Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

So, what is Inter Milan's stance?

Having just led the team to a Champions League victory, and with Inter Milan's current squad, there shouldn't be any major problems with them playing another season.

Therefore, Lin Feng is not in a hurry to leave Inter Milan. After all, it takes time to adapt to a new environment, and a new environment, new teammates, and a new league will bring new challenges. Before he fully adapts to the team, he may not be able to win the Champions League trophy for a long time.

However, Inter Milan has many veteran players, and after another season, the team's overall age has increased by another year, and the performance of many veteran players may decline significantly.

To maintain sufficient competitiveness, it is necessary to continuously bring in fresh talent to strengthen the existing roster.

But Inter Milan did almost nothing in the transfer market this summer, not only not buying many players, but also selling some.

Grosso, a left-back who had only been with the team for a year, was poached by Lyon for 1000 million euros.

Recoba transferred to Torino, Bonucci was sent to Treviso, and substitute midfielder Gonzalez was sold to Palermo...

This action left Lin Feng completely baffled.

This is completely out of character for Moratti. For the past dozen or so seasons, Inter Milan has been a major spender in the transfer market, and there has never been a year as low-key as this one.

Thinking back to some rumors circulating at the end of last year, Lin Feng had some uneasy thoughts.

……

When Inter Milan owner Moratti learned that both Manchester United and Real Madrid had raised their offers to €7000 million, he was slightly tempted.

If this had happened last year, before Inter Milan won the Champions League, he wouldn't have even glanced at this offer.

But now, with Inter Milan's Champions League victory, Moratti's mentality has undergone a slight change.

Despite years of criticism that he spends money irrationally, investing heavily in players and coaches every year, he has always struggled to achieve good results.

At that time, Moratti was able to ignore the criticism from the outside world and continue to invest money to strengthen the team, all for the sake of his pride and dream of winning the championship.

But now, that dream has come true, and Inter Milan has won two league titles after a long absence.

As for cup competitions, Inter Milan has won four consecutive titles!
After winning countless trophies, Moratti suddenly felt he had lost his purpose.

It's like a player who has just finished a game and suddenly feels a sense of boredom.

Without the motivation to pursue the championship, Moratti suddenly became rational and began to seriously consider whether it was worthwhile to continue spending money as lavishly as before.

Since he took over the team, Moratti has spent over a billion euros on Inter Milan, but Inter Milan's current value is far less than the money he has spent.

Wall Street consulting firms valued teams in the top five European football leagues last summer.

At that time, Inter Milan was valued at only 3.5 million euros.

With Inter Milan's Serie A title defense and their Champions League victory after 42 years, their valuation has increased significantly, but only from the original 350 million to 450 million.

It still falls far short of what he has invested in Inter Milan over the years!
This means that even if he sells Inter Milan now, he will lose at least 70% of his investment.

If we keep throwing money at it, we'll only lose more.

Moreover, what is the purpose of continuing to strengthen the team?

Inter Milan already dominates the league, and they've already won the Champions League.

Anyway, our team has Lin Feng, and all the main players have renewed their contracts.

If they play with the same lineup for another year, they might still have a chance to defend their title.

If that's the case, then why spend money to buy people?
This is also the fundamental reason why Moratti is not very active in the transfer market.

In fact, when faced with offers from Manchester United and Real Madrid, Moratti almost couldn't resist the urge to sell Lin Feng!

But he quickly calmed down, unless he retired from Serie A football now and transferred Inter Milan to someone else.

Otherwise, even from the perspective of maintaining Inter Milan's commercial value, they must keep Lin Feng, their star player.

Therefore, Moratti chose not to reply to the offers from Real Madrid and Manchester United.

……

Is there still no word from Inter Milan?

Carrington, inside Manchester United's training ground.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the head of Manchester United, is asking his sporting director a question.

Actually, compared to Real Madrid, Manchester United didn't have much interest in Lin Feng at first.

They already have two young talents in their team, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. They just need to continue to nurture these two step by step, and when they have fully matured, it will be time for Manchester United to rise.

In fact, Manchester United's rise was already very evident last season.

