Winning a treble sounds simple, but in reality, it's not that easy. Let's look at the teams that have won a treble in the last 20 years.
None.
In the 2007-2008 season, Manchester United had a chance for a treble. Due to a packed schedule, combined with injuries and other factors, they ultimately gave up on the FA Cup to focus all their efforts on the Champions League and the league, winning a double. In the mid-2000s, during a period of Barcelona's dominance, they had strong momentum fighting on three fronts and originally had the strength to challenge for a treble.
Unfortunately, fighting on multiple fronts led to issues with player fitness, form, and injuries, ultimately resulting in their elimination in the Champions League knockout stages, missing out on the treble opportunity.
Bayern Munich is even more of a "double winner" collector, always dominating Germany but consistently stopping at the Champions League quarter-finals.
This shows that after the Champions League reform and into the modern football era, the treble demands too much from clubs, to the extent that no treble-winning team has appeared since 2000. In today's football world, the treble is widely recognized as an almost impossible feat.
After the "chat" on the training ground that day, Jürgen Klopp didn't bring up the matter, and the Dortmund players didn't dwell on it either. Both sides tacitly agreed to pretend the conversation never happened, but secretly, they were already giving their all, striving for an impossible goal.
Is this passionate? Jin Hayes asked himself, and rationally, he felt it was foolish. But emotionally, Jin Hayes wanted to give it his all. Especially since Jin Hayes knew very well that this season, Dortmund was purely defying fate.
According to his future-past, in the 2008-2009 season, Barcelona would win an unprecedented sextuple. The Bundesliga champion would be Wolfsburg. The German Cup champion would be Werder Bremen. None of the three championships were related to Dortmund.
Any single championship would be Dortmund defying fate, and defying fate three times in a row—Jin Hayes didn't even know what would happen. But he wanted to try.
April 24th, Bundesliga, Dortmund vs. Hamburg; April 26th, German Cup semi-final, Werder Bremen vs. Dortmund; April 30th, Champions League semi-final, Dortmund vs. Barcelona. For this three-game week, Jin Hayes was like haggling at a night market stall in front of Klopp.
"Three games, playing the full match in each."
"No, two games at most."
"Three games, with one as a substitute."
"Fifty minutes for you in the league start, ten minutes in the German Cup, and the full match in the Champions League."
"Eighty minutes in the league, forty-five minutes in the German Cup."
"Sixty minutes in the league, fifteen minutes in the German Cup, final price."
"Deal."
"You rascal!" Klopp laughed in exasperation. "There are so many professional players in Europe, but none of them talk to their coach like you do."
"Well, now you have, Jürgen."
"No respect!"
"I'm off to training, Coach." Klopp wanted to take the opportunity to discipline Jin Hayes, but the boy had already slipped away. Jin Hayes was just like he was on the pitch, looking handsome and harmless, but in reality, if you weren't careful, you'd be played.
Bundesliga Round 29, Dortmund vs. Hamburg. Jin Hayes started.
According to the "gentleman's agreement" with Klopp, he only had sixty minutes today.
Finish the battle in sixty minutes? Very well, then I'll give it my all.
Thus, the Hamburg players witnessed Jin Hayes in his full glory, a Jin Hayes filled with fighting spirit, a beastly Jin Hayes. Especially the young Hamburg player, 17-year-old Son Heung-min.
Last time in the German Cup semi-final, Jin Hayes had already left a deep impression on Son Heung-min, almost becoming the Korean teenager's nightmare. Every time he had a nightmare, he would dream of an expressionless East Asian teenager, transformed into a ruthless dribbling machine, toying with him again and again.
The deep sense of powerlessness almost gave Son Heung-min PTSD. After psychological treatment from the club's sports psychologist, combined with hard training on the pitch, Son Heung-min finally escaped the nightmare of Jin Hayes.
"Son, when you encounter a strong enemy, you must face him. He is only 16 years old, you are one year older than him, you must be stronger than him."
"The next game is a great opportunity. Defeat Jin Hayes head-on, and you will surely evolve yourself." Before the match, the encouragement from the sports psychologist gave Son Heung-min courage. Finally, he could face Jin Hayes directly.
However, the moment the referee blew the whistle, Son Heung-min's nightmare descended once again.
"Jin, receives the ball in midfield, then suddenly bursts forward. Accelerates past Son Heung-min. Explodes down the wing."
"He beats another! Beautiful! Running at high speed and still able to do a Marseille Turn?"
"Another change of direction to shake off the defender! He's rounded the goalkeeper! A tap-in into an empty net."
"My God! The game has just started, in the 2nd minute, Jin Hayes helps Dortmund open the scoring."
After scoring, Jin Hayes was expressionless, as if the solo goal performance just now was not worth mentioning.
"Jin Hayes shows no excitement after scoring, which is understandable, we've seen too many of his solo goals before."
"This one isn't even the most spectacular."
Son Heung-min's jaw almost dropped to the floor—the moment Jin Hayes accelerated past him and outran him, the Korean teenager was utterly desperate.
Good news: this time he wasn't toyed with by Jin Hayes's footwork. Bad news: this time he was simply outrun. He felt like he was about to break down.
Why! As fellow East Asians, how can Jin Hayes, at 16, use speed and physicality to overpower the Bundesliga defence? What's the point of me going to the gym every day and training hard? Am I a clown?
