"Goal!"
"João~~~Mário!"
"Sporting CP take the lead again! Two–three!"
"That's the fifth goal of the match!"
"In the 88th minute—this could be the winner!"
While the Sporting players celebrated wildly and the away fans cheered, the home supporters wore masks of pure agony.
They never imagined their team would concede so cheaply.
In this match, substitute centre-back Tim Klose became the villain of Wolfsburg.
Handed a rare start, he committed two costly blunders.
A mistimed header and a lost marker at a corner let the opposition pounce twice.
Twice the Wolves fought back, levelling the score each time.
But, pressing high in the dying moments, they were caught on the break and breached a third time.
Worth noting: deep into stoppage-time Wolfsburg earned a promising free-kick.
With both Mark and Naldo off the pitch, R.R. took responsibility.
Sadly, his direct effort sailed just over the bar, snuffing out the last hope of a draw.
And so, at home, Wolfsburg fell to the visiting Sporting CP, three goals to two.
Their ten-match winning streak across all competitions was brought to a halt.
Watching from the stands, Mark took in a timeless truth: "Football is round—anything can happen next."
Wolfsburg had rotated their lineup for the fixture.
Up front, Hunt and Bendtner started, while the heart of defence was reshuffled:
ever-present Naldo and De Vrij were rested; Tim Klose and young Knoche formed a new partnership.
It was their first outing together this season—rust was inevitable.
Klose, after all, had already cost points with similar errors last year.
That summer, the club imported De Vrij from the Netherlands for exactly this reason.
Still, Dieter Hecking gave him another chance.
With battles on two fronts, fatigue builds; rotation is mandatory.
Run the same XI in League and Champions League and one injury can wreck the campaign.
Having prioritised the Bundesliga, he could only use Europe as a laboratory.
Perhaps the defeat was written the moment he chose to rotate…
At the post-match presser Hecking shouldered the blame.
"The lads played well; my tactical instructions weren't clear enough…"
"Losing shows we still have room to grow…"
"Mark is vital, yet every single player in this squad is just as important."
Hecking may not be a superstar coach,
but years in the dugout have taught him one rule:
when you lose, don't blame the players—certainly not in front of the press.
Doing so only drains their confidence further.
Sporting's win in Wolfsburg gave them their first Champions League victory of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Chelsea demolished Maribor 6–0 at Stamford Bridge.
Suddenly Group G looked clear-cut.
Chelsea: two wins, one loss—six points, top spot.
Sporting CP and Wolfsburg: one win, one draw, one loss—four points, second and third.
Maribor, two draws and a loss, sat bottom with two points.
On paper, Maribor are the weakest and least likely to advance.
Chelsea's star-studded squad should cruise into the round of 16 as group winners.
The real fight: who finishes second—Sporting or Wolfsburg?
Right now, it's anyone's guess.
The next morning.
Wolfsburg training base, head coach's office.
Fresh off the press, the latest Bild lay open; its giant headline screamed: "Winning Streak Over!"
The ten-game perfect start had posed the question, "Who can stop Wolfsburg?"—now answered:
Sporting CP.
Yet the defeat released a valve of pressure inside the squad.
Before, every match felt like a cup final they dared not lose,
the media hype tightening an invisible noose.
With the streak snapped, they could finally exhale.
Recalling yesterday's presser, Hecking remembered a reporter asking, "Would the result have differed had Mark played?"
To protect the squad's pride, he had answered, "The team is one unit."
Privately, he knew: with Mark on the pitch, Wolfsburg would not have lost—
that stoppage-time free-kick would likely have found the net.
Hecking set the paper aside and strode downstairs to the medical wing.
Mark was there, following the physio's regimen for muscle recovery.
Spotting the coach, Mark called out, "Boss!"
"How's the body?"
"Feeling great—ready to go whenever you need me!"
Hecking looked to the club doctor.
The medic smiled: "Recovery is remarkable—almost miraculous. The strain has virtually healed; he can come off the bench for forty-five minutes against Mainz."
Hecking's brow relaxed, mind made up.
An eighteen-year-old's body heals fast.
What should have taken two weeks took Mark barely ten days.
"Ah, the joys of youth."
25 October, morning.
Mark was at home, tucking into the nutritious breakfast his dietician had prepared.
Suddenly his phone buzzed.
Seeing the caller, he answered, "Mino, good morning."
"Mark, great news."
"Oh? Hit me."
"Congratulations—you've been shortlisted for the Golden Boy award!"
Mark merely smiled at Raiola's excitement. "Thanks, but it's hardly worth celebrating—yet."
