Chapter 185 Endorsement Fees Rise
After easily defeating Hull City, Manchester City has now won all three games and is at the top of the Premier League standings with nine points.
Considering their goal difference of 10, even if teams like Liverpool and Tottenham beat their respective opponents and achieved three consecutive wins, they would not be able to shake their position.
After this game, the Premier League teams finally began to take Manchester City seriously.
Before the game, all parties felt that Manchester City had signed too many players in the summer and it would take some time for these players to integrate into the team, so Manchester City's results in the early stages of the season might not be very good.
But no one expected that they would start with three consecutive wins and directly sit at the top of the standings.
This made other teams dare not underestimate them, and they put them together with several other giants in the camp of winning the championship.
The opponents' attention is a recognition of Manchester City's strength, but this attention will cause them to encounter greater resistance in their next games.
The focus of this round of the Premier League is the last two games: Manchester United away to Liverpool, and Arsenal at home against Tottenham.
After forcing back the powerful Chelsea, Moyes' Manchester United still fell at Anfield.
In the Red Devils vs Liverpool match, Liverpool always performs above their level when facing the Red Devils at home.
Although the Reds' performance in the league and the Champions League has been far inferior to that of Manchester United in recent years, Manchester United just can't get the upper hand at Anfield.
In the past six seasons when Manchester United visited Anfield, their record was one win, one draw and four losses.
This record can be said to be one-sided!
Moyes has just taken office this season and has not yet fully mastered the team. Under such circumstances, the result of coming to Liverpool's home ground is predictable.
Just four minutes into the game, Liverpool captain Gerrard assisted his teammate Sturridge to score.
This was the only goal of the game, but even with just one goal, it was enough to make the Red Devils return home empty-handed.
The loss in this game was very unfavorable for Moyes.
In the first three rounds, after facing two opponents in the BIG4, Manchester United's record was one draw and one loss.
This record is not ideal! Manchester United, who only won one of the first three games, has now dropped to seventh place in the standings, falling out of the championship zone.
Considering that they will face Manchester City in the fifth round of the league, if Manchester United loses again in the derby, the Red Devils' ranking will definitely continue to decline, and they may have to say goodbye to the Premier League championship this season! Some are happy and some are sad. Moyes was frustrated at Anfield. Arsenal's Wenger defeated North London's arch-rival Tottenham with the same score at the Emirates Stadium. After the unexpected loss in the first game, they stopped the decline with two consecutive wins.
Arsenal has won two consecutive games and is currently ranked fourth in the standings. Although they are three points behind Manchester City and Liverpool, the gap is not that big. As long as the opponents make mistakes, they can catch up.
Thanks to his crazy performance in the first three rounds of the Premier League, Lin Quan was selected as the best player of the Premier League this month.
This is the first award he has received since joining the Premier League, and he is also the youngest foreign player to receive this honor.
The popularity of the Premier League is indeed much greater than that of the Bundesliga. After joining the Premier League, Lin Quan's number of Twitter followers soared rapidly.
Originally, after the Confederations Cup, his number of fans stagnated at around 2.8 million. However, after joining Manchester City and playing only three games, his number of fans increased by more than 1 million, and now the total number of followers is approaching 4 million.
As a result, Lin Quan's commercial value also increased.
There was a long line of sponsors coming to him for endorsements, and Perez was almost overwhelmed by the number.
In line with the idea of "better to have nothing than to have something less than what is good", Lin Quan asked Pere to reject most of the commercial endorsements.
"Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi came to me and they wanted to work with you."
According to Lin Quan's request, Perret retained some international brands with higher prices and greater sincerity.
"What are the two offers?"
Lin Quan doesn't drink much carbonated drinks, as they are harmful to professional players.
But ordinary people don’t care. As a happy water for fat people, Coke has huge sales volume all over the world and is extremely well-known.
Business cooperation with them will also help expand Lin Quan's own influence and popularity.
This kind of mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation is what he longs for.
"Coca-Cola has a little more influence, so their price is more conservative, offering a three-year contract for 9 million euros.
