Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Anschutz is a man of action, and the fax of Los Angeles Galaxy's offer to Lin Feng appeared on Moratti's desk the next day.

Moratti was surprised to see that there was really a North American team that wanted to buy Lin Feng.

Are Americans serious about this?

Originally, he thought that the Americans were just using Lin Feng's fame to hype up the MLS, but he didn't expect that the other party actually had such an idea.

But after taking a look at the offer submitted by the other party, Moratti was immediately relieved, even a little disdainful:
"Haha, 5000 million US dollars? You want to take Lin Feng away with such a small amount of money? You are just dreaming!"

Without giving it any thought, he asked someone to reject the other party's offer directly.

It’s difficult to take Torres away at this price, let alone Lin Feng.

If the other party is really sincere, he should at least double the price.

However, player transfers not only require the club's consent, but also the player's own consent.

If Lin Feng doesn't want to play football in North America, then even if the other party offers $100 million, it will be useless.

Moreover, there are so many teams that want to buy Lin Feng. The giants in the five major leagues have to line up. Who does the Los Angeles Galaxy think they can do?
For the same price, if a giant club from the top five leagues took a fancy to Lin Feng, Moratti would rather sell Lin Feng to that club than to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Because transfers between teams in the five major leagues are very frequent, transfers between the two sides involve not only monetary transactions, but also personal exchanges.

But the level of the MLS is too poor, and teams from the top five leagues rarely buy players from them, so their favors are useless. If they want to buy players, they have to pay a high premium.

This is also the reason why Chinese Super League teams in the era of capital-intensive football always pay higher transfer fees than others when buying players from outside.

……

After the warm-up match with the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Chinese national football team's training mission in North America has come to an end.

However, they did not return to China immediately, but instead participated in an event organized by the jersey sponsor Nike in North America.

Currently, the Chinese national football team has two main sponsors, one is the jersey sponsor Nike, and the other is the shoe sponsor Adidas.

The quotes given by the two companies are similar, both are 1000 million RMB per year.

This price is simply a bargain, but when the Chinese national football team's performance was poor in the past few years, and the General Administration of Sport bundled the sponsorship contract of the Chinese team and the Football Association did not have much autonomy, this price made sense.

However, as the Chinese national football team's performance improved, the General Administration of Sport of China has relaxed its restrictions on sponsorship, allowing the Football Association to negotiate with sponsors individually.

After the General Administration of Sport delegated its power, the Football Association is gearing up to take advantage of the Asian Cup to have a good talk with sponsors.

Nike’s intelligence network is very powerful, and it got the news almost immediately.

They saw the potential of the Chinese team, or rather, they saw Lin Feng's influence and commercial value.

Last year, Nike had the idea of ​​signing Lin Feng and training him to be Nike's spokesperson in the football field.

It's just that last year they focused their attention on Ronaldinho. The influence of signing that year's Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year is obviously much greater than signing the best newcomer in Serie A.

But no one would have thought that after just one season, this former Serie A newcomer would replace Ronaldinho and become the number one player in football.

This made Nike feel that they had made a mistake, and they regretted not signing Lin Feng at a low price last year before he had completely become famous.

However, after learning that Adidas also failed, Nike called it lucky.

As long as Lin Feng has not been signed by his competitors, it is not too late to take action now.

Therefore, Nike, using its status as a sponsor of the Chinese national football team, invited and organized the team's North American training camp.

They were the ones who coordinated the Chinese national football team's several warm-up match opponents in North America.

There are two purposes. One is to finalize the sponsorship contract with the Chinese national football team for the next few years before Adidas makes a move.

Although the Chinese national football team has shown signs of improvement, it has not yet won the Asian Cup or made a breakthrough in the World Cup qualifiers. So it has strength but lacks results. This is a good time to negotiate and bargain.

If it is delayed any further, if the Chinese national football team really wins the Asian Cup, the price will be different.

Moreover, if we delay any further, Adidas will definitely take action, which will add greater variables to Nike.

So they wanted to take this opportunity to get the sponsorship done.

The second purpose is to target Lin Feng. They want to use this event to get in touch with Lin Feng before Adidas.

Even if the spokesperson contract cannot be finalized right away, Nike must let the other party feel its sincerity.

Let the other party feel that Nike values ​​him and the benefits of signing with Nike and becoming a sports star under Nike.

If you want to get involved in the industry, you need a background. Sports giants like Adidas and Nike sponsor many sports events and maintain good relations with many media.

