Watching the figure in the number 10 jersey sprinting freely on the pitch, the 31‑year‑old Raúl saw nothing but his own 21‑year‑old self. Raúl couldn't quite understand the Westfalenstadion DJ's passionate German broadcast, but when it switched to English, he understood.
"Borussia Dortmund, goal scored! The scorer is number 10—Jiiiiin Haaayeeees—"
80,000 people shouted a Asian player's name in unison, and even Raúl felt incredibly shaken. The atmosphere of this stadium surpassed even the temple of football, the Bernabéu. Raúl really couldn't imagine what it was like to be a home player at Westfalen. He was a bit envious of Jin Hayes.
Just now, Jin Hayes had used another counter‑attack to complete a series of dribbles past opponents.
Raúl didn't even see clearly how Jin Hayes got past them; all he knew was that his teammates rushed up one after another only to be left in the young player's wake. Iker Casillas charged out of his goal, only to be sent sprawling by a pendulum dribble.
In that moment, Raúl seemed to see his former teammate, the bald man in the white number 9 jersey. 3‑0.
*Guess the player for an extra chapter
It was 3‑0 to Borussia Dortmund in the first half.
"What on earth is wrong with Real Madrid?" Raúl's eyes were full of confusion.
"What is happening to Real Madrid?" He Wei's voice was equally incredulous, but filled with more pleasant surprise. Jin Hayes had scored again—a signature solo goal.
Originally, he didn't have many good opportunities; Real Madrid's four defensive midfielders were actually effective. But being two goals down had caused Real Madrid to completely lose their minds.
Marcelo stayed in the front line the whole time, playing as if he were a winger. Wesley Sneijder, Lassana Diarra, and Fernando Gago were all rushing forward to take shots. José Callejón also wanted to emulate Jin Hayes and save the world, driving the ball forward on the right flank.
But Callejón was nowhere near Jin Hayes's level of skill; his breakthrough attempt looked somewhat comical and was easily handled by Marcel Schmelzer. Even Pepe was anxious, running into the penalty area to contest headers.
With everyone rushing forward, who was left to defend?
Real Madrid's corner failed to result in a shot on goal; instead, it became a golden opportunity for Borussia Dortmund. Nuri Şahin controlled the ball with his chest and quickly swept it to Jin Hayes.
The young number 10 suddenly accelerated to shake off Sneijder, then used a right‑footed elastico to change direction and bypass Lassana Diarra. The space behind Marcelo was wide open—like a vast, empty prairie.
Jin Hayes carried the ball as if driving an off‑road vehicle across open ground, surging forward forty metres until he met Fabio Cannavaro, who had stayed behind, in front of the penalty area.
16‑year‑old Asian player Jin Hayes vs. World Cup‑winning captain Cannavaro. This was perhaps one of the few real tests for Jin Hayes in this match.
In the slow‑motion replay, the details of the duel between the two could be captured. Jin Hayes first dropped his shoulder to the right, feinting a breakthrough, but Cannavaro remained unmoved, consciously giving up the outside to block the inside while positioning himself in the half‑space to prevent Jin Hayes from playing a through ball to a teammate.
Cannavaro also expertly maintained an arm's length distance, his right hand always barring Jin Hayes's path, refusing to give him space to break through. If Jin Hayes dared to knock the ball forward and accelerate, he would lose control of it. Though his body was aging, Cannavaro's defensive experience and awareness remained world‑class.
Since Cannavaro is blocking the inside, I'll overtake him on the outside, using my physicality and speed to blow past him. I'll pick on the old man!
Jin Hayes suddenly dropped his shoulder to the left to change direction, flicking the ball with the outside of his left foot to cut inside.
"A feint?"
Cannavaro had already guessed Jin Hayes's intention, but he didn't dare to gamble. If he relaxed his guard for even a second, the feint would become the real move, allowing Jin Hayes to break through into the more dangerous central area. The two were gradually approaching the penalty area, with all other players tracking back frantically; they had to make a decision in an instant.
The moment he saw Cannavaro shift his feet, Jin Hayes's right foot suddenly cut across, and his left foot performed an extreme V‑pullback, circling around from behind while his body lunged to the right in an accelerated change of direction.
The complex dribbling maneuver was smooth and fluid under Jin Hayes's feet, and extremely subtle. Before Cannavaro could even see it clearly, Jin Hayes had already accelerated from the outside, pulling half a body length ahead.
"So fast!"
If he were five years younger, Cannavaro would still have been able to react and immediately close in to intercept. He realized that the 16‑year‑old was deliberately taking advantage of his physical decline.
"However, you've underestimated me!"
Cannavaro still closed in; he wasn't fast, but he surreptitiously tugged at Jin Hayes's jersey to stop him from starting, while his diagonal running line was perfectly calculated. Jin Hayes ultimately had to cut back in, and Cannavaro's running path was indeed shorter than his.
If Jin Hayes had Gareth Bale's explosive speed, he would have been long gone. Hindered by Cannavaro, he slowed down and unexpectedly couldn't pull away. Seeing that Pepe, Marcelo, and Lassana Diarra were about to get back into defensive positions, and his teammates hadn't yet managed to catch up from the backfield, Jin Hayes was fighting a lone battle and could only rely on himself for now.
Observing Cannavaro's running motion carefully, he was tracking back sideways, which would definitely affect his ability to turn. Without any warning, Jin Hayes came to a sudden stop and flicked the ball to change direction; Cannavaro was carried forward by his momentum, suddenly leaving space open on the inside.
