Chapter 550: Europe's No. 1 Black Shop

To put it bluntly, today's professional football is commercial football and capital football.

Without capital, no one can play professional football, especially football in the top European leagues.

Business, capital and football have become completely integrated.

It is difficult for outsiders to imagine how deep the water here is.

To give the simplest example, Barcelona's official sponsor is Nike, but Messi, the team's top star, is sponsored by Adidas. Real Madrid's official sponsor is Adidas, but Cristiano Ronaldo, the team's top star, is sponsored by Nike.

Is this really just normal business behavior?

Come on, this is a war!

A war between Nike and Adidas for industry leadership!

This war involves billions or even tens of billions of euros. The transfer fees of superstars, which are only tens of millions or at most hundreds of millions of euros, are simply a drop in the bucket for these industry giants and are not worth mentioning.

The global effect created by simply organizing such a global super transfer is much better than their advertising investment, and the profits are even more amazing.

This is how capital football is played in the new era!

"It seems that Roselle is really in a hurry this time!"

Yang Huan shook his head and laughed.

The others present also sighed.

As for Rosell, he is more familiar with the way modern capital football is played than Laporta.

At the very least, in the years when he was in charge of Barcelona, ​​Barcelona's commercial influence was better than in the Laporta era, and commercial revenue was also rising steadily.

Of course, the price to pay is that a group of old stubborn people who cannot keep up with the times will accuse Rosell's administration of causing Barcelona to become full of the smell of commercial money.

Little do people know that these days professional teams cannot survive without commercial operations.

Those who blame Russell are just talking without any concern. They don’t know the value of rice until they take charge of the household!

"I got a call from Markus Baumann from Adidas a while ago."

Yang Huan glanced at everyone and said, "Guess what he said?"

Without waiting for everyone to answer, Yang Huan took the initiative to solve the mystery.

"If we can bring in Messi, Adidas will pay us a transfer fee of 125 million euros and increase the team sponsorship fee by 40%!"

"What?" Sun Yue was completely stunned.

One hundred and twenty-five million euros?

This amount of money may not be enough to poach Messi, but the gap is not that big either!

Although there are rumors that Messi's transfer fee is as high as 200 million, everyone knows that it is nonsense and not that outrageous.

As for the 40 percent increase in sponsorship fees, for Southampton, that would be more than 10 million euros, which is also very high.

In this way, if Southampton wants to sign Messi, the team does not need to pay much money at all. At most, they have to bear Messi's high annual salary. After all, the extra sponsorship fee of more than 10 million euros given by Adidas is not enough to satisfy Messi.

Not to mention, the Premier League will have to pay an additional 50 percent in personal taxes.

Peter Kenyon nodded and smiled, "As far as I know, in addition to us, Adidas has also contacted Real Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich. All three of them are obviously interested. Moreover, Bayern Munich is going to change its coach this summer, and the head coach is Guardiola!"

Looking across Europe, there are only a few teams that can lure Messi.

Southampton is qualified because of its outstanding performance this season. If it had not performed well, it would probably not have been qualified.

As for AC Milan, let’s not talk about the decline of Serie A. Even if it hasn’t declined, the Nerazzurri cannot afford Messi’s high annual salary, and they will suffer huge losses!

Sun Yue also smiled and said, "The main reason why Adidas did this is that the sales of the Nike jersey Messi wears are dozens of times more than the Adidas boots he wears, and the first thing that comes to mind when people mention Messi is often Nike."

"From Adidas' perspective, the huge amount of money they sponsor Messi every year is just a waste of money for Nike, and they don't get any benefit at all. But they have to sponsor him. Nike is eager to get Messi's sponsorship contract, so they will do everything they can to encourage teams in the Adidas camp to poach Messi!"

Peter Kenyon also agreed with Sun Yue's words.

"Things haven't progressed yet, but I'm sure that Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are interested!"

"Real Madrid is about to repeat the Figo incident!" Sun Yue laughed.

From the fans' point of view, Figo's move from Barcelona to Real Madrid seems to be just a successful superstar transfer.

Little did people know that this transfer alone brought Real Madrid astonishing off-field revenue and commercial influence.

It was from this transfer that Florentino clearly saw the football model of big capital, big consortium and big business.

Perhaps, many, many years later, when someone writes football history, Figo's transfer will become a key node in professional football!

"What about Messi's attitude?" Yang Huan asked with interest.

"I don't know. There has been no statement. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are only planning and have no substantive contact. But even so, it has put huge pressure on Rosell!"

Who says it’s not?

Barcelona's results are good, that's one thing!

For top clubs like the two giants in La Liga, fans don’t just look at your results. What’s more important is how many superstars you have in your team!

As Yang Huan said before in Charlene Lahiri's off-field program, fans of the new era prefer entertainment stars, and entertainment stars are often superstars like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Ibrahimovic.

