After returning to Hoffenheim from Osnabrück, Lu Wenbin's amazing performance of a hat trick for the second consecutive game became an important bargaining chip in Fu Qingqing's negotiations with various brokerage companies and big-name agents.
Within two days, Lu Wenbin signed an exclusive agency contract with Jorge Mendes, known as the world's number one agent.
As for Lu Wenbin's guardians, Lu Chongxin and Sun Jiahui, they completed the signing process by fax.
The commission rate could not be negotiated to the industry's lowest 5% because Lu Wenbin did not have that kind of status.
However, the commission rate was reduced from 10% in ordinary brokerage contracts to 7%. Because Lu Wenbin's potential was too amazing, Mendes didn't want to let him go.
Other agents agreed to 5%, but after careful consideration, Lu Wenbin chose Mendes.
On the one hand, Mendes has a good reputation. Unlike some agents, he does not often instigate players to change clubs to get transfer fee commissions. His cooperation with players is more pleasant.
On the other hand, Mendes is stronger, and his ability to negotiate and operate transfers is well-known in the industry.
In Lu Wenbin's mind, he will definitely become the world's number one football star in the future. The world's number one football star naturally needs the world's number one agent to be worthy of him.
Otherwise, the incompetent agent might cause Lu Wenbin a lot of intangible losses in transfers, club negotiations, and commercial endorsements.
After helping Lu Wenbin sign the contract with Mendes, Fu Qingqing's six-month translation contract with Hoffenheim Club also expired. She ended her work as a full-time translator for Lu Wenbin and it was time to return home.
Although Fu Qingqing's job nominally was to be Lu Wenbin's translator and teach him German, her salary was paid by the Hoffenheim club.
However, during the past six months in Germany, Fu Qingqing was actually Lu Wenbin's assistant and nanny.
Not only did she have to serve as Lu Wenbin's translator and teacher, but when she was not training she also had to cook for Lu Wenbin, clean the house, etc.
What's more, Fu Qingqing also put in a lot of effort in the negotiations with Mendes.
Therefore, when Fu Qingqing left, Lu Wenbin personally sent her to Frankfurt Airport and gave her a big red envelope.
From now on, Lu Wenbin will live independently in Germany.
After signing the agent contract and sending Fu Qingqing away, the first thing Mendes had to do was to renegotiate the club contract with Lu Wenbin.
The previous five-year contract with an annual salary of 100,000 yuan is definitely no longer in line with Lu Wenbin's worth.
In fact, the club's general manager Rothaus had already contacted Lu Wenbin about this matter, hoping that Lu Wenbin would sign a new contract with the club.
However, they were all dragged over by Lu Wenbin. He was going to wait until his agent had settled the matter before letting a professional agent negotiate with the club.
Lu Wenbin will not participate in the specific negotiation process. After all, he was brought to Europe by the owner Hope himself, and it is not easy for him to bargain with the club about a new contract. It would be best for his agent to come forward.
Lu Wenbin just needs to concentrate on training and competition.
Lu Wenbin simply told Mendes that a penalty clause must be added to the new contract.
As for the salary, as long as it increases a little, Lu Wenbin doesn't care much. What he wants now is the opportunity to play, not the salary. As long as he can guarantee his playing time, the salary doesn't matter.
While Mendes was in a tug-of-war negotiation with Hoffenheim's general manager Rothaus, Hoffenheim entered the 23rd round of the Bundesliga.
At 14:00 on March 9, 2008, the 23rd round of the 2007/2008 German 2nd Division match between Hoffenheim and Paderborn kicked off at the Dietmar Hopp Stadium.
Lu Wenbin continued to start, forming a front trident with Ibrahimovic who had a rest for one game and Demba Ba who regained his starting position.
Just three minutes into the game, Hoffenheim got a free kick in an excellent position at the front of the penalty area through Demba Ba's breakthrough.
Amid the cheers of more than 6,000 Hoffenheim fans, Lu Wenbin activated the free kick skill system and kicked the free kick into the blind corner of the goal in one go.
Just three minutes into the game, Hoffenheim took a 1-0 lead over Paderborn, which was a dream start.
However, Lu Wenbin was then closely guarded by his opponent, and there was also a midfielder who followed Lu Wenbin closely to provide him with close defense.
This was the first time that Lu Wenbin enjoyed superstar-level treatment in the German professional league, and he needed someone to closely guard him.
However, Lu Wenbin is not only good at shooting, he also has good speed, dribbling, vision and passing.
So, in the 27th and 41st minutes of the first half, Lu Wenbin assisted Ibisevic and Salihovic to score respectively. Hoffenheim led 3-0 in the first half and almost ended the game early.
In the second half, after the two sides changed sides, Paderborn may have been a little discouraged by the score of 0-3 behind, and the intensity of their defense against Lu Wenbin decreased.
Coupled with the improvement of Lu Wenbin's own off-ball running attributes, his ability to find open space has increased.
So, in the 65th minute, Lu Wenbin got a chance to shoot at the corner of the penalty area.
Before the opponent's defender could block the shooting angle, Lu Wenbin made a light lob shot, which passed the goalkeeper and accurately went into the far corner of the goal.
In the 65th minute, Hoffenheim took a 4-0 lead.
Not long after Lu Wenbin scored the goal, Ralf Rangnick replaced him.
After all, there were no surprises in this game. In the following league and German Cup, Lu Wenbin will continue to start and contribute his strength.
Therefore, the overall strategy formulated by the team coaching staff is to replace Lu Wenbin in advance while ensuring the team's victory and allow him to get more rest time.
After Lu Wenbin left the field, Hoffenheim did not score any more goals.
Ibisevic and Demba Ba both had excellent shooting opportunities from close range, but they were unable to score like Lu Wenbin, who managed to hit the target nine times out of ten, and in the end neither of them scored a goal.
Through comparison, everyone can more clearly realize the horror of Lu Wenbin's shooting skills, which makes people look forward to Lu Wenbin's future even more.
In the end, thanks to Lu Wenbin's goal and assist, Hoffenheim defeated Paderborn 4-0 at home.
In addition to the first free kick, Lu Wenbin actually took two more free kicks later, but he was the one who took the penalty kicks himself and was unable to use the system skills that were on cooldown, so no goal was scored in the end.
Despite this, Lu Wenbin's free kick scoring rate is still very impressive as he scored one goal from three free kicks in this game.
In Hoffenheim, Lu Wenbin has scored three direct free kick goals in just a few games, and some fans have already called Lu Wenbin the best free kick expert in the German Second Division.
Lu Wenbin is gradually showing a trend of becoming Hoffenheim's first free throw taker for set pieces.