Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

"In the first North American match, the Chinese national football team was upset, defeating the United States team 4:2!"

"Scoring four goals, the Chinese national football team's superstars shine on the field!"

"First lost to Thailand and then won the United States? The huge contrast between the Chinese national football team before and after is just because of one person's return! "

"2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, it's hard for the US team to win against the Chinese national football team!"

"Defeating the US team has inspired the patriotic enthusiasm of overseas Chinese, and a large number of overseas Chinese have expressed their willingness to support the national football team on site!"

"The Chinese national football team has become very famous in the United States, and tickets for the training match are hard to come by!"

……

Because the opponent is the world's number one power, and its international ranking is twice as high as that of the Chinese national team.

The Chinese national football team's victory over a stronger team caused a sensation in the country.

Immediately after the game, major domestic media reported the game on their front pages.

The year 2007 was the year when the Internet was developing rapidly. In addition to traditional media, major portals also sprang up like mushrooms after a rain.

Due to the extremely high popularity, all major portals chose to focus on reporting this game on their homepage, and provided pictures, texts and even highlights of the game.

On the two major video websites Tudou and Youku, some enthusiastic netizens also uploaded a large number of live-shot game videos.

Compared with traditional media, a major advantage of new Internet media is its high timeliness, and there is also a comment section below, allowing fans to express their opinions directly under the news.

As a result, a large number of young fans gathered here, vying to express their opinions on the game.

[Is this still the Chinese national football team? They actually beat the American team. I suggest a thorough investigation! (Funny JPG)]

[I'm sorry, I spoke too loudly before, I apologize! ]

[Lin Feng scored two goals, Gao Lin scored two goals, Dong Fangzhuo made two assists, the young players in this national football team are so amazing! ]

[Haha, it feels like the Chinese national football team has been completely transformed as soon as Lin Feng and other overseas players have returned! ]

[Indeed, without them, the Chinese national football team would be second-rate in Asia. With them, the Chinese national football team has immediately moved up two levels and feels like it has already reached the tail end of the international second-rate! ]

[I can’t wait to watch this year’s Asian Cup! ]

【With the current state of the Chinese national football team, the Asian Cup feels really promising! 】

With the Asian Cup approaching, this victory of the Chinese national football team is very exciting, making the fans, who were originally full of worries, look forward to the Chinese national football team achieving greater glory in the Asian Cup.

In the last Asian Cup, the Chinese national football team lost the championship at home due to bad whistles and Japanese handball.

This time, the Chinese national football team has a good chance to get back what they lost!
The Chinese are partying, while the Americans are reflecting.

"Why can't the United States, the world's most powerful country, produce a phenomenal football star like Lin Feng?"

"Why is it that with a population of 3 million, the United States has less football talent than Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, which have a population of less than million?"

“Is this a racial problem or a systemic problem?”

This issue is indeed worthy of reflection by Americans. After all, compared with China in 2007, the total economic output of the United States is several times higher, and the sports industry has left China far behind.

But why is it that despite having such an "advantage", the level of American football has never been able to catch up with the heights of European football powers?
The sports industry in North America is so developed that the Super Bowl, NBA, baseball league and even ice hockey are far more developed than football.

But football is obviously the world's number one sport!
The omnipresent American businessmen have long been salivating over the huge football market.

They have been making moves in recent years, investing in and acquiring several teams in the Premier League alone, but why don't they invest in the local league?

When Americans thought about the fact that the U.S. national team had just been defeated by the weaker Chinese team, they felt a burning sensation on their faces, as if they had been publicly slapped in the face.

If we can find excuses for losing to top teams in Europe or South America, then there is really no reason to whitewash the loss to China, a recognized football weak country or even a football desert.

The answer Americans came to after reflection is: they don’t take football seriously enough!
If the North American professional football league can reach the level of the top five European leagues, then under the training of high-level leagues, the strength of American players will definitely make great progress.

By then, let alone defeating the Chinese team, even catching up with the old European football powers would probably not be a dream.

But how to develop MLS?
The Americans feel that in addition to continuing to increase financial investment, they must also introduce a big-name star with international influence to help them establish the MLS brand first!

