Football Philosopher
Towards Germany

James and Ralf, having completed Lewandowski's transfer deal, go to their next destination, Germany. Germany, a 3-time world cup winning country, is the place of one of the top 5 leagues in the world, the Bundesliga. Throughout its history, Germany has spawned many of the world's great footballers such as Lothar Matthaus, Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer, the discoverers of the new role behind the libero.

After winning the world cup last time in 1990, James knows there is a new wave of talented players in Germany who led Germany to win its 4th world cup in 2014. James is in Germany to get players to take part in that.

John's first stop in Germany was the port city of Rostock, far from the capital Munich because Rostock was far east of Germany. Rostock, the largest city part of the Mecklenburg region, is home to newly relegated Hansa Rostock from the Bundesliga having only been able to occupy 17th place.

Hansa Rostock accepts offer from big club in England. Manchester United quoted a price of 50,000 pounds for a child from their academy. They know he's talented but they have a lot of talented kids and not all of them succeed. They accepted Manchester United's offer for a boy named Toni Kroos. Although Man.United could have directly talked to the boy because he had not received a professional contract, but they knew it was only for compensation during Toni Kross' time at the academy and they also had to pay Kroos' boyhood club Greifswadler SV.

James could not help but smile, if he could convince Kroos to join the academy, this would probably be a good thing. James remembers Toni Kroos as a central midfielder and can also be a defensive midfielder. His passes are spoiling and also able to score with his long-range kicks.

Kroos is well known for his slits, technical skills, intelligence and shooting ability. Kroos is a smart player and a proper feeder, who has good vision with a penchant for managing his team-mates. He is the type of player who will make any team better, his talent is beyond doubt. If it is not wrong next year in the UEFA European U-17 championship he became the best player there, let's look forward.

James and Ralf met Kroos and his father, Roland Kroos, who were active as wrestlers and would later become football coaches.

After meeting each other, James begins to convince Kroos and his father to come to England to play. There were some complications though, Kroos was reluctant to move from Germany for fear of being unable to adapt there. But he and his father are considering his future career.

"Mr Packer, I'm not worried about the challenges my son has to face. I was just worried that he was being constrained by language and school there" Roland Kroos said as he raised the worry that James was afraid of.

"Mr Roland, while it's true that there will be language problems, I think isoccer is a universal language and I will definitely do my best to facilitate all needs. As he gets better, he will be faced with similar situations wherever he plays. Getting used to it early on and forming an experience with it will help it in the future." James knows that it is not easy to convince young players, but he is confident because all the advantages Manchester United have will dance for him.

"And we have a technical director from Germany as well, you know Mr Ralf Rangnick. He'll help Toni adapt there" James tries to convince them and uses his cards as a fellow German.

After a few back and forth conversations, they were finally convinced that it would be a good move to move away from Germany. They are willing to come to Manchester and see the environment of the club. They plan to travel the day after tomorrow.

Usually, every player will take the opportunity to play in a better league but it just shows that the player and his father are careful for his future. That is a good thing for the development of the player and James is confident they will sign for Manchester United once they go there.

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After completing negotiations with Toni Kroos, James and Ralf flew to the city of Gelsenkirchen, where they were to be found, the trip took about 1 hour more and after landing their goal was to go to the club that Ralf Rangnick previously handled Gelsenkirchen. James will sign German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, 19. With a transfer fee of 4 million pounds, with details after the successful transfer he will still play for Schalke for 1 year on loan.

Talks were fully conducted by Ralf Rangnick, because he had understood and known the character of Manuel Neuer before. The talks went well and were good for both sides. Neuer will get an annual salary of 250 thousand pounds for 5 years with a salary increase of 25% per year. They agreed to the terms and finalized the deal after they all shook hands for formalities. Official documents will be sent by David later.

After long talks with Neuer and his agent, James signed the 19-year-old goalkeeper. He is projected to replace the goalkeeper who has just entered the 35-year-old Edwin Van Der Sar. They could take turns keeping goal and Edwin would be the right mentor for the young Neuer.

James is happy with getting Manuel Neuer, he knows the future of the goalkeeper who likes to go forward. Neuer has been described as a "sweeper-keeper" due to his style of play and speed while out of line in anticipation of an opponent, coming out of the goalkeeper box. He even achieved the achievement of being the best goalkeeper a decade from 2011 to 2020 by IFFHS, in the life of James before.

Neuer was also praised for his superb ball possession and also had an accurate pass with both his hands and feet, his long throw range and ability to kick the ball into deep areas with both feet allow him to play the ball at his feet and set up an attack from him or launch a quick counter-attack from backside.

Regarding his technical skill on the ball compared to other players in his role, Neuer has stated in James's previous life that he can play in Germany's third division as a centre-back if desired. Due to his authoritative leadership and vocal presence in goal, he also excels at communicating with defenders and managing his team's defensive line.

He will be a solid pillar of Manchester United's last guard going forward.