"Sign him right after this trial is over," Frohling ordered whoever from the official team around him right now. "I don’t care about anything else, but I want to see his name under my command in the next season, okay?"
The rest of the staff around stiffened instantly when they heard that, looking at each other helplessly. They didn’t expect that the coach would be so reckless, saying this thing out loud in front of the player’s agent and family member.
True enough, Koisuke Fujita and Ayaka had their eyes brightened when they heard it. They knew that Higo had just done well in this trial, and right now, they were already in the best-case scenario. Now that the initiative was in their hands, all they had to do was negotiate things slowly to gain as much benefit from the contract for Higo.
Still, no one expected the coach’s reaction to be this strong. Not that they could blame him, of course, since Higo’s performance in this trial was indeed exceptional.
Let’s not talk about the physical state, because the oy was built exactly like the most ideal goalkeeper in the world. His body was strong, but he was still agile enough to move around like a fucking cheetah. Honestly, his quickness alone was enough to convince Frohling to sign the boy, as it was a clear sign that Higo knew his weakness and how to compensate for it.
However, it was the main trial that put the man in awe.
Under the goalkeeper coach’s guidance, Higo started the trial from the basic ones, such as the standard footwork and baseline agility test. The boy ate everything well, not leaving any doubt to be thrown at him.
Then came finally the main one that Higo had been waiting for.
The first thing was the decision-making in a crossing situation. Here, more players got involved, with so many crosses being delivered differently. Sometimes the players would whip it low, and sometimes, it would be a high cross for an aerial duel.
However, no matter what kind of crosses were delivered, Higo would always be able to react accordingly, moving one or even two steps faster than anyone else to either reclaim the ball or push it away from the dangerous box.
Honestly, he had never lost his foothold in a crossing situation, which scared Frohling a lot here.
Then, the shooting drill happened, and all the doubts remaining inside him also disappeared as Higo finally showcased everything he had.
A full team was even getting involved in this test, shooting from all over with so many different scenarios to be played. Yet, when it came to one-on-one battle, Higo was unbeatable.
He would always react fast, pouncing in the right direction and shutting down the entire route to the shot. One hesitation, and the ball would’ve already been in Higo’s hand. Not only that, any half-assed shot would be met by a brick wall in front of the goal, strong enough to hold the team’s defense from storm and rain.
Honestly, the only way to score against Higo was for the striker to be calm enough to aim for a tricky angle, and only a few from his team could do that. It was ridiculous, especially since this came from a one-on-one situation. In a real game, that kind of chance wouldn’t happen that much, so Frohling could imagine how unbreakable his defense would be next season.
"Come on, no need to negotiate further." The man spoke decisively. "Just give him a long-term contract, I can assure you that his height wouldn’t be lower than Manu! Hell, he has everything that I want for a goalkeeper that if I were the main team’s head coach, I would bring him there immediately!" He said as a matter of fact.
This was definitely a bold statement coming from that man. After all, Schalke only produced one amazing goalkeeper in recent history, and that was Manuel Neuer. To be put on the same height as the legendary man himself just from one trial was definitely a high praise here.
"I told you he is a crazy genius!" Marius Draxler, who followed the trial session, laughed his ass off when he saw the bewilderment from the staff. "Still, I cannot believe he would grow stronger this quickly. It seems he doesn’t really slack off after that winter tournament last January..." The man nodded in satisfaction.
"His weakness is also quite obvious here, so we need to consider it as well." Volkan Unlu, the Turkish man who was also the team’s goalkeeper, frowned a little. "His ability to handle the ball with his feet is quite worrying. He is a little bit awkward and has a habit of looking down at the ball first before receiving it properly. In a real game, the amount of time he looks down will be enough for the opponent to shorten the gap and create chaos in our backline."
"Now, you are just nitpicking." Marius Draxler scoffed. "His basics as a goalkeeper are as solid as rock, the best we could expect. He will not give our opponent any point at all, and you are worried that his distribution skill is not good?"
The man flushed red for a moment. Indeed, this sounded like he just tried to find a mistake in Higo’s performance. However, he also couldn’t help it, as in his case, this was the standard for a goalkeeper that the team gave.
He glanced at the head coach secretly, wanting to see what the man thought in this case.
Torsten Frohling also didn’t voice his opinion immediately. He pondered for a moment, glancing at the assistant next to him. "Tomasz, what do you think?"
The man next to him was a young Polish manager who was also the team’s former player, Tomasz Waldoch. The man didn’t take sides between the team’s goalkeeper coach and Marius Draxler, just saying something simple.
"While his performance is amazing, you cannot deny that a weakness exists. Now, let’s just see in a real game if the ability outweighs the weakness or not."
"So, you mean..."
"Let’s test him in a real, 11v11 game. We will be able to see more of him in that situation."