Lin Feng, who had just performed well in the match against the American team, suddenly came into the sight of many American clubs.

In the eyes of the owners of these clubs, Lin Feng is both talented and young, and has the huge Chinese market behind him.

Yao Ming's huge success in the NBA allowed American businessmen to see the commercial potential of this huge market for the first time.

Lin Feng's influence and strength in football are even higher than Yao Ming's status and strength in basketball.

In addition to outside predictions, Lin Feng has a great chance of winning the Golden Globe Award to be awarded in December this year.

If he can really be convinced to join the MLS, then the news alone that he joins the MLS as a Ballon d'Or winner will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in publicity fees.

This means that they only spent the money to hire people and solved the publicity work at the same time, and the effect of this publicity is better than spending money!

As long as Lin Feng continues to play in the MLS, this kind of publicity effect will always exist, just like Messi more than ten years later!
The difference is that Lin Feng is in the golden period of his career, but Messi has entered the end of his career. Therefore, the publicity effect that signing Lin Feng will bring to the MLS may even be greater than that of signing Messi!

After all, it is a common practice in football for big-name stars to move to lower-level leagues to retire and make money when they get old.

But there has never been a world-class star who would choose to join the MLS during the golden or even rising period of his career.

The Americans are not kidding.

On June 6, the Chinese team moved to Salt Lake City and played a friendly match with the MLS team Real Salt Lake.

In this match, the Chinese team easily defeated their opponents with a score of 2:0, but compared to the game itself, the outside world's focus was all on the outside world.

After the game started, the TV broadcast camera captured the figures of many owners of major league teams in the stands.

So many bosses gathered in Salt Lake City. They couldn't really be here to watch the game, right?
So the outside world unanimously believed that they were coming for Lin Feng!

If this is the only evidence, it does not seem convincing enough.

But shortly after the game ended, MLS introduced a new rule - designated players!
This rule allows MLS teams to sign high-paid stars through the "designated player quota" without being restricted by the salary cap.

In the past, the salary cap was the biggest constraint limiting MLS teams’ ability to make big purchases.

The salary level in the MLS is relatively low. Last year, the salary cap for MLS teams was $520 million, and the combined annual salary of all players on the team could not exceed this number.

On average, the annual salary of each main player is less than $40.

This salary, let alone attracting top stars, is almost unattractive even to ordinary players at the level of the top five European leagues.

But now, the major leagues have given them an opening.

The designated player clause allows each team to have an additional three roster spots that are not subject to the salary cap. As long as the boss is willing to pay, you can offer any salary you want. The introduction of this rule is seen by the outside world as the most direct and powerful evidence that the MLS is trying to bring in Lin Feng.

Therefore, many people call this rule the "Lin Feng Clause"!
After the terms were released, someone soon took this issue to Lin Feng and interviewed him about his views on the matter.

Lin Feng was confused. Isn't this the clause set by the MLS in order to bring in Beckham?

How does it have anything to do with me?
You ask me what I think?
I'll lie down and watch!
"I don't know much about the rules of the MLS, but opening up the salary cap to a certain extent will help attract outstanding players to join, which may be a good thing for the MLS."

The salary cap in the MLS is too restrictive and the amount is too low.

The salary cap of the NBA next door has exceeded 5000 million US dollars, but the salary cap of the Major League Soccer, which has a larger number of players, is only one-ninth of that.

With this little money, how can we attract outstanding players?

Not to mention attracting outstanding players from abroad, even outstanding players from the United States have gone to Europe to play football.

Why has the MLS failed to develop? Just one word: suck!

All the outstanding local players have run away and the league level has not improved.

The game is not interesting and there are no big-name stars, so it naturally cannot attract fans.

Due to the lack of fans, the commercial value has not increased, so naturally it has been lukewarm.

"Haha, I didn't expect you to be so optimistic about the future development of the MLS. So, do you have any thoughts on joining the MLS and playing football in the United States?"

The truth was revealed, and the American reporter asked the questions that concerned him most.

"I do believe that the MLS will get better and better, but I personally have no intention of joining the MLS in the near future!"

Lin Feng has encountered this kind of question many times. In the two years he has played in Serie A, British reporters, Spanish reporters, German reporters and even French reporters have asked him this question.