They completely dominated Chelsea, the rising stars of the Premier League, and returned to the Premier League title after three years.

In the Champions League, Manchester United performed well in the group stage and the first round of the knockout stage. If they hadn't encountered Inter Milan early on, it wouldn't have been impossible for them to advance to the next round or even reach the final.

But their problem was that they lost to Inter Milan!

Falling in the Champions League is nothing to a veteran like Ferguson; he's lost before.

But for the team's young players, especially Ronaldo, it was a huge blow.

After several seasons of development, Cristiano Ronaldo had a breakout season last year in both the league and the Champions League.

But just as he was full of ambition and wanted to show his talent to the world, he unfortunately encountered another genius.

In that contest between young talents, Ronaldo lost, and lost miserably.

His personal statistics, which he was so proud of, were completely outclassed by Lin Feng, and his team's contributions were not even worthy of carrying Lin Feng's shoes.

What Ronaldo found most unacceptable was that this guy, who completely outclassed him in every way, was actually 3 years younger than him!
This is truly devastating for Cristiano Ronaldo.

If he can't find an opportunity to defeat Lin Feng, he might live in Lin Feng's shadow for the rest of his life.

Under these circumstances, Real Madrid secretly approached Ronaldo's agent, Mendes, trying to persuade Ronaldo to transfer to Real Madrid, promising that Real Madrid would bring Ronaldo better teammates, form the second Galácticos, and overthrow Inter Milan, the dominant force!
The suggestion from the other party hit Ronaldo right where it hurts. He has dreamed since he was a child of wearing the white jersey of Real Madrid and playing for Real Madrid at the Bernabéu Stadium!

In addition, the more lucrative contract offered by Real Madrid, the promise of stronger teammates, and the promising prospect of defeating Lin Feng were all fatally attractive to him.

So, tempted by Real Madrid, Ronaldo was swayed.

With Ronaldo having second thoughts, Manchester United is in a panic.

Although Cristiano Ronaldo was not a product of their own youth academy, it was Ferguson who appreciated him, promoted him, and poured so many resources into him, allowing him to reach the heights he has today.

Moreover, Ronaldo and Rooney are the cornerstones of Manchester United. If they were to be lured away by Real Madrid, wouldn't Manchester United be doomed?
Therefore, Ferguson made two choices: on the one hand, he actively tried to retain Ronaldo, and on the other hand, he began to prepare for Ronaldo's departure by joining Real Madrid in the race to acquire Lin Feng.

Real Madrid's interest in Lin Feng is no secret in European football. Manchester United's move serves two purposes: it annoys Real Madrid, making their signings more difficult, and it also serves as a warning to Ronaldo that Manchester United has other options.

However, the prerequisite for this plan to succeed is that Inter Milan is willing to sell players. If Inter Milan is unwilling to sell Lin Feng, then all of Ferguson's plans will fail.

It's even possible that Real Madrid, having failed to acquire Lin Feng, will instead settle for buying Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. Meanwhile, Manchester United, having lost both Lin Feng and Ronaldo, will have their upward momentum interrupted and will once again lose the Premier League title.

Therefore, Ferguson attached great importance to Lin Feng's transfer.

"Inter Milan did not respond to our offer, and it is said that they also did not respond to Real Madrid's offer!"

The sporting director's answer gave Ferguson a bad feeling: Could it be that Lin Feng is really not for sale at Inter Milan?

Has Real Madrid submitted an offer for Ronaldo?

During the winter break, Real Madrid submitted a €4000 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo, but Manchester United flatly rejected it.

According to Ferguson, Ronaldo's value is at least 6000 million euros.

If he can continue to improve this season and win some honors in the Champions League.

His value will continue to rise. Even if he doesn't reach the level of Lin Feng, surpassing Zidane's 6700 million euros is entirely possible.

"Yes, Real Madrid submitted a bid of 5500 million euros yesterday!"

Ferguson's heart skipped a beat. Real Madrid, are you serious?
"Reject their offer and tell them that Ronaldo is not for sale at Manchester United!"

……

"What rubbish about it being a 'not for sale' item? It's just that the price wasn't high enough!"

