Genius - Chapter 464: Just One Step Away from Back-to-Back Major International Titles! (Patreon)

“Morata!”

“Shoots!!!”

“Three-nil!!!”

“Morata scores!!!”

“The players Hierro chose to start today, De Gea, Busquets, Alba, and Morata, have all done their jobs. And now Morata has scored for Spain in the UEFA European Championship final!”

“Under the beautiful night sky, Leo burst past Maguire and headed the ball across for Morata to finish. Spain have stretched their lead to three goals!”

“Spain are three goals ahead in the UEFA European Championship final, with less than 30 minutes remaining!”

“Scholes, do you think England still have a chance?”

Scholes didn’t answer. Deep down, he felt there probably wasn’t much hope left, but he certainly wasn’t going to declare England beaten in the UEFA European Championship final before the match was over.

“What if there’s still a miracle, Gullit? What if there’s still a miracle? England could come back against Spain and lift the UEFA European Championship trophy!”

Stam voiced exactly what Scholes was thinking. Gullit merely smiled and said nothing.

Morata had originally planned to celebrate by pretending to polish Leo’s boots, but as he ran over, his foot slipped and he fell beside Leo’s leg.

So Morata simply grabbed Leo’s calf and started patting it, showing off those powerful calf muscles to the cameras as if to tell every fan exactly why Leo could leap so high, even higher than an actual center back!

“Spanish fans can already start celebrating back-to-back major international titles. Who would have imagined that Spain, once thought to be suffering from a lack of talent between generations, would suddenly produce another golden generation?”

“This year’s Ballon d’Or has to be Leo’s. I’m just wondering whether winning the UEFA European Championship and then claiming his third Ballon d’Or will send his market value soaring again. He’s currently valued at 260 million, but I still don’t think that reflects his actual ability!”

“I think it should rise to 280 million, and Leo could very well become the first player in football history to break the 300-million mark!”

“If Leo really does end up valued at 300 million, would anyone actually pay 300 million to sign him? I’m not convinced.”

As the discussion turned to Leo’s new market value, Gullit actually thought clubs would be willing to pay 280 million.

“I think if Leo were valued at 280 million, considering his age and how consistently he has performed, quite a few teams would be willing to pay it.”

“At the very least, I think Paris Saint-Germain definitely would. How much did they spend to pry Neymar away back then?”

“Add a little more to that figure and you get Leo, a midfield cornerstone you can build an entire team around. I’d say that’s an excellent deal!”

Gullit had never imagined there would come a day when he considered spending 280 million euros on a single player an excellent deal.

But even if you placed 280 million in cash right in front of Liverpool, they wouldn’t be tempted.

“Two hundred and eighty million sounds like a lot, but does anyone remember the contract Liverpool offered Leo not long ago? Averaged out, that deal would pay him around 80 million euros a year.”

“In other words, in three or four years, Leo could earn the equivalent of his own transfer value. So is 280 million really that much for a player like him?”

“And is 280 million really that much to Liverpool as they are now?”

“They would rather give that money to Leo than sell him for it. Forget 280 million. Even if you had 680 million, you still couldn’t buy another player like Leo!”

Ashley Cole completely agreed with Gullit’s reasoning.

“First of all, I have to stress that no football title is ever won by one player alone. But I also want to point out Spain’s FIFA World Cup triumph, along with all those Premier League and UEFA Champions League titles Liverpool have won.”

“Without Leo, there’s no guarantee they would have won any of them!”

Southgate had pressed his lips together so tightly they had almost disappeared into a thin line. Saka and Trippier still felt unnerved just remembering what it had been like trying to chase Leo down moments earlier. Leo was clearly much more heavily built than either of them.

He carried so much muscle, yet when he ran, none of it seemed to weigh him down. He tore forward with astonishing speed while still retaining a surprising degree of agility.

Saka had no idea how Leo managed it. He only knew that, right now, his chances of successfully going up against Leo were almost nonexistent.

Rice stood with his hands on his hips. Even when leading West Ham United against a powerhouse like Manchester City, he had never felt this kind of pressure.

Because Manchester City didn’t have Leo.

Morata was thanking Leo over and over. Only after scoring in a UEFA European Championship final could you truly understand just how much a single goal like that could elevate your reputation.

Even if you said nothing and did nothing afterward, fans would still heap praise on you because of that goal, as though everything that had happened before had suddenly been erased.

And now, Morata was shining because of his goal in the final. That one strike could very well wipe away the memory of all his previous poor performances for Spain and instead engrave this final goal into the minds of every fan.

From now on, whenever fans thought of Morata, the first thing they would remember would surely be the third goal he scored in the UEFA European Championship final, not all the chances he had missed in the past.

With less than 30 minutes remaining in the UEFA European Championship final, England no longer cared about conceding another goal or making defensive mistakes once play resumed. Everyone wanted to attack. Trippier, Luke Shaw, and the rest all pushed forward.

Spain, meanwhile, switched to another tactical approach.

Hierro had already considered this possibility. Once Spain took the lead, England would inevitably commit everyone to attack. At that point, Spain could pull their overall shape deeper and deliberately encourage Luke Shaw, Trippier, and the others to push higher up the pitch in search of goals.

That would give faster players like Leo and Olmo room to exploit their pace on the counterattack.

It was a tactical setup Hierro’s staff had devised when Spain won the FIFA World Cup. Now they could use it once again in the UEFA European Championship final.

After Morata scored Spain’s third goal, the broadcast cameras also found Casillas and several other Spanish legends in the stands.

With Spain holding such a commanding lead, the legends clearly couldn’t stay seated either. Every so often, they would rise to chat with the Spanish fans around them, then squeeze toward the railing at the front to get a closer look at how the players were doing on the pitch.

“Look at how restless these Spanish legends are.”

“Spain are now just one step away from winning back-to-back major international titles!”