Chapter 1 The Truth

The match between Dortmund and Atletico Madrid at Dortmund's home stadium was at 2:45 AM Beijing time on April 10th. That evening, Sun Pan, who hadn't said a word online since the game ended, suddenly updated his Weibo.

But the content of the update left everyone scratching their heads, unsure of what was going on.

Because Sun Pan posted a full one hundred and forty "Woof."

The clueless onlookers were completely bewildered, not knowing what was wrong with Sun Pan. Some people guessed in the comments that his account had been hacked, while others speculated that he had lost the game and gone crazy from the shock…

Soon after, Zhou Yi forwarded Sun Pan's Weibo, saying in his forwarding message: "Honest and trustworthy, a true man, good job Pan Pan! Hahahaha!!"

The watching crowd then realized that Sun Pan's account probably hadn't been hacked, nor had he gone insane. There must be some kind of promise between him and Zhou Yi.

But what exactly was the promise?

No one knew.

The two's online interaction also attracted the attention of the media. After all, it was the internet age, and what happened online counted as news. Not to mention the interaction between Zhou Yi and Sun Pan.

So a reporter ran to interview Sun Pan, asking him what was going on.

Sun Pan refused to answer, or brushed it off with some random excuse.

Helpless, the reporters couldn't get any valuable information from Sun Pan, so they decided to go to Zhou Yi.

After understanding the reporter's intention, Zhou Yi laughed heartily: "It's a bet Pan Pan and I made. If Dortmund could score three goals in a game, he would go online and bark like a dog. If Dortmund scored fewer than three goals, then I would go online and bark like a dog."

The truth was that simple, but it left the reporters speechless—they were all top European stars, how could they be so childish!

Barking like a dog, what the hell!

The reporters finally understood why Sun Pan's tone was so bad when they interviewed him...

Such an embarrassing thing, to make Sun Pan admit it himself, would be more painful than killing him.

The reporters reported what they had learned, and everyone finally knew the reason for what had happened online.

"23333333! My heart aches for my Pan Pan!"

"So angry, but still gotta bark like a dog!"

"Barking like a dog, what the hell! Too childish! Haha!"

"So Zhou Yi went to Sun Pan after the game to remind him not to forget to go online and bark like a dog? So cruel!"

But in fact, fans quite liked seeing this kind of interaction between players. Although Sun Pan was miserable, everyone was quite happy to watch.

The little bit of sadness after Sun Pan's elimination was also swept away.

※※※

Sun Pan's little interlude of barking like a dog online quickly passed, remaining only in everyone's memory.

For Zhou Yi and Sun Pan, they both had their own games to continue. Having been eliminated from the Champions League, Sun Pan's task now was to help Atletico Madrid secure a Champions League qualification for next season, even though that qualification might have nothing to do with him at that time.

But he was still a member of Atletico Madrid, and he had to fight for the benefit of Atletico Madrid.

And Zhou Yi's task might be even heavier. There were six league rounds left, and they were still two points behind Bayern Munich. If Dortmund wanted to defend their league title, they had to go all out in the last six rounds.

Klopp was also very clear that although the game against Atletico Madrid was exciting, and it was very gratifying to eliminate Atletico Madrid and enter the Champions League semi-finals.

But now he had to calm down and shift the focus of his work to the league.

But just at this time, an accident came to him and his team.

Having just arrived at the Brackel training base, ready to start the day's work, Klopp saw club manager Zorc outside his office.

This surprised him somewhat, because he had never encountered Zorc waiting for him outside his office.

"Jurgen, there's some very bad news you need to know. But I hope you can stay calm..." Seeing Klopp, Zorc said, his face as if someone had died.

"Are you going on vacation, Michael?" Klopp said jokingly. They had only eliminated Atletico Madrid the day before, and now all of Germany was praising Dortmund's performance in the game. What bad news could there be?

The team's morale was also high, and now everyone was full of confidence in competing with Bayern Munich for the championship.

At this time, what bad news could there be?

Zorc said: "I have received definite news that Bayern Munich has reached an agreement with Gotze's agent in private. They will activate Gotze's buyout clause..."

Before Zorc could finish speaking, Klopp exclaimed: "What? April Fool's Day is over, Michael..."

"I'm not kidding you, Jurgen! This is true. The reason I'm telling you is so that you can be mentally prepared, so that you don't come and ask me what's going on when you hear the news from the media." Zorc said seriously.

Hearing Zorc say this, Klopp fell silent.

