At 6:50 AM, the grass at Hoffenheim Training Base was still covered in dew. Oliver arrived ten minutes early today, standing on the sidelines and doing warm-up exercises. He kept recalling the key points of the 'Wing One-Man Show' skill that the system prompted last night, as well as the amazing breakthrough moments of Gnabry in matches.
"You're quite early," a familiar voice came from behind. Oliver turned around and saw Gnabry, dressed in training gear, walking over with two bottles of sports drinks in his hand. Gnabry had also arrived quite early today.
"Didn't want to keep you waiting," Oliver took the drink, twisted open the cap, and took a sip.
Gnabry grinned: "By the way, Oliver, does the coach know about this?"
Oliver nodded: "I'll go explain the situation to him in a bit." He looked at his watch, "Now's a good time to go."
Nagelsmann's office light was already on. When Oliver knocked and entered, the young coach was drawing on the tactics board. Hearing the reason for his visit, he put down his marker and leaned on the desk with his hands clasped.
"You plan to learn wing breakthroughs from Gnabry?" Nagelsmann raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm... good idea, but..." He stood up and walked to the window, looking at the sky which was already beginning to lighten. "This ability isn't something that can be mastered purely by technique; it requires a corresponding foundation of explosiveness and speed. Gnabry's breakthroughs rely on his physical attributes, and you might not be able to adapt in the short term."
Oliver stood up straight: "Coach, I know it's difficult, but I want to try."
Nagelsmann turned around, his gaze lingering on Oliver for a few seconds before he suddenly smiled: "Alright, I approve. However..."
He held up a finger, "If I don't see significant progress within a week, you must adjust your training focus. Don't get fixated on this. Is that acceptable?"
"No problem, Coach!"
When Oliver returned to the training ground, Gnabry had already set up the training cones and obstacles, and assistant coach Kramer had also come to help, holding a tablet and a speed gun.
"The coach agreed?" Gnabry tossed a soccer ball over.
Oliver caught it steadily: "Yes, but he gave me a one-week deadline."
Gnabry clapped his hands and said: "That's enough, Oliver. Let's start with the most basic, explosive start."
For the next half hour, Oliver repeatedly practiced his starting posture under Gnabry's guidance. Knee bend angle, center of gravity position, the stride of the first step... every detail was repeatedly adjusted. Gnabry suddenly called a halt, "No, Oliver, you're too focused on perfect form, and you're losing explosiveness."
He walked over to Oliver, placed his hands on his shoulders, "Relax, imagine there's a vicious dog chasing you from behind."
Oliver closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to find that sense of urgency. When he opened his eyes again, his body had automatically adjusted to the optimal state.
"That's it!" Gnabry stepped back a few paces, "Now, sprint at full speed to the third cone!"
Oliver shot out like an arrow from a bow. This time, the feeling was completely different. His first step was almost 0.3 seconds faster than usual. Assistant coach Kramer looked at the numbers on the speed gun in surprise.
"Oh my God..." Kramer murmured, "His explosiveness in that instant just now increased by 12% compared to the previous attempts."
Gnabry whistled, told Oliver to rest for a bit, and then said to him: "It seems it's not how good my teaching is, but how abnormal you are as a student."
Oliver walked back, panting, but with an excited smile on his face: "You're absolutely right. I mean the trick you told me. That feeling... it was like something suddenly clicked."
"System prompt: Gnabry skill match increased by 2%"
The training entered the second phase: dribbling breakthroughs. Gnabry demonstrated in person. Each of his changes in direction was accompanied by explosive acceleration. The ball, in most cases, obeyed as if glued to his feet.
"The key to this move is rhythm change," Gnabry stopped to explain, "When dribbling at high speed for a breakthrough, it's about starting slow and then accelerating, to keep the defender guessing your next move."
Oliver tried to imitate, but his first few attempts failed. Either the ball was too far from his body, or he lost balance when changing direction. His dribbling style was one-on-one breakthroughs, and learning high-speed dribbling was still somewhat difficult for him.
"Don't rush," Gnabry patiently pointed out the problem, "Oliver, I know your footwork is excellent, but your current problem is that you rely too much on your footwork. A true wing breakthrough is a full-body movement. You need to use shoulder feints and deceive opponents with your eyes."
This tip enlightened Oliver. When he tried again, he first looked to the right with his eyes, while his left shoulder subtly dropped. The moment Gnabry's center of gravity shifted, he suddenly used the outside of his right foot to push the ball to the left, and his entire body sprung like a coiled spring to break through from the other side.
"Beautiful!" Assistant coach Kramer couldn't help but applaud, "This time, perfect!"
Gnabry put his hands on his hips and pretended to be angry: "No way, man, it took me a lot of time to learn this move back in the day, and you've almost mastered it already? That's too discouraging."
Oliver awkwardly wiped his sweat: "Not at all, I'm still far from it, there are many details to perfect..."
"Stop that," Gnabry said with a smile, throwing him a bottle of water, "Next, we'll practice practical application."
In the final stage of training, Kramer played the role of a defending player, and Oliver had to complete a breakthrough within a 30-meter distance. In his first attempt, he was easily dispossessed by Kramer; in the second, he hesitated too much and almost ran into an obstacle; But in the third attempt, Oliver first approached Kramer at a medium speed, then suddenly made a sharp stop two meters away, simultaneously pulling the ball back with his right foot. Just as Kramer's center of gravity shifted forward, he poked the ball forward with his left foot, and his entire body overtook him from the outside like a cheetah.
