Chapter 315: Money-making Giant
Su Dong's performance against the Shanghai City team in the last warm-up match of the Asian tour caused an uproar in China.
If fans only knew about Su Dong through live matches and video highlights before, this time, with nearly 60,000 fans watching the match on site, the Shanghai United team, which was filled with international players, experienced firsthand the terrifying lethality of Su Dong.
After the game, many participating players, including General Fan, were amazed at Su Dong’s strength.
General Fan even changed his pre-match remarks, saying that Su Dong's strength has far exceeded the scope of Asian players.
"He is a world-class star. Both his strength and awareness are amazing!"
Domestic media and fans generally praised Su Dong for scoring four goals in half an hour and providing an assist, helping Barcelona to a 5-0 lead. They believed that Su Dong had delivered a perfect answer in his domestic debut.
On the one hand, he lost in the Asian Cup final, and on the other hand, Su Dong shined during his Asian tour, slaughtering the teams from China, Japan and South Korea. This once again made the calls for him to be selected for the national team very enthusiastic.
Even many national team players and people in the football world, including General Fan, are calling for Su Dong to be recruited into the national team.
…
Su Dong did not pay much attention to the uproar he caused in the country.
After playing against Shanghai team, Barcelona quickly set off back to Europe, but the team did not return to Spain, but flew directly to the UK.
After arriving in the UK, Barcelona conducted another closed training camp, mainly focusing on adjustment and recovery.
After the long journey in Asia, although Barcelona has reaped great rewards on the commercial level, the players' consumption is also very high, especially some core players, who are restricted by commercial contracts and have to play the full 90 minutes in every game, which makes them very tired.
On the evening of August 14, in a warm-up match held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Rijkaard benched Su Dong and Ronaldinho, and instead arranged other players to start and continue to run in the team.
Young player Iniesta scored a wonderful goal in the 78th minute, scoring the only goal of the game for Barcelona and helping the team beat Parma from Serie A 1-0.
…
During Barcelona's time in the UK, Swedish striker Larsson, who was signed from Celtic, officially joined the team.
In the coming season, he will serve as the team's backup striker and compete with Su Dong.
This also further enhances Barcelona's forward attack firepower.
According to media analysis, the top three players in Barcelona's attacking firepower are Sudon with 35 goals, Larsson with 31 goals, and Ronaldinho with 15 goals. In other words, the three Barcelona attackers scored 81 goals in the league last season.
This is a very crazy number, because after Barcelona, Real Madrid, which ranks second in offensive firepower index, has only 61 goals, which is 20 goals less than Barcelona.
Although this way of comparison is not objective, to some extent, it also reflects Barcelona's determination to completely make up for last season's weak attack, especially the signing of Su Dong for 80 million euros, which is even more shocking!
If it were a month ago, when the deal was just completed, the whole world was questioning Sudong's value, but after the trip to Asia and seeing with their own eyes Sudong's crazy goal-scoring performance and the tsunami he caused in Asia, everyone basically changed their views, and some even came to think that Barcelona made a shrewd deal.
Deloitte Germany released a report that took into full consideration the commercial activities and warm-up matches of major European teams this summer, and finally came to the conclusion that Real Madrid and Manchester United are still the two most commercially attractive teams in world football today.
And the third place is Barcelona.
Evidence provided by Deloitte shows that the sensation caused by Barcelona's Asian tour even exceeded that of Real Madrid last year. Not only did it make a lot of money, but it also attracted strong popularity, which made Barcelona's influence in Asia soar.
Deloitte believes that as the region with the fastest economic growth and the greatest potential in the world, Asia is extremely attractive to all companies and institutions around the world, especially East Asia.
"Su Dong from China has incomparable advantages. He is like a money-making behemoth, constantly attracting brand sponsors from all over the world and becoming a stepping stone for countless brands to enter the Asian market, especially the East Asian market."
Deloitte finally stated that Barcelona's potential is quite amazing, and the key depends on Su Dong's achievements.
Can the 19-year-old Su Dong establish himself as a world-class star? Can he continue to be successful in Barcelona?
This will determine the speed and potential of Barca's rise in the commercial field.
…
After returning to Barcelona from the UK, Barcelona welcomed the annual Catalonia Cup.
Facing Peralada of the Spanish Third Division, Rijkaard did not arrange core players such as Sudon, Ronaldinho and Puyol to play, but they still won 4-0 against their opponents.
Larsson, who had just joined the team, scored twice, while Edmilson and Motta each scored a goal.
In the subsequent final, Barcelona faced Espanyol and defeated their opponent 2-0 with goals from Deco and Ronaldinho, winning the Catalan Cup for two consecutive years.
Su Dong missed the entire game again, mainly because he was preparing and adjusting for the new season.
