"We've made a critical mistake!"
Outside Bruch Road Stadium, after warmly interacting with the fans, Mainz Chairman Strutz and General Manager Heidel met in Head Coach Klopp's office.
Heidel, deeply regretful, admitted to a major blunder in his work.
"To this day, we still haven't signed Wang Shuo to a contract!"
"Why not?" Strutz asked, astonished.
Klopp, standing to the side, said calmly, "He's not 18 yet."
In Germany, clubs can only sign players to a professional contract once they turn 18.
Of course, where there are rules, there are ways around them.
Clubs had many ways to circumvent this, such as setting up a contract in two stages: one before the player turned 18, and one after.
A major reason why Arsenal was able to poach Fabregas in '03 but couldn't get Messi was because Messi had signed such a contract with Barça. To force a transfer, they would have had to pay a massive compensation fee.
