Old Rice also introduced Gu Ran to the multi-functional gym, multimedia tactical room, various coaches' offices, conference rooms, restaurant, physical examination and medical center, physiotherapy room and other departments in the building. Finally, he took Gu Ran to the senior director's office on the third floor.
Old Rice's office is simply decorated, and it is obvious that he doesn't come here often.
The most eye-catching thing on his desk is a gold-rimmed photo frame, and the photo in the frame is a photo of young Bell and him.
The 17-year-old Bell... is really full of vigor and vitality.
During Bale's peak period, many people thought he was a replacement for Ronaldo.
But who could have thought that 12 years later, Ronaldo is still the best in the world, while Bale has already retired.
Then old Rice laughed and said, "Gu, I have prepared a new photo frame for you, waiting for you to shine in Southampton Football Club! When the time comes, I will put you and Bale here, one on the left and one on the right. Haha, the other old guys will definitely be envious!"
Holy shit…
Suddenly, another big pie was drawn for me.
Gu Ran quickly said with a genuine feeling: "Thank you Mr. Rice for your kindness! I will definitely work hard!"
Old Rice smiled happily and said, "Gu, I've told you so many times, don't be polite to me, this is your home, come on, sit down, I'll get you the contract."
"Let me tell you something," Old Rice said as he bent over to open the safe on the other side of his desk, "This contract is definitely the strongest contract Southampton can offer. I believe you will be very satisfied after reading it."
As he spoke, Old Rice took out a thick stack of contracts from the safe.
Gu Ran quickly reached out and took it.
This is the first contract of his professional career!
This contract is heavy...
There are at least thirty or forty pages!!! Gu Ran suddenly felt overwhelmed, and once again felt how important it was to find a good agent.
This is originally the job of an agent, but after all, it is my first professional contract in my life, so it might as well be studied by myself.
Gu Ran opened the "Star of Hope" contract and read through it carefully.
Old Les sat aside, squinting his eyes slightly and not saying a word, as if he was taking a nap, or like a fisherman waiting for a big fish to bite.
...The biggest fish you'll ever catch! Lamar Carter's words echoed in Old Rice's ears.
At this moment, Old Rice was very happy.
Although he knew that it was not appropriate to compare Gu Ran's signing of the contract to a fish biting a hook, after all, this professional contract was really full of sincerity, but this feeling of anticipation of catching fish was really wonderful! Continue to create offspring tonight! Old Rice straightened his back... Forget it, next week.
...Next week, you can still watch Gu Ran play in the semi-finals.
Gu Ran ignored Old Rice's fiery gaze and read the contract carefully.
This contract seems to have many pages, but it is actually divided into four parts.
The first few pages detail the responsibilities and obligations of both parties as professional clubs/professional players, as well as many principles for dealing with various disputes, and also cite various arbitration rules applicable to athletes in the UK.
For example, how to deal with problems such as the club's failure to pay wages on time or failure to provide players with standard training equipment.
Another example is how to deal with issues such as players failing to come to the training base on time, or unprofessionally going on strike, or refusing to obey the head coach's arrangements.
Really meticulous...
This is actually a standard contract, and all professional players' contracts will have this standard.
Gu Ran quickly skimmed through it and went straight to the second part of the contract.
The second part is different from the standard contract.
The focus of the second part is the contract term, the club's positioning of the player, and the minimum buyout clause.
This part states at the beginning that Southampton Club will train Gu Ran in the way of cultivating the "future core of the team."
Gu Ran is the third promising star player of Southampton Club, sharing the same training resources as Chamberlain and Luke Shaw.
The contract is for a period of three years - in the UK, players under the age of 18 can only sign a contract of up to three years.
Gu Ran noticed that there was a clause added to his contract: when Gu Ran turns 18, Southampton Club has the right to offer him a new contract at any time with treatment and value no less than the current contract, and Gu Ran must sign it.
——Obviously, this is a little contract trap.
It's not really a scam, but it's definitely a trick by Southampton Club to bind Gu Ran.
Seeing this, Gu Ran couldn't help but smile knowingly.
This little trap is actually nothing. After all, the club has invested so many resources in you, it is impossible for them to let you go after three years. You must sign a contract with a longer term and a higher buyout fee after you turn 18.
The club's thinking is also fully reflected in the "minimum termination fee clause".
Generally speaking, there are clear regulations in the Spanish professional league that players over the age of 17 must have a minimum buyout fee when signing a contract in order to protect the interests of young players.
In the UK, there is no such mandatory regulation. Not all players over the age of 17 have to sign a minimum buyout clause, but as long as they sign the minimum buyout clause, they will be protected and restricted by the Football Association Competition Regulations.