PepsiCo's influence is slightly smaller, so they paid more in promotion fees. The contract they offered was 14 million euros for 4 years!"
In total, Coca-Cola makes 3 million euros a year and Pepsi makes 3.5 million euros.
However, Lin Quan prefers Sprite in Coca-Cola. Drinking a bottle of iced Sprite in the summer is so sour and refreshing. But if you drink too much before meals, you will feel bloated and hungry quickly...
So he said to Perre, "You can sign a contract with Coca-Cola, but you have to ask them. I will only endorse Sprite. Do they agree?"
"Well, I will negotiate with them!"
"In addition, Nike and Adidas couldn't sit still anymore and contacted me, intending to make a new offer for you."
"There's no rush. Let's talk to them after the Champions League starts. We can talk slowly!"
A few months ago, Lin Quan rejected offers from Nike and Adidas. At that time, he had not yet decided on his next club, and his fame was limited to the Bundesliga, and he did not have much of a fan base worldwide.
Therefore, the two major sports brands only regarded him as a potential new star and did not offer him too high a price.
But now it's different, even though only one summer has passed.
However, after winning the Confederations Cup and joining Manchester City for a huge signing fee, his influence in football has greatly increased.
At this point, neither Nike nor Adidas can treat him as a young player anymore.
Although he is indeed very young, his current influence is no less than those top stars, and even exceeds that.
Therefore, they have to show their sincerity again.
However, Lin Quan is not in a hurry about this matter, because he knows that his influence has not yet expanded to its maximum.
As long as he continues his current outstanding performance in the two most watched competitions, the Champions League and the World Cup, his influence will be further expanded and he will truly become a superstar comparable to Messi and Ronaldo.
In addition to commercial endorsements, Lin Quan is also thinking about how to spend the money he has.
His salary was not high last season, so he didn't think much about investing.
But after joining Manchester City this season, Lin Quan received a sky-high signing fee of 100 million pounds.
This is not a small amount of money! Considering that the value of the pound will continue to depreciate, if you don't spend it early now, you will lose a lot of money when the exchange rate depreciates sharply after the UK leaves the EU in a few years.
But what to invest in? …
After the third round of the Premier League, the FIFA match day arrived.
Lin Quan left the club and rushed back to Spain to report to the national team.
Spain has not assembled for more than a month after finishing the Confederations Cup.
There was originally going to be a friendly match with Ecuador, but Bosque did not recruit any main players. He directly promoted a group of young players from the youth team and handed them over to assistant coach Tony to lead the team.
Toni led this group of young players to beat Ecuador 3:0 like cutting melons and vegetables, which made Bosque very satisfied.
The score is not very important. What is important is that the old coach has already started looking for candidates for the next generation of Spain's main framework.
Spain's current squad includes a large number of players who were born around 1985.
After playing in next year's World Cup, they will most likely not be able to participate in the 2018 World Cup.
Therefore, Spain needs to start preparing for a rainy day now.
However, with Lin Quan around, the rebuilding work will be simple, after all, there is no need to worry about the core of the team.
"Tsk tsk, our big star is here!"
Lin Quan arrived at the national team's training base and happened to meet Ramos, Casillas and others.
When Morata saw Lin Quan, he ran over, punched him in the chest, and then gave him a bear hug.
"How is it, is the Premier League fun?"
"Okay, you also want to come to the Premier League?"
"How is that possible? I am devoted to Real Madrid. Real Madrid is my favorite club. I will never go anywhere else except Real Madrid in my life!"
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Morata spoke with confidence, as if he was a loyal fan of Real Madrid.
Lin Quan glanced at him and didn't believe a word Morata said.
This guy is a 'dreamer' in football. When he left Real Madrid to join Juventus, he said that his dream since childhood was to join Juventus.
When he left Juventus and was bought back by Real Madrid, he said that he had dreamed of playing for Real Madrid since he was a child and had always dreamed of achieving success in Real Madrid.
When he left Real Madrid and went to Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, he said it again.
Given that Morata dreams of joining so many teams, fans have given him the title of 'Dreamer'.
