Chapter 59 Football enters the Internet age!

Brazilian prodigy Neymar rejects Chelsea and joins Southampton?

This piece of news almost exploded the entire Internet in an instant, and no one could believe it was true.

But Neymar did announce to all the fans at a press conference on the WeChat platform that he will play for Southampton in the new season. There was also a photo of him wearing the No. 11 jersey representing Southampton's core players.

This shows how much the saints valued him.

Saints fans were very excited. After the team introduced Ibrahimovic, all Saints fans were very satisfied. But who could have thought that the team would be so generous and buy out Neymar's contract for 30 million euros, bringing the Brazilian super genius to Southampton.

Is this going to give someone a heart attack?

Some British fans even left a message on WeChat, saying, "People with heart disease please stay away from Southampton!"

Southampton's series of big moves have also attracted the attention of many media and celebrities.

Twitter celebrity Ronaldo left a message on his official Twitter account.

"I can't predict what the future of this transfer will be like, but I want to say that based on what I have learned, Southampton is an ambitious team that firmly believes that Neymar can make great progress under Bielsa's training at the Saints. I firmly believe that he will become the core of the Brazilian national team."

Ronaldinho, who has two to three million Twitter followers, also said, "If you ask me which team attracts my attention the most in the new season, I will choose Southampton without hesitation. I am looking forward to the pleasing offensive football that this English League One team with two world-class superstars, Ibrahimovic and Neymar, can bring to the fans."

Kaka, who has nearly seven million followers, expressed his best wishes to Neymar on Twitter.

In addition to these three Brazilian superstars, there are other football celebrities, such as Zidane, Nedved, Diego Forlan and other stars who retweeted or replied on Twitter.

Of course, there are also some who are not optimistic, such as Pele. In an interview with Brazilian media, he said that he was very pessimistic about Neymar's transfer to Southampton. He believed that Neymar should stay in the country and continue to improve himself, rather than going to the European league to make money too early.

But when Pele's remarks were posted online, they immediately aroused ridicule from netizens.

"Usually, whatever Pele says, we should look at it backwards."

"I can now be 100% assured that Neymar will be a success at Southampton."

"Pele, I want to ask you, how much money did Neymar pay you to say bad things about him?"

When Neymar's transfer to Southampton caused a strong earthquake in the South American and European football circles, the WeChat team was also actively expanding its territory. Stars including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Balotelli, Diego Forlan and others announced the opening of WeChat celebrity accounts.

Neymar's press conference made the newly launched mood stamps very popular.

WeChat also announced that all fans who follow Neymar's celebrity account can use a complete set of Neymar mood stamps for free.

Ibrahimovic's fans can also try out Ibrahimovic's mood stamp for free.

This made the mood stamp seem like a label for celebrity fans, and immediately caused a frenzy of pursuit on the Internet.

Especially in Brazil, the super popularity of Neymar, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka has pushed the number of registered users of WeChat to a new peak.

Within one day of Neymar's celebrity account being registered, the total number of followers around the world reached 350,000, and the growth rate is very alarming.

In addition, Kaka's followers reached 330,000 in one day, just after Neymar.

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho are slightly less popular, but not far behind, basically exceeding 250,000.

While the whole world was shocked by Neymar's transfer to an English League One team, the British national television station BBC grandly launched its flagship program, a special program of the daily match, Southampton Saints!

Many people say that the Daily Match has been around for nearly fifty years and has shown signs of decline. Although it is still supported by Gary Lineker, it has gradually failed to keep up with the pace of the times and its ratings have also declined.

But this time, the BBC is determined to break the traditional characteristics of the past. Except that the host is still Gary Lineker, among the invited guests, there is only Alan Shearer, because he is a former England superstar from Southampton.

In addition, the program team invited Charlene Lahiri, a reporter from Southern Echo, to record this program together.

As soon as Charlene Lahiri, a stunning beauty with long golden hair, appeared on the TV screen, the director immediately gave her a close-up on the camera, especially her plain face without any makeup, almost wanting to capture even the pores that were almost invisible to the naked eye.

This scene made all the viewers in front of the TV marvel at the delicateness of her skin.

At this moment, countless otakus and housegirls began searching for the name typed at the bottom of the screen.

No Twitter, no Facebook, only WeChat.

In less than a minute, Charlene Lahiri's WeChat account gained more than a thousand followers.

After a short and fast-paced introduction, the program officially entered the topic.

"I believe everyone is very surprised and very strange. We also saw that on the Internet and in the newspapers, everyone was arguing about why Ibrahimovic and Neymar chose Southampton?"

Gary Lineker is the host of the show. He had talked with Roger Moses before and clearly understood that this special program would completely overturn the previous program tradition and create a special program of a completely new style.

It was an attempt to breathe some fresh air into the fifty-year-old daily match.

"Alan Shearer, you were once the top superstar player, what do you think of this problem?"