"I knew it!!"
Relying on his vast experience, Fabio Cannavaro had read the wind‑up to Jin Hayes's move in advance, braking immediately and moving laterally to form a solid wall in front of him.
Any ordinary player would have been bogged down by Cannavaro's airtight defense. By the time the Real Madrid players arrived, the attack would have come to nothing. Furthermore, when Jin Hayes stopped and changed direction, he had knocked the ball a bit too far ahead in his attempt to break away, making it difficult to stop and change direction again while reaching out to hook the ball; for most players, it would have ended there.
But Cannavaro had overlooked Jin Hayes's exceptional ball control. Even with the ball almost out of reach at his toes, he could still use the tip of his right foot to gently chip the ball into an arc. Almost simultaneously, he pivoted on his left foot and spun around Cannavaro.
"What?!!!"
This move completely caught the Italian veteran off guard; by the time he realized Jin Hayes had chipped the ball, it was too late to turn. Jin Hayes's chip‑and‑run was smoother than chocolate, without a single wasted motion. By the time Cannavaro turned around, Jin Hayes had already pulled away and burst into the area, charging straight at Iker Casillas.
Casillas was forced to come out, only to witness Jin Hayes's pendulum dribble performance, with his shoulders swaying wildly from side to side.
"Damn it!!"
Ronaldo had long since left the team, yet Casillas had to be tortured like this again. The pendulum dribble is effective because either direction could be real; there's no way to predict it and no time to hesitate.
Casillas could only gamble, and he gambled on the right. It was like a casino—the house always wins. Jin Hayes was fully able to wait for Casillas's move before using the outside of his foot to flick the ball to the left, breaking through with a change of direction.
Having rounded Casillas, the young, energetic Sergio Ramos didn't give up, charging in diagonally with a sliding tackle to block the goal. He intended to block Jin Hayes's shot, but Ramos made the same experience‑based mistake as the other defenders.
When defending against Jin Hayes, trying to block his shot was often futile. Jin Hayes even had time to come to a halt, letting Ramos's sliding tackle fly past him, before walking the ball over the goal line. For a moment, the Real Madrid penalty area was a mess of white‑clad players lying scattered about.
Jin Hayes was like a skilled swordsman, charging alone through layers of opposition, delivering the decisive blow and departing coolly, leaving only opponents strewn across the turf.
"Jin Hayes used the counter‑attack to venture alone into the heart of the defence, delivering a fatal blow with grace! On the European continent across the ocean, a young man is writing his own football legend! With the results of the Golden Boy Award soon to be released, we hope to see an Asian player lift this prestigious honour!"
Sergio Ramos inside the goal, Casillas on the edge of the goal line, and Cannavaro in the penalty area—they were all lying on their backs, somewhat questioning their existence. To be dismantled so easily by a 16‑year‑old, who tore through the backfield all by himself—did they still have the right to play for a powerhouse like Real Madrid? Or rather, had the current Real Madrid truly become this bad?
3‑0.
"Sigh."
Cannavaro was still pushing himself up when Jin Hayes, having finished celebrating with his teammates, happened to pass by the Italian veteran. Jin Hayes suddenly stopped and reached out a hand to Cannavaro.
"Thanks…" Cannavaro specifically thanked him in English.
"Good defending, keep it up." Jin Hayes, however, responded in Italian, patted the World Cup‑winning defender on the shoulder, and returned to his own half. He wasn't being sarcastic; he was sincere.
The duel with Cannavaro just now had seemingly lasted only a few seconds, but in reality, their contest was like a clash between masters—multiple rounds of engagement occurring in an instant.
Jin Hayes had almost exhausted his entire repertoire, utilizing his exceptional ball control to the limit, using his toes to complete an incredible chip‑and‑run in an unbelievable manner. Otherwise, he might not have been able to break through.
The encounter with Cannavaro also made Jin Hayes realise something. It turned out that technique also had its limits. No matter how perfect one's technical skills were, they would always be limited by physicality, speed, and the opponent's defensive decisions and tactics.
Otherwise, wouldn't a freestyle street football champion be able to tear through any defence? If he were faster, blowing past opponents would be more reliable; if his passing technique were exceptional enough, he could have easily curled a ball to find Marco Reus on the far side.
Without triggering "Heartfelt Pass," Jin Hayes's most confident method at the time was simply a solo breakthrough.
Fortunately, it succeeded, and they were leading 3‑0.
But what if it had failed?
Suppose Cannavaro were five years younger, or if he had encountered a defender with even stronger one‑on‑one frontal interception and anticipation, like a prime Alessandro Nesta.
No matter how flashy a dribble was, there were always certain signs, and it could be successfully intercepted through defensive positioning and anticipation. Combined with physical contact, the difficulty of a solo breakthrough would increase infinitely.
This was against a declining Real Madrid; if he encountered stronger teams—like a peak Barcelona, or a peak Chelsea or Manchester United—a solo breakthrough would likely be very difficult to pull off.
Jin Hayes, who had previously been immersed in an unbeaten streak, was reminded by Cannavaro, and alarm bells began to ring in his heart. Most people only reflect after a failure, but Jin Hayes, even while leading 3‑0 with a chance to defeat Real Madrid, had already become alert.
"I can't be satisfied with the status quo; I must become even stronger."