Son Heung-min was completely shattered. And that wasn't all. In the 20th minute of the match, Jin Hayes seemed to be racing against someone; he was in a hurry. He was dribbling well in the middle, then suddenly accelerated again, forcefully bypassing the Hamburg defensive midfielder, then abruptly stopped and changed direction, shaking off two players at once. He drew the entire Hamburg team to him at the edge of the box, then backheeled the ball to the surging Nuri Şahin.
"Nuri Şahin—"
"A long-range shot smashes into the net! Dortmund extends their lead to 2-0!"
Was he satisfied with that? No.
To prevent Hamburg from equalising after he was substituted at the 60-minute mark, Jin Hayes simply went crazy.
"OHHHH—It's Jin again! His form today is absolutely perfect!"
"A cross-run with Marco Reus, then suddenly a flick over the defender from the byline, a one-two! A breakthrough completed at the limit!"
"A shot from a zero angle? No, a cut-back pass!"
"Marco Reus!!! He's done it again!!!"
"The Reus-Jin Hayes connection! Reus, returning to the field, and Jin Hayes still have incredible chemistry! They are simply the best attacking duo in the Bundesliga!"
"3-0!"
The Hamburg team was stunned, having witnessed Jin Hayes's individual breakthrough performance throughout. And it wasn't over.
As the time approached 60 minutes, Jin Hayes was about to be substituted. He once again used a rainbow flick to toy with his opponent.
The Hamburg defensive midfielder, the hard-tackling Dutch international Nigel de Jong, had long been infuriated by Jin Hayes's tricks. He dared to do a rainbow flick in front of him?
De Jong flew in with both feet, a reckless tackle that looked like he wanted to plant Jin Hayes into the ground. However, Jin Hayes had already anticipated him, sidestepping de Jong's lunge but not completely avoiding it—his body grazed, and he was knocked to the ground.
A sharp whistle blew, the referee sprinted forward, raising his hand and showing de Jong a red card.
A direct red card.
Tackles on the field are understandable, but a reckless flying tackle is considered the most dangerous action. This shows the extent to which de Jong was rattled by Jin Hayes. De Jong knew he was in the wrong. The Dutchman glared fiercely at Jin Hayes, like he'd been outplayed, and was escorted off the field by his teammates.
The Hamburg team, trailing by three goals, was now forced to play with 10 men against 11.
What's the point of playing anymore?
Through Jin Hayes's relentless efforts, he finally secured today's victory. After coming off the field, there was no way the game could be turned around. Before leaving, Jin Hayes deliberately added a double insurance.
"Jin—the young star!!!"
"His curving shot! A perfect curved ball right into the top corner!"
"Today, Jin, with two goals and two assists, is truly on fire!!!"
"Dortmund leads 4-0 by a large margin, plus playing with one more man, these three points are securely in hand!"
"In the standings, Dortmund can still maintain a narrow one-point lead and continue to top the table!"
Sixty minutes, punch out and go home. Substituted by İlkay Gündoğan, Jin Hayes deliberately approached Klopp.
"Well, I've completed my mission—sixty minutes was enough."
"Awesome."
Klopp was speechless, only able to express his admiration using the Chinese he had learned.
On the field, 17-year-old Son Heung-min was also substituted. As he walked off the pitch, he was utterly dejected, once again falling into a daze of self-doubt.
"What a shame for this kid." Looking at Son Heung-min, Klopp felt sorry for him. He hadn't done anything wrong; he just met Jin Hayes, who was in a hurry to get off work.
Two days later, April 26th. German Cup semi-final, Werder Bremen vs. Dortmund. Mesut Özil was a bit puzzled—Jin Hayes didn't even play today? In the past two seasons, Dortmund had beaten Werder Bremen four times in the league, which also gave Özil a bit of "Jin Hayes PTSD." Whenever he saw an Asian player on the field, Özil subconsciously tensed up. With Jin Hayes absent today, Özil could finally unleash his creativity.
In the first half, Özil's two through balls at the edge of the box helped Werder Bremen take a 2-0 lead. Dortmund wasn't playing in a hurry either, not pressing to equalise despite being behind. This made the Werder Bremen players quite confused. The fans in the Werder Bremen home stands, seeing their team lead by two goals and essentially securing the victory, started to go wild, holding up huge white banners with handwritten slogans.
"Bring Jin Hayes on!"
Not only that, the Werder Bremen home stands even chanted in unison, directly provoking the Dortmund bench.
"Bring Jin Hayes on!!"
"Bring Jin Hayes on!!"
On the Dortmund bench, teammates all looked at Jin Hayes.
"No, what does that have to do with me?"
"It's because you were too ruthless in the past two seasons, making the Werder Bremen home crowd remember you."
"They want me to play that much? Fine, they're asking for it."
Jin Hayes looked at Klopp. The time had already reached 75 minutes, exactly the 15 minutes they had agreed upon. Klopp had originally intended for Jin Hayes to rest longer, but now it seemed he had no choice but to send him in.
"Jin, don't push yourself too hard, you just played in the league."
"It's fine, I recover very quickly."
"If we lose the Cup, we lose it. Don't push too hard; we need you for the Champions League semi-final in four days."
"Don't worry."
Hiss—
When Jin Hayes actually appeared by the side of the pitch, the Werder Bremen stands collectively gasped.
We asked you to bring Jin Hayes on, and you actually brought him on? What about Werder Bremen then?
The fans were already scared. Jin Hayes had just brutally finished off Hamburg two days ago. They shouldn't have gotten carried away and awakened something they couldn't control.
"Take Jin Hayes back!"