Therefore, when it comes to building momentum for their athletes and striving for certain sports awards and honors, these two giants have enormous influence and even certain decision-making power.

Nike has a lot of plans, but Lin Feng is not very interested in signing a contract with Nike.

At least he wouldn't make a decision so quickly before contacting Adidas.

However, he was still quite interested in this event organized by Nike.

After all, there were quite a few sports stars participating in the event. Just on the NBA side, there were the league's No. 1 player Kobe, the Little Emperor James, Spurs captain Duncan, Slam Dunk master Vince Carter and others.

Lin Feng also has many acquaintances in the football world, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, who was eliminated by him in the Champions League before, Ronaldinho, who won the Ballon d'Or last year, and Ronaldinho, who has gained weight again.

It is said that Messi was once a football star under Nike, but was later poached by Adidas. Before the start of last year's World Cup, Messi switched to Adidas.

"Hey, Chinese boy, your goal in the Champions League final hurt my heart deeply, four times!"

Kobe covered his chest and pretended to be hurt.

Seeing that Lin Feng was confused, Xiao Luo at the side began to explain:

"Kobe is a die-hard fan of AC Milan. His favorite player is Milan's legendary striker Marco van Basten. AC Milan lost the final and he is very sad. But don't mind it, this guy is kidding you!"

After listening to Xiao Luo's explanation, Lin Feng was a little surprised.

He was not familiar with NBA stars and was originally planning to simply say hello to Kobe and others before going to play with Ronaldo.

But he didn't expect Kobe to take the initiative to greet him and even joke with him in a familiar manner.

Isn’t it said that Kobe is a loner and not good at dealing with people?

"I'm sorry I didn't know you were an AC Milan fan. If I had known that in advance, I would have..."

Kobe asked curiously, "What will happen?"

Lin Feng replied with a smile: "I will try to score one more goal. After all, there are not many opportunities to make the number one basketball player remember you!"

Kobe was stunned for a moment after hearing Lin Feng's answer, then burst into laughter:

"You are a funny guy, but you don't need to score goals against AC Milan anymore. I have remembered you for a long time. In fact, there is no AC Milan fan in the world who doesn't know your name!" Although Kobe answered with a smile, seeing his gritting teeth, Lin Feng finally believed at this moment that this guy was really an AC Milan fan, and a die-hard fan at that.

“It’s an honor for me to be recognized by my opponents!”

Lin Feng remained neither humble nor arrogant, and did not give in to Kobe at all just because of his fame.

Unexpectedly, his attitude won Kobe's favor:
"Oh, if it was AC Milan that signed you, how great it would be. With you and Kaka teaming up, who in the world can stop our Rossoneri's attack?"

Kobe put his hand on Lin Feng's shoulder and said temptingly:
"Why don't you just join Milan? Inter Milan is a crappy team. How can it be compared to Milan? Milan is the most successful club in the past 20 years!"

Lin Feng didn't like what he heard, so he immediately counterattacked:
"Milan's current squad is so old. Past honors can only represent the past. Now is Inter Milan's era. I think you might as well change your team. I think Inter Milan is pretty good. Now it's Nerazzurri and you can get my autograph. How about it? Are you interested?"

The others were watching the two people tense and worried that they would fight, but they didn't expect that after a verbal battle, the lovers actually started to steal each other's girls. They suddenly felt that this world was too magical.

Lin Feng and Kobe had no conflicts. After a quarrel, they actually became good friends.

With Kobe's introduction, Lin Feng met Carter, James, Duncan and others.

The little emperor seemed to be very interested in Lin Feng, especially when he heard that he was a leader of the younger generation in football, his attitude towards Lin Feng became much more enthusiastic.

James, who considers himself to be the future No. 1 basketball player, is quite picky when it comes to people.

Ordinary people really don't catch his eye, but the number one player in football is different.

Although in the United States, basketball has a greater influence than football.

But in the world, football, as the number one sport, has much greater influence than basketball.

James likes to make friends with celebrities.

However, Lin Feng was not very interested in him. Instead, he was somewhat interested in Marbury of the New York Knicks and chatted with him for a few words.

Political Commissar Ma seemed a little flattered. Now, he is no longer considered a top star in the league.

Lin Feng is the most important guest of the organizer in this Nike event.

Although he doesn't watch football much, he guessed from Kobe and others' attitude towards Lin Feng that the other party must have a very high status in the football world.

