Chapter 777: A Game Delayed

Unfortunately, when Higo called his agent, Fujita-san still didn’t have any good news about his contract situation with the team.

"The negotiation is still at a deadlock. I want to secure a number that can match your status. I mean, you are the main goalkeeper, but your wage is still lower than your backup, for God’s sake! Unfortunately, the team is in a financial crisis right now, and while they don’t want to let go of you, they still have to consider the team’s overall situation. This coronavirus also doesn’t help, making so many teams hesitate to offer good numbers to their players. So, we will still have to wait and see here."

Based on his tone, Fujita-san was also quite helpless with this situation. In the end, no matter how anxious Higo was, the only thing he could do right now was to wait and trust the agent to solve this matter, with him just needing to focus on the game in front of him.

Still, when speaking about the team’s current form, the tone was completely different here. People were so excited about this, finding themselves eager to wait in front of their TV for the next game. At the same time, some were so annoyed that the team’s rising momentum only appeared when the world got shut down like this.

Fuck! It seems they really need to wait until no one is watching them to be good again!

Well, at least we are finally going to climb the ladder! Come on, seven games, maybe we can push to the European League!

Hah! Don’t dream too far; it will only hurt you more later!

Well... Of course, there would still be some people who were realistic enough to think that this was just the team in good form. Once the momentum slowed down, they would be back in the fight for the relegation zone again, and being able to be one or two spots ahead of the play-off zone was already good enough in their eyes.

However, the tone was still the same here. All the Schalke fans around the world were so excited for the team’s journey, wanting more than anything to watch the team walk the path to glory.

Unfortunately, things would never be so easy for them. No, when the momentum started to rise, there would always be a problem following behind. This time, it all came from their next opponent, Fortuna Dusseldorf.

It wasn’t like they were a strong team, per se. Hell, in fact, Fortuna Dusseldorf was currently fighting in the relegation zone as well, sitting straight at 16th place in the table. If the game ended right now, they would have to fight against the third-place team in the 2. Bundesliga for one spot in the highest tier in this country, which showed that they were not that good here.

However, the problem didn’t come from inside the pitch, but from the outside.

Somehow, three of their players, Kenan Karaman, Marcel Sobottka, and Rouwen Hennings, got infected with coronavirus. This destroyed the whole schedule, as that meant Fortuna Dusseldorf couldn’t play again for the next two weeks, as every single member of their team had to go into a self-quarantine period.

However, the effect didn’t just stop at that. No, it was like a snowball, growing bigger as time passed by.

Since coronavirus spreads through physical contact, all the people that those three players met in the last two weeks had to be checked thoroughly, including Fortuna Dusseldorf’s opponent a week ago, Mainz 05.With them not being able to play, another team had to have their schedule rearranged, and more chaos could still fall to the league right now.

In total, four teams were affected, and at least ten games had to be rescheduled. This might give the players a little bit more room to breathe right now, but the delayed games accumulated here would definitely hurt them at the end of the season.

Yeah, it was a clear snowball effect, where no one could guess how big it would be until everything exploded in front of their face.

"Fuck it! When things start to get better..." Higo cursed weakly, his body slumped on the couch as he had just lost his spine right now.

He had just read the news from the team that the training session today was cancelled, letting the guys rest one more day while the official team was trying to enquire what was going to happen now.

"How could someone be idiotic enough to get infected in the middle of a competition?!" He groaned, wanting to complain to someone right now.

"Well, being an idiot doesn’t correlate with getting infected, you know?" Kumiko answered casually; her eyes were locked on the book she carried on her lap.The girl was so close to the end of the term, so it was time for her to prepare for her final exam.

"Anyway, just be grateful that you are not a part of the group that has to do a self-quarantine here. If that happens, you will be stuck in your own room, and I don’t think you can cope well enough there."

In return, Higo just gave a side glance to his girlfriend here. The boy wanted to complain, saying something like how capable he was in a solitary mode. After all, the experience of being a keyboard warrior, with only him having to stay quiet in his room and play on his laptop, was still fresh in his mind, and the goalkeeper didn’t think that being stuck in his room again would stump him right now.

Still, in the end, he just swallowed every single argument on the tip of his tongue, especially after remembering his state the first few weeks after the lockdown was announced.

’Yeah, I have already gotten used to outdoor activity; I need that just for one hour or a little bit more every day. I am not the same boy with no life like I used to be in high school, huh?’