In this show, Alan Shearer always gives people the impression that he is not good at speaking.

"I have been thinking about this myself, and like everyone else, I am confused. I think Southampton must have something worth pursuing for these stars."

Gary Lineker was somewhat disappointed with Alan Shearer's answer but immediately turned to Charlene Lahiri.

Barbara Slater met this stunningly beautiful reporter when she was following Southampton. She was extremely impressed by her at first sight and even told Gary Lineker before the show to promote Charlene Lahery more.

"As an important media outlet in Southampton and a reporter who has been following Southampton for a long time, what do you think, Charlene Lahri?"

Charlene Lahiri appeared in front of the camera again, still in a standard close-up, and even her amber eyes were clearly visible. This immediately caused her number of fans to surge by more than a thousand in the next minute.

"Maybe many people will find it strange, but I personally think this is a very normal choice."

"Why?" Gary Lineker likes this kind of surprising topic.

"First of all, people may not be very familiar with Southampton because they are in the English League One, but as far as I know, Southampton has been the focus of media and fans since it was acquired in late July. Even before the acquisition, it was already a topic of discussion."

Gary Lineker smiled. "You think this is a deliberate propaganda move?"

"I don't think it's conscious, but I want to emphasize that this club is the one that attaches the most importance to Internet channels among all the clubs I have seen. We all know that the Internet has gradually replaced the traditional media industry, whether it is newspapers, magazines, or even TV stations."

"In the past, the Premier League did not sell online rights separately, but now, according to the latest official data from the Premier League, the Premier League's future broadcasting rights will be divided into three parts: UK, overseas and Internet rights."

"The growth rate of Internet copyright is the fastest, so we have every reason to believe that professional football is rapidly entering the Internet age!"

Lineker nodded. "I agree with you. This team really values ​​the Internet. They even held their star player press conferences on WeChat. But how do you explain why this team suddenly became popular? How do you explain why Ibrahimovic and Neymar are willing to join Southampton?"

Charlene Lahiri smiled slightly, and this charming smile once again caused her WeChat fans to surge.

"First of all I have to say that these appear to be two things, but they are actually one thing."

"In the past, traditional media controlled the channels for news dissemination. Fans could only watch games and get to know football stars through traditional channels such as newspapers, television and magazines. These channels would inevitably pour all their resources into the most newsworthy areas, without a doubt the top leagues, the Premier League and the Champions League, and even top clubs such as Manchester United!"

Lineker and Alan Shearer both nodded repeatedly. This is indeed the norm in traditional media.

"But the rise of the Internet has broken all of this. I remember many Premier League teams saying that fewer and fewer young people are willing to enter the stadium to watch the game, and fewer and fewer young people like football, but they have never thought about why."

"This is an Internet age. In the past, you had to wait in line for a long time at the ticket window to buy a game ticket, but now you can sit at home, download a mobile app, and pay easily. You can go when the time is right."

"Young people are reluctant to go to the stadium to watch the game, not because they don't like football, but because there is nothing that impresses them to go to the stadium. They are also unwilling to queue for a long time to watch a game, and they are even more unwilling to watch some people they don't know or are not familiar with play football."

"Young people nowadays like to participate and are eager to know what the star they follow on their mobile phones is doing and thinking. So when Ibrahimovic said on WeChat before the third round of the English League One that he could not play in this round, Southampton fans put up banners in the stands to encourage the Swedish center forward."

“So when Southampton decided to hold a press conference on the WeChat platform, allowing all interested people to participate through WeChat on their smartphones, young people were very interested in watching the fun and asked a lot of strange questions.”

"But these questions allow them to better understand what kind of person the player in front of them is, and they can also get a sense of participation from it. After participating, these people will express their thoughts and opinions on social tools such as WeChat, Twitter and Facebook, which is equivalent to free publicity and promotion for Southampton."

Lineker nodded again and said, "Ms. Lahri, you have solved some of our doubts and made us know clearly why Southampton is so popular. Do you think that the Saints' marketing model will continue?"

"Yes, it will!" Charlene Lahiri is absolutely convinced of this.

Because Yang Huan confirmed it to her personally.

"I got some inside information from some channels. Southampton is still in the trial stage this season, but the progress is very ideal. The season tickets are sold out. What is different from the past is that 56% of the season ticket holders are women and young people under the age of 25."

"I heard that they are studying that they may reduce ticket prices next season to attract more fans. Not only that, they also plan to build a new top stadium in Southampton."

"Wait!" Lineker held up his hand to block the call. "Ms. Lahri, I was also very excited when I heard the news, but I want to ask, with Southampton's financial resources, they have to bring in superstars like Ibrahimovic and Neymar, build a new training base, build a new stadium, and further reduce ticket prices. I don't quite understand."

Alan Shearer also looked concerned. "Yes, I wonder how they can maintain the management and operation of the team?"

Football Giants