Chapter 889: Match Over! Stealing the Win!

"YES!" Higo laughed instantly the moment he heard the last whistle of the game, letting all the exhaustion hit him at the exact same moment. "Come on!" He roared, spreading his arms wide to receive all the hugs from his teammates.

"Goddamnit, Higo! This is a masterclass of a performance!" Stambouli laughed, accepting the hug. "After today, your name will only rise higher, you know that?! You Bastard, leaving everyone to dust!"

"Hahaha! This is crazy!" Bastian Ozcipka hugged them all with great enthusiasm.

Hell, even Malick Thiaw rushed toward the pitch immediately. It seemed that he had been waiting in the tunnel, and the moment the referee blew the whistle, the boy joined the celebration with the rest of the team on the pitch.

Higo himself was grinning from ear to ear right now. Somehow, this win tasted sweeter than anything he had experienced in his career.

In hindsight, this wasn’t even the first time the boy saved three penalties in one game. No, he remembered clearly a game against Shimizu Higashi High two years ago, where the team lost due to him failing to execute the last penalty kick.

At that time, he saved at least five penalties, and three were done consecutively. That alone was a crazy achievement, one that not a lot of goalkeepers could do even with the greatest luck in the world on their shoulders.

However, that was a high school game, and that also happened in a penalty shootout. This time, it was a real Bundesliga game, with three penalties happening all across the 90 minutes. The difficulties increased by miles, and the sense of achievement here was also way higher than at that time.

Unfortunately, the game itself wasn’t broadcast on national television. Well, after all, this was a battle of two teams who fought to avoid the relegation zone last year, so there was no way it would attract too much attention.

Still, without any national broadcaster, no post-game interview on the sideline would happen, so anyone who wanted to hear Higo’s thoughts about this had to wait for the press conference later.

Of course, there was no way in hell that he wouldn’t attend it. After all, even though Mark Uth scored two goals and Morita assisted them both, the man of the match today was clear as day. Without Higo, Schalke would’ve already lost by a wide margin, unable to recover from three penalties that they suffered today.

True enough, the moment Higo entered the locker room, he got dragged by the head coach instantly before anyone could celebrate with him. They went straight to the media room, but before entering, Frohling stopped for a moment, his gaze softened.

"You know what, Higo?" The man suddenly spoke, attracting the boy’s attention. "When Marius introduced you to me the first time two years ago, I knew you would be great, but I have never thought that you would be a monster like this. We sure hit the jackpot, right? Signing you for free?"

Higo didn’t know why the head coach suddenly went into a melancholic mood like this. However, he couldn’t help but smirk here, even letting out a small chuckle. "Well, if you really feel lucky, what about increasing my salary, Sensei?"

Frohling couldn’t help but snort at that playful tone. "You hope. If only the team’s financial situation is better, I will give you what you deserve. But for now, be a little bit satisfied with what you have."

Well, Higo just nodded quietly, not having anything to complain about. Still, this reminded Frohling a little about this salary problem, and the man started to think about it.

’Even in the team, he is below the top ten in salary. He is even lower than Ralf, the backup goalkeeper, and some guys who haven’t done anything as well. Should I ask to rearrange everyone’s salary and make sure that no financial problem would happen in the future?’

The problem was that most of the guys whose salaries were quite high got that number not because they performed well, but because they won in terms of seniority. For example, Amine Harit and Suat Serdar were the second and fourth in the list, and yet, they hadn’t done that much this season other than warming the bench.

If anything, this made the competition inside the team become unhealthy, with some people thinking that it didn’t matter if they didn’t do well, as long as they survived the team long enough, their salary would also increase in the future.

Still, that was not the problem that could be solved for now, so Frohling decided to put it aside and started the press conference.

This time, though, the main focus was not on him, but on the goalkeeper. The man only got three or four questions for formality before the attention shifted to the main character today. Not that Frohling complained, of course, since he himself was happy that Higo gained the spotlight that he deserved.

"So, Higo, three penalties you saved today, and this is the first time it has happened in Bundesliga history. What do you feel about that?" One of the reporters started asking a question.

"Happy, of course. Ecstatic, even." Higo smiled while adjusting the microphone in front of him. "It is an honor that my name will be remembered in this league’s annals of history, but more importantly, we ended the game with a win. For me, that is way better than anything else that I could achieve today."

The sound of fingers flying on the laptop could be heard as most of the reporters began typing whatever he said there, probably getting it ready for the biggest news in the country later.

"Is winning your only motivation? Or is there something that makes you want to save all the penalties?" Another one asked.

"Honestly? No, that wasn’t the only motivation." Higo chuckled once again. "At that time, I just didn’t want to concede a goal, wanting to prove that the rookie of the month award that I got a few days ago wasn’t just a fluke. Fortunately, it works well on my side."

The reporters there chuckled simultaneously, finding the reason to be ridiculously reasonable here.

Then, another reporter asked, and this time, Higo really pondered for a few moments to answer the question.

"I notice that you are always good at facing a penalty kick. Can you tell me what your secret is?"