The buyout clause is not only binding on the players, but also on the clubs.
If the club no longer wants the player, or wants to reduce the player's weekly salary, or wants to loan the player out, but the player does not want to, then the player has the right to continue to enjoy the current contract until the end of the contract, unless the club pays the termination fee and fires the player.
Otherwise, players can just come in every day, tread lightly, and enjoy a relaxing game of golf.
The most typical example of this is...
——Gu Ran couldn’t help but look up at the photo frame on Old Rice’s desk.
When Old Rice saw this scene, he was extremely delighted:
I knew it! It is very useful to paint a rosy picture for young people!
Gu Ran must be thinking about how to become a star like Bale now!
Therefore, he will be eager to sign the contract! Gu Ran lowered his head again and continued to read the contract...
The constraint of the buyout clause on players is that when the players are not satisfied with playing in a small club and a big club offers a more attractive contract, the small club can use the buyout clause to prevent the players from directly jumping ship and transferring.
As long as the small club does not approve the player's transfer, the big club can only terminate the current contract and take the player away unless it pays the penalty clause set in the contract.
This way, the smaller clubs won't lose anything.
The amount of the buyout clause is generally determined based on the total contract price and the club's assessment of the player's future.
Generally speaking, the buyout fee for ordinary players is 1.25 times or 2 times the total contract value.
The buyout clause for key players will be around three times the total value of their current contract, while for core players on the team, it may even be around five times the total value of their current contract.
As for superstars like Ronaldo and Messi, they cannot be restricted by multiples of their contract value.
As a "rising star", Gu Ran is considered a key player in terms of buyout money.
So normally speaking, Gu Ran’s termination fee is probably within three times of his total contract value.
Gu Ran quickly calculated in his mind: If calculated based on a weekly salary of 2,600 pounds, the total value of this three-year contract is about 400,000 pounds, so the penalty for his breach of contract should be between 1 million and 1.2 million pounds.
Gu Ran flipped through several pages in a row, and finally saw the minimum penalty clause set by Southampton for him.
5 million pounds.
Oh shit!
Are you crazy? Gu Ran rubbed his eyes and read it again...
I'm just a kid!
I'm just a grassroots amateur high school student! My first professional contract is so high! ? The minimum release fee of 5 million pounds, not to mention the teams in the Championship and League One can't afford it, even the Premier League teams will be daunted.
After all, 5 million pounds can buy a lot of famous Premier League players! Grit your teeth and add another 2 million, it's enough to buy a star of Carvalho's level! Of course, such a high penalty fee can indeed reflect that Southampton Club is really optimistic about Gu Ran's future and is ready to prevent other clubs from poaching him.
...This really treats me as a treasure.
I really want to sing a line that makes me like and makes me sad~ Gu Ran smiled secretly and continued browsing.
The third part of a professional contract is about money.
This is the important part, which takes up the most pages. It is roughly divided into weekly salary, bonuses, fines, advertising revenue sharing, broadcasting revenue sharing, portrait rights sharing and other financial issues.
The first two items to be introduced are the league ranking revenue sharing and broadcasting revenue sharing.
In Gu Ran's contract, the points for these two items are 0.
The contract used a relatively long paragraph to explain why Gu Ran did not receive a share of the ranking income and broadcast income—
In the English Football League One, these two benefits are very low and cannot be compared with the scale of rewards in the Premier League.
In the Premier League, as long as you win the championship, all the players in the first team can share a championship bonus of about 1 million pounds.
As for the broadcasting revenue of the Premier League, it is also extremely high. It is no exaggeration to say that it is absolutely the best in the world, and there is no rival in the five major leagues.
The 20 Premier League teams can share 1.44 billion pounds together (data around 2010, reaching 5.05 billion pounds in domestic revenue + 2.103 billion euros in overseas broadcasting revenue in 2022). The top BIG6 will get the most, taking 25% of the 1.44 billion pounds. The lower-ranked clubs can get about 1 million pounds more for each higher ranking.
The revenue from overseas broadcasting alone is enough to surpass the domestic broadcasting revenue of the other four major leagues.
How much does the English League One earn? According to current data, the prize money that the champion team of English League One can get is only 10,000 pounds.
The gap in broadcasting revenue is even greater. The 24 clubs in English League One have to share 400,000 pounds, which means each club will only receive less than 20,000 pounds.
So, why is every club so eager to enter the Premier League? Why do Premier League clubs dare to spend so much money on signings?
This is a world of difference between 400,000 pounds and 1.44 billion! Seeing this, Gu Ran was also amazed and sighed!
