The Madrid Derby had been an agonizingly difficult battle for Atlético to survive.
This was blatantly obvious the moment the post-match statistics were published.
Aside from the actual scoreline...
Atlético Madrid had been comprehensively dominated in every single metric.
Possession: 32% - 68%
Shots: 6 - 21
Shots on Target: 3 - 11
Total Passes: 122 - 398
The numbers painted a stark, undeniable picture.
In his second season in charge, José Mourinho had built a terrifyingly powerful Real Madrid squad.
This reality was directly reflected in the system's post-match evaluation.
[Ding! Match complete. Calculating results...]
[Match intensity: Hard. Match rating: Outstanding!]
[Ding! Congratulations. Post-match reward: Real Madrid - Legendary Random Chest!]
[Note: "Outstanding" ratings significantly boost your cumulative Season Rating. Your Season Rating will determine your ultimate Season Reward!]
[Note: Season Rewards are vastly superior to standard post-match rewards!]
Sitting in the dressing room, Shane opened his attribute panel.
Reading the system prompts, he took a deep breath.
It meant...
Beyond the immediate spoils of individual matches...
There was a massive, overarching payout waiting at the end of the campaign.
And logically, there would likely be separate cumulative ratings for La Liga and the Europa League.
Shane shook his head to clear his thoughts. He still had a lot to learn about the true depths of the system's architecture.
Open chest...
A brilliant, pulsing halo of light erupted from the virtual chest.
Within the spinning light, the names of legendary Real Madrid icons flashed past his eyes.
Ronaldo (R9)...
Zinedine Zidane...
Raúl...
David Beckham...
Alfredo Di Stéfano...
Cristiano Ronaldo...
As the light suddenly converged and crystallized.
[Ding! Congratulations. You have obtained: SS-Tier Legendary - Global Icon - David Beckham's Golden Right Foot Module!]
[Integrate module now?]
David Beckham's golden right foot?!
As a man who had legitimately challenged for the Ballon d'Or, the most adored Number 7 of Manchester United's golden era, and a true Galáctico...
His right-foot technique was practically mythical.
His pinpoint, curling long balls, his devastating early crosses, and those physics-defying bending free kicks—they were the absolute, defining hallmarks of Beckham's global legacy.
Integrate!
Shane inhaled sharply.
A sudden, intense warmth surged through his body, pooling into his right leg.
Instantly, his brain was flooded with an entirely new, instinctual understanding of passing mechanics. The physics of generating curve, the exact striking zones to manipulate backspin and topspin, the biomechanics of whipping a ball across fifty meters...
He could physically feel his right foot's touch and sensitivity elevate to a terrifying new level.
A bright smile broke across his exhausted face.
Maintaining a relentless pace of evolution...
Was the absolute foundation of long-term survival in this sport.
Without it...
He would eventually crash and burn.
Even gods of the game like Ronaldo and Maradona had matches where they were completely neutralized.
This was Europe.
The absolute epicenter of the global football economy.
This was a hundred-billion-euro market. And that astronomical wealth sustained a massive, ruthless industry of analysts, tacticians, and scouts.
Thousands of elite coaches spent every waking hour studying tape, dissecting new tactics, decoding their opponents, and devising methods to destroy them.
If Shane remained stagnant...
If he relied solely on his current bag of tricks...
It was only a matter of time before the elite tacticians mapped his entire game and froze him out.
...
The Madrid Derby was undoubtedly the focal point of the weekend for the Spanish—and indeed, European—sports media.
And when the final whistle blew...
The name Shane Carter...
Became the undisputed, singular storyline of the entire fixture.
Any player who manages to score a hat-trick against Real Madrid is guaranteed to become famous.
Instantly, globally famous.
By that same evening...
Across Spain, England, France, Germany, and Italy...
European digital media platforms were completely saturated with news of the match.
Within hours, nearly every hardcore football fan on the planet knew his name.
Atlético Madrid was not a small club by any means.
But they were not a "super-club" either.
Everyone in football knew that Atlético was a mythical breeding ground for world-class strikers.
But everyone also knew... that Atlético could never actually keep them.
For a club of Atlético's financial tier...
The moment one of their young stars truly broke out...
The global giants began circling.
Just one season prior, their nineteen-year-old academy prodigy goalkeeper, David de Gea, had barely completed his breakout campaign before Manchester United aggressively poached him.
Before Radamel Falcao arrived, their previous Argentine talisman, Sergio Agüero...
Had only spent a few seasons in Madrid before Manchester City arrived with a mountain of cash.
And it wasn't just foreign imports.
Even Fernando Torres—the golden child of the Atlético academy, the kid who was given the captain's armband at twenty years old, a player whose blood literally bled red and white...
Even he couldn't stay. He eventually packed his bags for Liverpool.
For an upper-mid-table club operating just below the absolute financial elite...
When a generational talent emerged within their ranks, resisting the gravitational pull of the super-clubs was practically impossible.
Shane had already showcased immense potential prior to this match.
However.
His previous opponents lacked true global prestige.
Many elite scouting departments had simply placed him on their "watchlists," choosing to monitor his consistency.
But a hat-trick against Real Madrid?
That shattered the "wait and see" approach. Every elite sporting director in Europe was now wide awake.
Delivering a god-tier performance against a super-club in a high-stakes derby...
Was the ultimate force multiplier on a scouting report.
Let alone directly scoring three goals to win the match single-handedly.
Overnight...
Shane Carter became the hottest trending topic across every major social media platform.
Clips of his goals went viral instantly.
Fans from every corner of the continent were debating the ceiling of the American teenager rising in Madrid.
"Wow! The kid is an absolute monster! A complete box-to-box engine!"
"He can pass, he can tackle, he can shoot!"
"World football hasn't seen a profile like this in years."
"His two long-range goals might have had a touch of luck, but his audacity is undeniable."
"Did you see him end Khedira's career with that Croqueta?! Hahaha, the German got turned into a training cone!"
The fans were mesmerized.
The following morning.
Shane's face dominated the front pages of nearly every major sports publication in Europe.
MARCA Front Page: [The American-Chinese Genius Sinks the Galácticos With a Hat-Trick!]
The accompanying photo showed Shane lying flat on the Calderón grass, arms spread wide under the stadium lights.
France Football Headline: [Three Strikes From the Cannon: The Galácticos Are Shattered!]
Sky Sports (UK): [Mourinho Derailed by Atlético! Teenage Prodigy Shines on the Iberian Peninsula!]
The entire continent was dissecting his performance.
The world was watching.
Rapidly...
Detailed breakdowns of his technical profile and his performances across his first four professional matches were compiled into urgent, high-priority scouting dossiers.
These dossiers landed squarely on the desks of the most powerful managers in Europe.
And...
Highlighted in bold red ink at the very top of almost every single report...
Was one incredibly crucial, devastating piece of information:
"Shane Carter was born on February 14, 1994. He is exactly two weeks away from his eighteenth birthday..."
"As a minor, Atlético Madrid cannot legally bind him to a senior professional contract yet!"
No professional contract?
When the financial departments of the super-clubs read that specific detail...
They looked exactly like great white sharks...
Who had just smelled fresh blood in the water.
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