It is conceivable that if Messi leaves Barcelona, ​​it will be a disaster for Rosell!

And Yang Huan now understands that the reason why Real Madrid and Barcelona are competing for Neymar is to get insurance.

Since Adidas is encouraging Southampton, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to poach Messi, will Nike also encourage the teams they sponsor to poach Cristiano Ronaldo?

Barcelona suffered a heavy loss without Messi, and Real Madrid also suffered a heavy loss without Cristiano Ronaldo.

Therefore, the best way is to prepare for the future and introduce a player who has the ability to fill the vacancies of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both in terms of competition and business, that is Neymar!

To put it bluntly, Southampton's ability to operate in social media and commercial marketing has allowed people including Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Neymar and Gareth Bale to shine, demonstrating outstanding influence and attracting the attention of countless fans.

Among celebrity accounts on WeChat, Ibrahimovic has an astonishing number of fans, followed by Kaka, then Neymar, Gareth Bale and others. Cristiano Ronaldo is not even in the top ten.

But on Twitter, Cristiano Ronaldo ranked first, but Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Gareth Bale and others all made it into the top ten, showing Southampton's ability to operate on social media.

It also allowed Rosell and Florentino to see that a group of young players such as Neymar and Gareth Bale have the potential and qualifications to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.

When Yang Huan thought of this, he couldn't help but laugh.

The laughter was hearty, as if he had finally sorted out the fog that had been blocking his sight for the past period of time and could see clearly the road ahead.

"If that's the case, then things will be much simpler!"

Peter Kenyon, Ron Gourlay, Sun Yue and others all nodded and smiled at the same time.

"There is only one Neymar. Whoever wants him can do so by paying for him. I will give him to whoever offers the most. We can't keep the player anyway!" Yang Huan had obviously made up his mind.

Since it's going to be sold anyway, why not sell it to the party that offers a higher price?

Unlike Neymar's previous life in Brazil, when part of the ownership was held by himself and a third-party agency, when Southampton introduced Neymar, the Premier League prohibited third parties from owning player ownership, so Southampton bought him out directly.

In other words, Southampton now holds 100% ownership of Nell.

As the contract still has a long time left, anyone who wants to get Neymar has to come to Southampton to talk!

"Well, Master Huan, can you give me a hint?" Ron Gourlay asked with a smile.

Yang Huan immediately laughed again, "When Manchester United wanted to buy Cristiano Ronaldo, Ferguson told David Gill that even if you offer 150 million pounds, Real Madrid will still buy him!"

After hearing this, everyone was shocked.

Oh my god, Master Huan, your appetite is too big, isn't it?

This is selling Neymar like Cristiano Ronaldo!

Is it possible?

But from a business perspective, scarcity determines value.

There is only one Neymar, and two teams are competing for him. This is obviously completely different from the situation when Cristiano Ronaldo had only one buyer, Real Madrid.

In this situation, wouldn't Southampton be stupid if they didn't take advantage of the opportunity to raise the price?

"Dark, dark, Master Huan, you are too dark!" Sun Yue almost laughed so hard that his stomach ached.

Yang Huan acted pretentiously and slapped him with a smile, but the boy reacted quickly and snatched the hand away.

"Of course it has to be a little shady. What do you think we are in Southampton? We are the most shady shop in Europe, I tell you!"

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard it.

Young Master Huan is really thick-skinned. He runs this black shop with a clear conscience and holds his head high!

But, on second thought, that's right. If you think I'm black, then if you have the ability, don't come to me to buy me. My players are not willing to sell you!

"But, this incident also reminds us that the way top teams play has changed. We are now a hot commodity, with countless envious people staring at us. If there are sponsors adding fuel to the fire, we will be unstoppable!"

Yang Huan's words immediately made everyone present nod their heads.

"Ibrahimovic is old, but he is still strong, but we still have to be on our guard!"

Peter Kenyon nodded and said, "Once Neymar transfers, I think the player who has the best chance of taking over is Gareth Bale, a British player who is a product of Southampton's youth system. After the transfer, his performance is quite impressive. His appearance is also quite distinctive. He has the potential to take over."

Sometimes, from a marketing perspective, you either have to be extremely handsome, or have a distinctive look, or in other words, you have to be ugly. On the contrary, those who look ordinary are not likable and popular.

Ronaldo's flat front teeth and Ronaldinho's buck teeth are both very ugly, but each has its own style!

Gareth Bale's image is also very distinctive and has great potential for development.

"After Neymar leaves, Hazard can definitely take over, plus two local players, Ravel Morrison and Sturridge, I think the impact on the team will not be too great."

Yang Huan nodded and said, "Let's just leave it at that for now and talk to Bielsa later."

"Well, okay, I'll remember that!" Peter Kenyon agreed.