Ask him if he is interested in playing in the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and other leagues.

Lin Feng’s response was always to say a lot of nice things about the other party and then politely decline, and this time was no exception.

He didn't say anything definite. After all, what if when he gets old, a big boss of the MLS offers him a sky-high salary of $2 million and invites him to come and make his fortune like the Saudi tycoon did?

For the sake of money, you can't refuse, right?
A monthly salary of 16 million US dollars is higher than the annual salary of most players in the top five leagues!

He is not someone who is not interested in money...

It was just a polite answer, but the American reporter was enlightened after hearing it, and wrote a report when he returned:
"The Ballon d'Or candidate expressed his great yearning for the development of the MLS and will soon join the MLS!"

American fans were excited after seeing this report.

People began to speculate which wealthy club could sign Lin Feng.

The United States is worthy of being the one who controls the propaganda machine. What happened in North America spread throughout Europe in just one day.

This matter was spread with details, and coupled with the big move made by the MLS, even European fans couldn't help but discuss it:

[Is Lin Feng really going to join the North American League? Is he crazy? ]

[He is only 19 years old, and he actually did such an irrational thing. This is terrible! ]

[Losing him is a great loss to European football! ]

[How much money did the Americans spend to make such a promising player leave the bright side and join the dark side! ]

[It is said that Lin Feng's salary at Inter Milan was only 300 million euros, and it only rose to 350 million last year. If the MLS offers a salary of million, it is likely to impress the players, right? After all, this can be regarded as the highest salary in football! ]

[I don't think so. What you said was the salary of Lin Feng's first contract. If Lin Feng chooses to renew his contract with Inter Milan, this number will definitely double. It will not be difficult for him to get an annual salary of 700 million euros.]

[700 million euros is not much different from 1000 million US dollars. In addition, the level of the MLS is far inferior to that of Serie A, and there is no high-level club competition like the Champions League to play in. Only a fool would choose to go to the MLS! ]

[If, I mean if, in addition to offering a sky-high annual salary, the MLS also gave him a portion of the team's shares, would that impress a player of his level?]

……

As more and more people joined in the fun, another party, Inter Milan, was also drawn in.

In this matter, Inter Milan Club can be said to be in a situation where disaster strikes while they are at home.

No one has contacted us, and there hasn't even been a fax of the quotation. How come you are spreading such certain stories, as if Lin Feng is about to be kidnapped?
Without them having any idea of ​​the situation, a large number of fans flocked to their official website and even went offline to hold banners and march with slogans.

I hope the team can keep the key players who helped them win the Champions League!

Inter Milan cannot do without Lin Feng, just like the West cannot do without Jerusalem!

This is the slogan held up by one of Inter Milan’s die-hard fans!
Although it is a bit exaggerated, it represents the true voice of the majority of fans.

Inter Milan is on the verge of revival and the start of its next golden age.

At this critical juncture, they are really afraid of losing Lin Feng, the core of the team who led Inter Milan to revival!

The fans' stressful reaction made Inter Milan even more confused.

Moratti even called Lin Feng personally to ask him if he really wanted to leave Inter Milan.

After Lin Feng received the call, he was completely stunned.

When did I say I wanted to join the MLS? How come I didn't know that?

"I said this was fake, but the unscrupulous media just made up stories!"

After getting Lin Feng's negative answer, Morati on the other end of the phone was obviously relieved.

It took him a lot of courage to make this call.

Because he was also afraid of hearing the answer from Lin Feng that he didn't want to hear!

Fortunately, this terrible thing did not happen.

Morati's reaction made Lin Feng curious, so he asked:
"Boss, if there is a team that really wants to sign me, how much would it cost for you to let me go?"

"You are the future of Inter Milan. If we want to sign you, don't even talk about it for less than 100 million Euros!"

Because the current highest transfer record in football is 2001 million euros set by Zidane in 7750.

At this time in 2007, million euros was definitely a sky-high price!

But with the bursting of the 2008 financial bubble, players' values ​​will skyrocket in the next few years.

One hundred million euros doesn't seem so far away after all! (End of this chapter)