From football school to a professional team, and then to the youth squad of a professional football club, Ethan Brooks advanced smoothly all the way—of course, this was not without the help of the red envelopes his father slipped to the coaches behind the scenes.

Relying on his excellent physical attributes, he was able to secure a spot in the club’s youth team. However, such a smooth journey seemed to have made Ethan Brooks’s temper grow as well.

Just as he was about to become a professional player, that fight happened. Everything was over—twelve years of childhood and youth, hundreds of thousands of RMB spent, all the beef, eggs, and fresh milk he had eaten... all went down the drain.

What to do?

His son had been learning to play football since he was little. Although there were some academic classes at the football school, those were only half-day sessions, and he often skipped them. What use could such classes be? At best, they kept his son from becoming illiterate.

Other than football, his son knew nothing.

That week, he was so angry that he didn’t say a word to his son, while also worrying about his son’s future... Ah, the heart of parents everywhere. No matter how much his son disappointed him, he still had to think about his future. After much thought, Owen Brooks felt that his son should continue playing football. But he had seen enough of the dirty dealings in Chinese football clubs over the years, and thought that if his son stayed in China, with his personality, he probably wouldn’t make it at all... Maybe it was better to try their luck abroad? Aren’t European football leagues very developed? Then Europe it is!

So, having made up his mind, Owen Brooks secretly borrowed some money from relatives and friends, scraped together a hundred thousand yuan, and used the excuse of taking his son to Germany to watch the World Cup and relax a bit, and off they went.

Who would have thought that only after coming to Europe did they see what real high-level professional football was like? Compared to real professional clubs, his son might have been able to play in a domestic club, but in Europe, they didn’t even give him a second glance! Ethan Brooks didn’t even qualify for his own national team, so how could he impress those picky Europeans?

In China, if you’re not good enough, you can make up for it with red envelopes. If they don’t want your son, you can still pay to get him in. In Europe, you can’t even find a way to give money if you wanted to!

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Ethan Brooks’s physical fitness test left Borovikia very satisfied.

His five 100-meter sprints were clocked at 11.79, 11.78, 11.95, 11.98, and 12.11 seconds.

Compared to speedsters like Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos at their peak, his speed wasn’t particularly fast, but it definitely wasn’t slow either. Moreover, from this set of data, it was clear that his speed didn’t drop off much. You have to know that these five 100-meter sprints were done with only thirty seconds of rest between each, a continuous high-intensity effort. With so little time lost under such intensity, and for a big guy to run at this speed, it was already quite impressive.

This showed that although Ethan Brooks wasn’t a pure speed player, his sustained explosive power was excellent, and his stamina was very good.

This was further confirmed in the subsequent 30-meter shuttle sprints and the twelve-minute run.

Ethan Brooks’s twelve-minute run result was 4,600 meters.

This result made Borovikia very happy. You have to know that the average twelve-minute run result in his team was only about 3,800 meters, and 4,600 meters was already the best in the current first team.

It seemed that Ethan Brooks’s physical attributes were indeed outstanding.

After finishing the fitness tests, Borovikia told Ethan Brooks to rest for a bit and get ready for the ball skills test.

Ethan Brooks sat on the sidelines, and his father immediately ran over to massage his legs and gave him a thumbs up. He had been watching the assistant coach closely, and when he saw the look of joy on the assistant coach’s face at Ethan Brooks’s results, Owen Brooks couldn’t help but beam with happiness.

A good start is half the battle. He hoped that this time his son could truly win the coach’s favor.

“Piece of cake, Dad. You know that,” Ethan Brooks said, sounding modest but actually quite proud—that was his style.

After the twelve-minute run, he was a little out of breath, but not tired.

You have to know that back when the Jia-A league did twelve-minute run tests, everyone could see the results of those professional players. At that time, media from all over the country gathered at the Kunming Haigeng training base to report on the fitness tests. For Chinese professional players back then, 3,000 meters was the passing line—only those who ran more than 3,000 meters in twelve minutes could directly qualify for registration in the new Jia-A season. Those who ran 2,800 meters needed a retest. 3,200 meters was another benchmark, meaning the player’s stamina was excellent.