As for which team he really likes, I'm afraid no one knows except himself.
Seeing Lin Quan coming, Ramos and Casillas also walked up to greet him.
Ramos walked around Lin Quan, pinched his muscular body, and made a clicking sound:
"Not bad, not bad. You've grown a lot stronger. It seems my previous worries were unnecessary. With your physique, even a Premier League defender wouldn't be able to do anything to you!"
Casillas warned: "Don't be careless. Premier League defenders are rough and commit a lot of fouls. Don't fight them hard to avoid hurting yourself."
At this point, several people thought of David Silva who was absent due to injury, and couldn't help sighing.
Silva was injured in a Premier League match and will be absent for at least three months.
For a professional player, being out for three months due to injury may very likely mean losing their position as a starting player.
Before they got injured, they might be the indispensable main force of the team, but when they return to the team after recovering from their injuries, their main position might have been taken away.
Moreover, many players will suffer psychological trauma after being injured, and their physical functions will also be affected. Their game state may plummet and they will become mediocre from then on.
It is no exaggeration to say that injury is the biggest enemy of professional players.
…
There are many new players in the team during this training camp.
Real Madrid's Nacho and Manchester City's Garcia were both selected for the national team for the first time, along with Manchester City's Negredo and Navas.
If the injured David Silva is included, Manchester City has five Spanish internationals.
"Busquets is injured, Javi García is here to take his place!"
Bosco explained specifically.
But this is only the apparent reason.
Spain has no shortage of midfielders. Xavi Garcia is 26 years old and is no longer a young player.
He recruited him into the team, not only to replace Busquets who was absent due to injury, but another important reason was to help Lin Quan.
Bosque has been following Lin Quan's games in the Premier League, but after watching three Manchester City games, he found that Manchester City's midfield did not provide enough support for Lin Quan.
The core of Manchester City's midfield is Yaya Toure, but this guy is not a midfielder who likes to assist his teammates, but a midfielder who likes to dribble and attack by himself.
He rarely passed the ball directly to Lin Quan, let alone provided assists for Lin Quan.
In these three games, most of Lin Quan's goals came from his outstanding individual combat ability, and his teammates provided relatively little support and help.
The person who gave him the most assists was not Manchester City's midfielder, but the team's forward Aguero.
When David Silva was not injured, he could provide some help to Lin Quan.
But now he is injured and can't provide help.
In view of this, Bosque decided to promote more Spanish players in Manchester City.
Give them more opportunities in the national team and let them cooperate more with Lin Quan.
In this way, when they return to the club, they will be able to provide greater support and help to Lin Quan.
Navas, Garcia and others didn't know this, and both were excited about being called up to the national team.
The World Cup is getting closer and closer, and football players from all over the world are now competing desperately for the main position in the team.
Even if I can't get a starting position, it's good to be able to successfully enter the 23-man roster.
Especially for the Spanish national team, the favorite to win the championship, if they can make the national team roster.
Once the Spanish national team wins the World Cup next year, they will have the chance to lift the World Cup!
The other players in the national team have similar ideas. During the team training, it can be clearly felt that their attitude is much more serious.
On the contrary, because the players were too serious, there were even some players who almost caused conflicts with their teammates because of real tackles during the team's training matches.
Bosque will be both pleased and somewhat concerned about the form of his players.
He is satisfied with the players' progressive state, but is also worried that he cannot bring all these outstanding players to the World Cup stage due to the limited number of players in the national team's roster.
This time, many main players are absent due to injuries, but this does not mean that they will be absent forever.
Therefore, many of the players who were called up this time may not appear here during the next national team training.
I don’t know if they can accept this cruel reality.
After three days of training in Madrid, all members of the Spanish national team flew to Helsinki, the capital of Finland in Northern Europe, to prepare to face their group match opponent, the Finnish national team.
This match is the third to last match of Spain's group stage. As long as they can beat Finland, they will qualify as the first in the group two rounds in advance and directly advance to the 2014 World Cup finals.
(End of this chapter)