"A perfect one-man breakthrough!" Gnabry shouted from the sidelines, "Fantastic! That's the feeling!"
Oliver stopped, breathing heavily, but his eyes were remarkably bright. He could feel that the skill match of "Wing One-Man Show" on the system panel had improved again.
"Mr. Kramer, one more time!" he proactively requested.
When the training ended, the clock only pointed to nine o'clock, just over two hours had passed. Gnabry looked at Oliver, who was drenched in sweat, and shook his head: "My goodness, I had a whole day of training planned today... but you mastered the essentials in two hours."
Assistant coach Kramer was organizing data. He looked up and added: "Oliver, your data just now shows that your success rate for right-wing breakthroughs increased from an initial 30% to 71%. This speed of improvement..."
"It's practically inhuman," Gnabry interjected. He walked up to Oliver and said seriously,
"Listen, Oliver, what you need to do now is turn these technical movements into muscle memory. You learn very quickly, so what you need to do next is to remember it, remember it thoroughly, and then let it become instinct."
Oliver nodded, then suddenly remembered something: "Oh, Serge, about the details of that sudden stop and change of direction just now..."
Gnabry smiled and pulled out his phone, "I knew you'd ask. I just sent you five video clips of my old matches. Pay close attention to my foot adjustments and the force of my touches. Those are recordings from when I first started, very precious."
Oliver and Gnabry fist-bumped and hugged. After the morning training session, on the way back to the locker room, Oliver's mind kept replaying every detail from the training. Honestly, having the player themselves teach directly was indeed faster than figuring things out on his own in the system training space. The training in this aspect only took a little over two hours in the morning, and the system prompted that Oliver's skill match for this ability had already reached 89%. It was worth noting that the three skill matches for Paris Saint-Germain took several weeks of hard training and matches to reach 100%.
"In the future, I need to get along well with every teammate. Yes, I must get along well with them."
Oliver was already prepared to become a "Football Succubus." His goal was not only to learn the skills of those star players but also, ideally, to receive their personal guidance.
...
At 1:30 PM, when Oliver pushed open the door to Classroom 203 in the Hoffenheim Youth Academy's teaching building, seven or eight young players were already sitting inside. Most of them were either looking down at their phones or chatting in small groups, until Oliver walked in, and the classroom suddenly fell silent for a moment.
"Hey, the brit favored by the coach," a German blonde teenager, Hofmann, from the team's U19, whistled, "Are you really coming to class? I thought you'd just sign in and leave."
Oliver smiled and placed his backpack on a window seat: "Why not?"
"Because most players choose the easiest courses to get credits," another player interjected, "And you chose math, physics, chemistry, biology? Are you crazy?"
Oliver shrugged: "Not really. I find it quite interesting."
A buzz of discussion erupted in the classroom. Soon, Ms. Schmidt, the German teacher, walked in, and everyone immediately quieted down. She pushed up her glasses, her gaze sweeping across the classroom, finally stopping on Oliver.
"Ah, the new player," she smiled and nodded, "I hear your German is good?"
Oliver replied in fluent German: "It's alright, Madam. I hope I can keep up with the lessons."
Ms. Schmidt raised an eyebrow: "Your accent is very standard, young man, better than some locals." She meaningfully glanced at Max, who pouted.
The first class was German literature. Ms. Schmidt asked them to analyze an excerpt from Goethe's "Faust."
While other players were still frowning and flipping through dictionaries, Oliver had already raised his hand to speak, analyzing the metaphors and symbolism in the text with precise German. Ms. Schmidt looked at him in surprise: "Have you read this before?"
"No, Madam," Oliver shook his head, "But the logic is quite clear. My father taught me Chinese literature, and I know how to deconstruct the logic of an article."
Max muttered softly below: "Is this guy a genius?"
The second class was mathematics, and Oliver's performance was even more outrageous. The teacher had just written a calculus problem on the blackboard, and Oliver had already written out the answer on his scratch paper. Mr. Kruger, the math teacher, a serious middle-aged man, walked over to him, stared at his calculation process for a few seconds, and then nodded: "Correct, and the solution is very concise."
"Have you studied this before?" Kruger asked.
"Sir, I studied it when I was in England," Oliver replied.
Kruger looked at him thoughtfully: "If you're interested, of course, I'm not forcing you. I know professional players are very busy, but if you're not busy, you can participate in next month's math competition. Our youth academy hasn't had a student who could win an award in a long time."
Oliver nodded: "Hmm... I'll consider it, Sir."
At lunchtime, Oliver took his tray and sat in a corner. A few teammates hesitated for a moment, and finally, Max led the way and sat opposite him.
Max bit into a piece of bread, "Seriously, Oliver, how do you do it? You train so hard, and you can still learn so much?"
Oliver took a sip of juice: "I'm used to it. When I was in England and France, the youth academies required us to complete our studies."
It wasn't just England and France; Oliver was born into a traditional Asian family. Although his parents supported him playing football, his academic performance never fell behind. In fact, it was stronger than most people's. To put it this way, if he hadn't chosen to play football, he could already have applied for offers from prestigious universities in England based on his grades. The learning curriculum for German youth players is Abitur (German high school leaving examination).
The exam results here are highly recognized in European countries. If Oliver can achieve a high score in this exam within a year, then he will have the qualifications to apply to many prestigious universities in Europe. Whether on the football field or in the classroom, he wanted to do his best.