Midfield Master

Midfield Master is a football fiction web novel by the author Jingyan Yijiao, serialized on Qidian.com starting in March 2015. The protagonist, Wang Rui, came up through the Manchester United youth academy and was once seen as "the next Scholes"; his ghostly passing was his most outstanding gift. Yet a rare and fragile physique made him break down frequently at the slightest collision, his teammates called him a "glass man," and the club eventually gave up on him. He drifted to the English League One club Wolverhampton Wanderers, his contract about to expire, his injuries recurring again and again, his professional career nearly at an end. Just as he was almost ready to change careers, take a coaching license exam, and become a youth football coach, a figure known as "the mad scientist" appears and becomes the turning point in his fate. Thereafter Wang Rui gradually escapes the shadow of injury, starting as a marginal figure in League One and, together with his team, pushing toward the Premier League, redefining the role of the midfielder with passes and judgments made half a beat early, and stepping onto a stage of his own on the green pitch. The book is about 1.98 million characters long, completed, paced mainly around matches and the growth arc, with a distinct flavor of the "comeback" wish-fulfillment genre.