"I know this news is very... shocking, but if you want to talk about it, I'd be happy to..." Zorc said, seeing the silent Klopp.

Klopp slowly shook his head: "No, thank you, Michael. But no need... I have to go to work..."

After saying that, he waved his hand and turned to open the door to his office. Zorc watched from the side until he walked into the office, then suddenly came back to his senses, poked his head out and said to Zorc: "Thank you for telling me this news, Michael. Knowing it earlier than the media... that's really important..."

Zorc nodded: "You go ahead, Jurgen. If there's anything you need from me, just let me know." Zorc made a phone call gesture.

"I will." Klopp said and closed the door.

Outside the door, Zorc sighed. He could completely understand Klopp's feelings, because when he heard the news, his reaction was similar to Klopp's. He had a feeling of being completely lost.

After sighing, Zorc turned and left. He also had to go to work, and he might be even busier than Klopp...

Entering the office, Klopp slowly walked to his seat, then slowly sat down, staring blankly at the seat.

He, as the team's coach, of course knew that Gotze's contract had a buyout clause.

Because of his excellent performance, Gotze had attracted the attention of more and more other teams in the past two seasons, but there were always rumors and never any actual action.

Klopp also felt that Gotze was still young and would play for Dortmund for a few more years. He never expected Bayern Munich to act so quickly.

According to the contract signed by Gotze, the €37 million buyout clause would expire on April 30, 2013. In other words, after that date, the buyout clause would be invalid.

The club's idea was to talk to Gotze about renewing the contract after the buyout clause was invalid.

Who would have thought that Bayern Munich would directly activate the buyout clause before that!

Moreover, before this, Dortmund had not received any news at all, indicating that Bayern Munich had bypassed Dortmund and contacted Gotze's agent directly...

As Dortmund's coach, what he feared most was being poached by Bayern Munich...

Klopp pinched his temples.

Knowing the club and Gotze's contract, he knew that once Bayern Munich activated the buyout clause, there was nothing he could do. The club could only watch Gotze's agent and Bayern Munich reach all agreements, and then wait to receive the transfer fee from Bayern Munich.

The departure of players was normal, and any coach could accept it.

But Gotze's situation was different, and Klopp couldn't accept this result so easily.

Because Gotze was cultivated by Dortmund's youth academy, a talented young man whom Klopp had placed high hopes on. In Klopp's blueprint, Gotze was as important as Reus and Zhou Yi, and was the foundation for the team's future strength.

He had put so much effort into Gotze, how could he easily accept his sudden departure?

Moreover, it could be seen from this incident that Gotze himself agreed to leave Dortmund and join his rival Bayern Munich, which made Klopp very hurt. He knew that Gotze mentally preferred Bayern Munich, which was no secret within Dortmund.

But he always believed that in Dortmund's united and combative collective, the love for Bayern Munich was nothing. A player could like another team, but he should know which team was the most beneficial for him to play for.

Hummels was also cultivated by Bayern Munich's youth academy, but he couldn't play in Bayern Munich, so he transferred to Dortmund.

So Klopp didn't think that Gotze would want to join Bayern Munich at all. Before this, Gotze had never expressed any similar thoughts.

Why did he suddenly decide to go to Bayern Munich?

Playing as a main player in Dortmund, winning the league title for two consecutive seasons, and making progress in the Champions League every year, was it still not enough to keep him?

And why did he have to go to Bayern Munich?

Klopp felt very hurt. He had been betrayed by the player he loved, and this feeling was the only reason why he couldn't speak and could only sit in his office in a daze.

He wasn't unable to accept the departure of players. Sahin, as the team's core player at the time, also insisted on leaving.

But he couldn't accept such a departure—when the team was in good momentum, when everyone was wholeheartedly invested in working towards a common goal, someone chose to say goodbye.

He suddenly remembered that his wife was waiting for him tonight, because his good friend, an excellent actor, Wotan Wilke Möhring's new movie was about to be released, and he and his wife had been invited to attend the premiere in Essen.

But now he didn't want to go to such crowded and noisy occasions, and didn't want to meet and chat with all kinds of people.

So he took out his phone and dialed his wife's number.

"Honey, we have to cancel our plans for tonight, I can't talk, we're not going out..."

Klopp said weakly.

"What's wrong, Jurgen?" his wife asked with concern.

"It's nothing, it's just work, you don't have to worry, I just don't want to show my face. Well, thank you for your understanding and support, I love you too, goodbye."

After hanging up the phone, Klopp fell silent again.