So in terms of status in the circle, the other party is probably at least one level higher than me.

He was really surprised that such a person would take the initiative to talk to him.

The other party also suggested to him that if he couldn't make it in the NBA one day, he could try the CBA, and warned him that if he really went to the CBA, he shouldn't go to Shanxi or Foshan, but go directly to BJ.

There is a vast stage that belongs to him!
Marbury had never heard of the name of CBA at this time, but he remembered the two names that Lin Feng repeatedly emphasized:

CBA, BJ team.

……

At the end of the event, Nike did not get Lin Feng's endorsement contract as it wished, but it finalized the sponsorship contract with the Chinese national football team.

Starting from 2008, the jerseys and shoes of national teams, including the national football team and the national Olympic team, will be sponsored by Nike.

The contract between the two parties is for three years and the total amount is US$3 million.

Among them, the sponsorship fee for the national team is 2000 million yuan per year, and the sponsorship fee for the national Olympic team is 1000 million yuan per year.

Compared with the previous low price of 16 million RMB per year, the current sponsorship fee of the Chinese national football team has increased times.

Even though the Chinese national football team had poor performance and low commercial value in the past, the gap would not be as large as 16 times.

This reflects that there are significant flaws in the rules originally formulated by the Sports Federation.

If all the projects are packaged together and sold, the commercial value of the Chinese national football team will be dragged down by some unpopular projects, which is equivalent to reducing the peaks and filling the valleys, using the money that belongs to the Chinese national football team to subsidize those unpopular projects.

In recent years, the country's economic development has improved, the importance attached to the sports industry has increased, and special subsidy funds have also increased.

Therefore, there is no need to deduct money from the national football team to subsidize small, difficult and female-oriented projects as before.

This is a huge benefit to the development of Chinese football.

Although money is not everything, without money is absolutely impossible.

Now that the Football Association has money, it will have more funds to invest in leagues, youth training and infrastructure construction.

Maybe every penny invested now will pay off in the future.

In addition to negotiating sponsorship contracts with national teams, Nike also selected a group of young players who they thought had potential from among the national team players and signed sponsorship contracts with them.

However, compared with Lin Feng's status, the strength and influence of these national team players are far behind, so the contract amounts offered by Nike to them are not large.

For a defensive main force and national team captain like Li Weifeng, Nike offered him only RMB 150 million a year, which is a very low price.

But after getting the contract, Li Weifeng still couldn't stop smiling.

"Haha, I made a profit. How much was the contract amount you signed with Nike?"

Zheng Zhi's face was long, and he glared at Li Weifeng fiercely, saying unhappily:
"I only received 20 yuan in endorsement fees, which is less than one-seventh of yours!"

"Hahahaha, who told you to sign the contract early since you became famous? If you had waited until this year to sign the contract, I believe your contract amount would have increased tenfold at least!"

It would have been better if he hadn't said this. After he said this, Zheng Zhi felt even more uncomfortable.

He signed a contract with Nike in 2003. The sponsorship fee was 20 yuan that year. It increased to 04 yuan in 50, and has increased by 10 yuan every year since then. This year is the last year of the contract, and the sponsorship fee is only 80 yuan.

This means that his income from endorsements in the past five years is not as much as Li Weifeng’s income in two years.

Five years of youth have been wasted!

But fortunately, his contract expires at the end of this year, and he can then sign a new contract with Nike.

Zheng Zhi estimated that his new contract would have to increase by at least three or four times?

I don’t expect to be on par with Lin Feng, but I should at least reach the level of Gao Lin, Dong Fangzhuo and others, right?
Nike is quite optimistic about several young players studying abroad and offers Chen Tao the highest endorsement fee of 300 million RMB per year.

Gao Lin and Feng Xiaoting are at the same level, both earning 250 million per year, while Dong Fangzhuo is slightly worse off, earning 200 million per year.

Although Zheng Zhi's potential has been almost fully tapped, his future ceiling is not as high as these young people.

But at least at this stage his fame is higher than these young players, so comprehensively speaking, he feels that he is worth 250 million, and the minimum cannot be less than 200 million.

"What do you think, if Ringo agrees to sign a contract with Nike, how big a contract will Nike offer him?"

"It must be at least tens of millions, right?"

"It's too small. I heard from the track and field team that Liu Feiren's new contract with Nike is expected to increase his endorsement fee to more than 2000 million. Lin Feng will definitely not offer less than this price!" (End of this chapter)