come with me."
With that, Nowitzki pushed the door open and walked into the training building.
The Macedonian walked ahead, explaining the layout of the building to Wang Shuo as they went.
He pointed out the gym, the lounge, what was in the lounge, and so on...
The training building was on the small side, but it had everything they needed.
The locker room wasn't very big, either.
When Wang Shuo walked in, it was already filled with players busy changing clothes or tying their shoelaces.
"Alright, guys!"
Nowitzki clearly commanded a lot of authority in the locker room. He clapped his hands once, hard, and everyone stopped what they were doing to look over.
It was only then that they noticed Wang Shuo standing beside him.
Even though Wang Shuo was 1.8 meters tall, only 10 centimeters shorter than the 1.9-meter Nowitzki, the Macedonian was a great deal more muscular.
Wang Shuo felt the captain's powerful presence, and at the same time, he felt the strange looks from the other teammates in the locker room.
Some were wary, some were curious, some were welcoming, and some held a degree of hostility, or even disdain.
The locker room was small, but the twenty or thirty players inside each had their own interests and agendas.
Especially given Mainz's current situation, the atmosphere in the locker room was even more chaotic.
"This is the best player from our U19s, Wang Shuo from China. He's only seventeen years old."
"Due to his age, he's not yet eligible to play in matches for the first team. He's just here to train with the squad."
Wang Shuo could clearly feel that when Nowitzki said this, quite a few people in the locker room visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Here, Wang, you can sit next to Neven. That locker is yours," Nowitzki said, pointing to his left.
"Okay."
Not having a choice, Wang Shuo immediately walked over.
This Neven was a player whose height and build were no less impressive than Nowitzki's.
He was the team's starting center-back.
"Hi, I'm Wang Shuo, from China."
Wang Shuo walked to his locker, saw the tall center-back, and proactively extended his hand with a smile.
The other man wasn't exactly warm, but he shook Wang Shuo's hand politely enough.
"Hello. Neven. Neven Subotic. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, currently playing for the United States national team, but I have Serbian citizenship."
Wang Shuo was taken aback for a moment.
'That's... complicated.'
At the same time Wang Shuo was stepping into the first-team locker room, his agent, Thomas Essien, was arriving at Bruch Road Stadium with someone else in tow.