Earlier today, Italy's Tuttosport released the final forty-man shortlist for the 2014 European Golden Boy Award.
The shortlist of forty!
The European Golden Boy Award was created by Tuttosport in 2003.
Voted on by major European media, it honors the best young player of the year and is seen as the coming-of-age ritual for rising stars.
Eligibility is restricted to players under 21 who play for a European club.
Each year Tuttosport sends ballots to more than thirty authoritative European sports outlets; every ballot can award a maximum of ten points, and the paper tallies the scores before presenting the prize.
In short, the Golden Boy is Europe's most prestigious honor for young footballers.
Winning it signals the future of football.
And the success rate of Golden Boy winners is remarkably high.
Many have gone on to greatness, leaving indelible marks on the game—superstars like Rooney, Messi, Fàbregas, and Aguero.
Others, however, burned brightly and then faded just as quickly into anonymity.
Think Anderson, Pato, Balotelli... Last year's Golden Boy was another of Raiola's clients—Juventus prodigy Paul Pogba.
For Raiola, having his players claim the award in back-to-back years would be a monumental feather in both their caps.
Yet the news sparked no surprise or excitement in Mark.
He had simply expected to make the long list.
Not making it would have been the real shock.
Sensing Mark's calm, Raiola asked, "True, it's only the shortlist. But do you think you can win it?"
"Who else if not me?"
The confident reply drew a knowing smile from the agent on the other end of the line.
Exactly the player I signed!
Confidence in spades.
"By the way, I've lined up several houses that suit you. We'll view them in a few days."
"Sounds good..."
After hanging up, Mark opened his laptop and pulled up this year's forty-man Golden Boy list.
Sterling, Januzaj, Berardi, Marquinhos, Kovacic, Laporte, Deulofeu, Zouma, Coman, Stones...
Reading the familiar names, Mark felt as if he were browsing a wonderkids shortlist in Football Manager.
Only back then he'd been an ordinary fan playing a game;
now he himself was the brightest name on the list.
With the announcement of the nominees, media across Europe began predicting who would lift this year's Golden Boy trophy.
Most outlets agreed the award would come down to two players.
Liverpool prodigy Raheem Sterling, ranked second, and Wolfsburg's star man Mark, ranked first.
At just 19, Sterling's 2014 performances were nothing short of sensational.
In the Premier League he tallied nine goals and five assists;
alongside Suarez and Sturridge he formed the feared '3S' strike force that nearly carried Liverpool to the League title.
In Brazil he started every match for England as the Three Lions limped through a forgettable World Cup.
The team disappointed, but Sterling still shone individually.
Under normal circumstances those displays would have been enough to make him the 2014 Golden Boy.
Unfortunately for him, Mark burst onto the scene.
Debuting for Wolfsburg in January, Mark delivered a phenomenon-level ten months.
First he came off the bench to help Wolfsburg lift their first-ever German Cup.
He then contributed six goals and eight assists in the League, steering the club to third place and Champions League qualification.
In Brazil he turned the World Cup into his personal showcase.
From the opening match his dazzling performances locked down a starting spot.
Seven games, seven goals—including the winner in the final—carried the German Team to the summit of world football and the world cup trophy.
He personally collected both the tournament's Best Young Player and the world cup golden boot.
Before the new Bundesliga season even began, he kept the fireworks flying: first snatching the German Supercup from the reigning champions, then leading Wolfsburg to eight straight League wins and ten consecutive victories across all competitions while toppling Bayern and Leverkusen.
From his Bundesliga debut to the German Cup triumph, the world cup trophy, the Golden Boot, and now the top of the Bundesliga scoring chart...
Media worldwide gasped that they had never seen a prospect rise so meteorically.
Wow—this kid!
Feats some pros chase their whole careers, Mark achieved in a single year.
Compared with that, Sterling's output was clearly a tier below.
In mock ballots run by numerous outlets, roughly ninety percent of voters backed Mark for the Golden Boy Award.
German legends lined up to endorse him.
"Der Kaiser" Beckenbauer declared, "It would be the award's honor to crown Mark."
Beyond German footballing royalty, even England icon and 'football gentleman' Gary Lineker voiced support on air: "If the Golden Boy doesn't go to Mark Lane this year, the award will lose all credibility."
"Sterling is excellent, but Mark's performances have been peerless."
Lineker, author of the famous quip that football is '22 men chasing a ball and in the end the Germans win,' is the ultimate Germanophile, and he has long admired Mark.
Back when Mark lit up the World Cup, Lineker predicted on the BBC's Match of the Day that the youngster would become the next superstar of the era.
Making the Golden Boy shortlist was merely the first step on that journey.