Real Madrid president Calderon appeared dismissive after receiving Manchester United's reply.

If Cristiano Ronaldo is truly not for sale, why would Manchester United compete with them for Lin Feng?

That Ferguson guy, he just thinks he's not paying me enough!
"Chairman, should we try to negotiate by raising the price?"

Real Madrid's sporting director, Mijatovic, guessed that Calderon still wanted Ronaldo.

"Add another five million and see how Manchester United reacts!"

6000 million euros is not a low price; it's almost the highest price Real Madrid can afford.

Buying Ronaldo for more than this price seems a bit overpriced.

After all, there's a better option in the transfer market!

With so much money, why not just throw it all at Lin Feng and forcibly take him away from Inter Milan?

Inter Milan's performance over the past two seasons has proven Lin Feng's leadership ability; he can not only greatly improve a team's ceiling, but also ensure a team's floor.

In addition, Lin Feng is so young. As long as he doesn't suffer any major injuries, he can play for a team for a long time and can definitely serve as the cornerstone of the team.

Real Madrid, currently in a rebuilding phase, desperately needs a player like this.

After Zidane's retirement last season, Real Madrid's fatal weakness in midfield was exposed and needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Looking at the entire transfer market, there is no more suitable candidate than Lin Feng.

Therefore, in Calderon's view, even if the price of buying Zidane were increased by another 2000 million euros, as long as Lin Feng could be brought to the Bernabéu, the money would be well spent.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and said to Mijatovich:
"Add another €1000 million to Inter Milan's offer, bringing the total to €8000 million!"

……

Moratti is getting restless after receiving Real Madrid's latest offer.

He was already considering selling it for 7000 million, let alone 8000 million!
But reason told him that Lin Feng's value was more than that.

If things drag on any longer, Real Madrid and Manchester United might make even higher offers!
With that in mind, he immediately ordered his men to reject Real Madrid's offer and informed them that Lin Feng was not for sale.

On the one hand, he had his assistant leak Real Madrid's offer to the media to test the public's reaction and provoke Real Madrid's rival Manchester United to take action as well.

Real Madrid has raised their offer, will Manchester United match it?
If Manchester United chooses to follow suit, Inter Milan will be able to reap the benefits.

Even if Manchester United doesn't follow suit, it doesn't matter; they can still argue with Real Madrid.

From beginning to end, Moratti seemed to have forgotten one person.

……

August 11th marked the start of Inter Milan's training camp.

As usual, Lin Feng arrived at the team on time to report for duty.

However, when he arrived at the Pinettina training base, he keenly sensed that something was amiss in the atmosphere outside the base.

There were so many media and fans at the scene, and when they saw him, they swarmed around him like sharks smelling blood.

"Hello Lin Feng, I'm a reporter from the Milan Sports Daily. What do you think of the rumors that Real Madrid offered 8000 million euros to buy you?"

"I'm a journalist from Marca. Are you interested in joining Real Madrid?"

"I'm a reporter for The Times. I've heard that Manchester United has also submitted an offer for Inter Milan. Would you choose to join Manchester United?"

……

Reporters swarmed around, bombarding him with a barrage of questions.

Lin Feng felt a buzzing in his ears, and apart from the first few questions, he couldn't hear what the reporters said after that.

Before he could respond, the Inter Milan fans on the perimeter, wearing Inter jerseys, angrily drove the reporters away.

"Get out of here, you bunch of maggots, don't disturb our players' training!"

"Lin is the king of Inter Milan, he's not going anywhere!"

"Lin, please stay! Inter Milan can't do without you!"

Fans wore Lin Feng's jerseys, held up his posters and banners pleading with him to stay.

The fans' actions and the reporters' questions left Lin Feng completely bewildered.

He knew that Manchester United and Real Madrid had made offers for him, but this kind of thing had happened before last season, and he had never stated that he wanted to leave the team. The media and fans shouldn't be so agitated.

Therefore, something must have happened that he doesn't know about.

Recalling his previous guesses, Lin Feng immediately had the answer. (End of Chapter)