Before his rebirth, he only thought that the Premier League was interesting because it was the birthplace of modern football and that the players were professional. It was not until this moment that he realized... this was really a waste of money! When I have the chance in the future, I will also buy a club to have fun...
A supplementary clause was also added to this contract: if Southampton can enter the Premier League in the future, Gu Ran’s ranking share and broadcasting share will be the second highest in the team, only lower than the old players with main contracts.
I have to say, this is really quite sincere.
Of course, if he can really help Southampton Club achieve a triple jump back to the Premier League, Gu Ran’s strength at that time will definitely be more than just that of a second-tier player.
So, this supplementary clause is indeed sincere, but in reality it is just a pie in the sky.
Next, there is the sharing of advertising revenue and players’ image rights.
For both of these items, Southampton Club gave a 30% share.
This profit sharing ratio is also very sincere.
There is no need to explain much about advertising revenue. The player's image rights are actually equivalent to personal copyright. As long as one's face, image, signature, etc. appear in commercial activities, the other party must pay the image rights fee.
Players’ image rights account for the bulk of a star’s personal commercial income, and are also an item from which a club can directly gain financial benefits after purchasing a star.
However, for Gu Ran, it is still too early to consider these things.
Although the profit sharing ratio in this contract shows sincerity, it is just a pie in the sky in a low-level league like English League One.
Next, there are weekly wages, bonuses and fines.
The weekly salary is £2,600, paid 52 weeks a year.
This price was also revealed by Old Rice before.
Although it is not as good as Chelsea's 4,000 pounds, it is definitely very sincere for Southampton Club.
If a rich friend who spends tens of thousands of dollars on a meal gives you 100 yuan, and if a poor friend who eats vegetables and radishes every day gives you 100 yuan, the emotional weight of the two 100 yuan is completely different.
The prize money is divided into two parts. The first is the "Best of the Match" bonus. As long as you get the best of the match in a professional competition, you can get a reward of 3,000 pounds.
This bonus is not set for Gu Ran, but is the standard for all players in Southampton's first team.
To get this bonus, you must first appear in an official match as a first-team player and get the highest score of the game.
3000 pounds is not a lot.
But as long as you have the ability, you can get it every week, and it adds up to a considerable reward.
You know, in the English League One, most teams do not have a "Man of the Match" bonus.
Even many Championship teams do not offer this bonus.
Secondly, there is the club’s internal “championship upgrade” bonus: as long as Southampton’s first team can qualify for promotion to the Championship, the first team’s entire salary will increase by 10%. If they win the League One championship and are directly promoted as champions, the first team’s entire salary will increase by 12%.
In terms of fines, they are mainly for being late, leaving early, fighting, violating rules, disobeying arrangements, talking back to the coach, etc.
The severity of the fines also varies. For example, the lightest fine is for being late, which is a fine of 50 pounds for each lateness. The heaviest fine is for talking back to the coach or beating teammates. Depending on the severity of the circumstances, the player may be fined up to three months' salary and may also be demoted to the reserve team.
After reading the part about weekly salary and bonus, the rest are the various details.
For example, before officially signing the contract, one must complete a physical examination and evaluation by the team doctor, complete a physical examination and assessment by the coaching staff, sign several waiver agreements, and so on.
The minimum appearance rate that Gu Ran was most concerned about was indeed written into the final supplementary clause of the contract, and was also explained in detail.
For example, if Gu Ran's physical fitness is assessed to be not up to standard, or he is injured or sick, or the coaching staff believes that Gu Ran is not in a good condition to compete, then the minimum appearance rate clause will be discounted or invalidated, etc.
In a word, once the club signs you, they will never let you play badly.
——When professional players play badly, it means they are unprofessional.
After reading more than thirty pages, Gu Ran's eyes were almost blurry.
Fortunately, I finally have a general understanding of the professional contract.
During the whole process of Gu Ran reading the contract, Old Rice was staring at Gu Ran and observing:
...My big fish, is it time to take the bait? Gu Ran closed the thick contract and smiled calmly, "Mr. Rice, this contract is really great and sincere. I am very touched. I can't wait to sign it now."
"but……"
Old Rice covered his heart!
This is what he fears the most! This is what he fears the most!
For a moment, Old Rice suddenly felt that it was not him who was fishing, but the fish that was fishing him!
He felt like he was being controlled by Gu Ran!!!
But he couldn't believe it! After all, Gu Ran was just a 17-year-old grassroots amateur high school player!
Gu Ran smiled and said, "Mr. Rice, there are a few things I need to discuss with you further."
…
(End of this chapter)