Afterwards, Barcelona once again welcomed the annual traditional event, the Gamper Cup.
The opponent in this warm-up match is AC Milan.
Ancelotti's team did not give their best, and the same was true for Barcelona, with Ronaldinho and Puyol both missing the game.
Su Dong played as a center forward and performed bravely. He first attracted the attention of Kaladze and created a scoring opportunity for Giuly. Then he used his skillful footwork to break through and assisted Iniesta to score.
In the end, Barcelona narrowly defeated AC Milan 2-1 and won the Gamper Trophy.
…
With the end of the Catalan Cup and the Joan Gamper Cup, the curtain of the new season of La Liga is about to begin.
Rijkaard's debugging of Barcelona has been basically completed, the team's main lineup has also emerged, and everyone has basically seen Barcelona's situation this season.
The problem of weak forward line last season has basically been made up after Su Dong joined the team, especially after Larsson's arrival, which made people see the club's determination to make up for the problem of forward line.
Judging from the warm-up matches, the cooperation between Sudong, Giuly and Ronaldinho is becoming more and more tacit. If nothing unexpected happens, they will form Barcelona's front attack trident in the new season.
Since Rijkaard likes to use a 4-3-3 formation, in which three midfielders are positioned in an inverted triangle, this is the team formation that has been established since the winter break last season. It not only activates Xavi, but also Ronaldinho and the frontcourt attack.
Deco replaced Davis to partner with Xavi. As for the defensive midfielder position, Edmilson, Motta and Marcos can all do it, and even Van Bronckhorst can play in this position.
If the defensive midfielder has a small hidden danger, then the defense line has a big problem, especially the central defender.
Belletti is the main right-back and Gabriel Gabri can substitute in this position.
There are more left-backs, and Sylvinho, Van Bronckhorst and Navarro can all do the job.
The real trouble lies at center back.
Judging from the warm-up matches, Puyol is the unshakable main force and the captain of the team, but neither Marcos nor Oleguer is very reassuring.
For example, in the Gamper Trophy against AC Milan, Rijkaard arranged Marcos and Oleguer to form the central defenders, but the performance of these two players was not reassuring in the game. There are certain doubts as to whether they can become qualified partners for Puyol.
Originally, Rijkaard hoped that the team could introduce another central defender, such as Zaragoza's central defender Milito, but Barcelona really could not afford more transfer fees and had to give up.
This also leaves some hidden dangers.
Barcelona's style itself is to focus on offense rather than defense. Now their defensive problems are obvious, especially the lack of central defenders, which can be easily exploited by opponents. If not handled carefully, Barcelona is likely to encounter big problems.
Just after the Gamper Trophy match, Ancelotti issued a provocation with a smile, saying that Barcelona had better not draw AC Milan in the Champions League group stage, because if they play another game, they will definitely not lose!
"I have seen Barcelona's weak spot!" Ancelotti smiled confidently.
The Rossoneri were placed in the second pot in the Champions League group stage draw, while Barcelona was placed in the first pot, so the possibility of being drawn into the same group does exist.
Rijkaard is also aware of the team's defensive problems, but since he is unable to recruit new players, he can only work hard to improve the defense based on the existing foundation. He believes that the team's offense can effectively make up for the defensive weaknesses.
In contrast, their arch-rival Real Madrid only introduced three players this summer, namely Owen from Liverpool, Woodgate from Newcastle, and Samuel from Roma.
Among them, the arrival of Owen has strengthened Real Madrid's frontcourt attack, while Samuel and Woodgate are both well-known central defenders in Europe. The arrival of these two defensive players is bound to greatly enhance Real Madrid's defensive capabilities.
So much so that before the start of the season, Real Madrid was the undisputed number one in La Liga in the odds of winning the championship offered by many European bookmakers. They all believed that the pragmatic and rational recruitment strategy would make Real Madrid's overall lineup more balanced, and they believed that it would be able to achieve success in the new season.
Barcelona is closely behind. Apart from the defense, the biggest hidden danger is the depth of the bench.
In order to raise enough funds to introduce Sudon, Barcelona sold everything it had and cleared out most of the substitute lineup, including Gerard, Sergio Garcia, Kluivert, Cocu, Reiziger, Luis Garcia, Quaresma and other stars, all of whom were sent out of the Nou Camp.
The question that follows is, without enough depth on the bench, how can Barcelona ensure the team's stable performance in the long season? Even so, bookmakers still believe that the new La Liga season will be a duel between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and teams including Valencia and Deportivo La Coruna will basically be difficult to pose a threat.
But in the competition between Barcelona and Real Madrid, Real Madrid is undoubtedly ahead.
(End of this chapter)
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