As Cristiano Ronaldo's agent, Jorge Mendes agreed to Li Mu's intention to cooperate almost without any hesitation.
Then, the topic immediately entered the discussion of the practical stage.
Jorge Mendes told Li Mu that the Premier League did not popularize the liquidated damages system at this stage. When most teams signed players, they would not add a liquidated damages clause. That was to say, most teams wanted to strengthen their control over the players. If there was no liquidated damages, the players would be completely obedient to the club's arrangements during the contract period. As long as the club did not release them, others could not poach them away no matter how high the price.
Fortunately, Jorge Mendes was a wily and astute football agent. When he helped Cristiano Ronaldo sign the agreement with Manchester United, he insisted on adding a liquidated damages option to leave a backdoor for Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the first year, Cristiano Ronaldo's liquidated damages were twenty-five million pounds. As long as it exceeded this price by one pound, his liquidated damages clause could be triggered. In theory, Manchester United could only release the player.
This was also thanks to the fact that the liquidated damages at this stage had not developed to the level of the later stages. More than a decade later, the liquidated damages of the top international superstars were basically more than a hundred million pounds. But the level of football commercial development at this stage was far from as mature as it would be a decade later, so a Premier League club could be bought for tens of millions of pounds. A player's value of tens of millions of pounds was already a frighteningly high wave. Britain's most commercially valuable player, Beckham, just transferred to Real Madrid in June for a transfer fee of only thirty-five million euros. In the future, this price could not even buy a rising star who had just made his debut in the World Cup. But in the present, it could already buy the world's top player.
Therefore, when setting the liquidated damages, Manchester United clearly did not realize that someone would take twenty-five million pounds to buy Cristiano Ronaldo. Even if there was, it was a very good deal for them.
This left an opportunity for Li Mu to take advantage of.
Twenty-five million pounds to buy Cristiano Ronaldo was a very good price, even though it seemed silly at the moment. After all, Manchester United had already given a high premium by spending twelve million pounds to bring him in. If they really spent twenty-five million pounds, the vast majority of clubs would use the money to buy a truly experienced and proven first-team player, not a young boy who had just turned eighteen years old.
Everyone knew that it was a very risky move to spend a lot of money to bring in an 18-year-old in the football market.
The most important reason for this was that they were too young, had too little experience, and even had too immature personalities. Many star players were geniuses at the age of 18, but at the age of 19, they might be directly hollowed out by beauty, tobacco, and alcohol. By the age of 20, there were many so-called geniuses who were reduced to making a living in second-rate or third-rate clubs.
However, Li Mu was well aware of Cristiano Ronaldo's development trajectory. He was an extremely talented and hard-working genius player. He would become a world-class superstar in the future. He would be able to dominate the football world for at least a decade. Buying him for 25 million pounds was really a bargain.
Thinking of this, Li Mu could not help but sigh. He was still a step too late. If he had wanted to set up a club a few months ago, he could have gone straight to Sporting Lisbon and bought them for 12 million pounds. He could have saved half the cost.
After confirming that as long as the liquidated damages were paid, the liquidated damages clause in Cristiano Ronaldo's contract could be triggered and he could be introduced to his own club, Li Mu immediately began to ask about the specific operation process.
Jorge Mendes told Li Mu, "As long as you bring a lawyer and a check to Manchester United, this matter can be solved directly."
Li Mu asked in surprise, "It's that simple?"
Jorge Mendes nodded. "It's really that simple."
Li Mu immediately said to Manchester City's CEO, Alister, "I'll arrange for the transfer immediately. Tomorrow, you bring a lawyer and a check directly to the door and settle this matter."
As he spoke, Li Mu could not help but think of Manchester United's manager, Ferguson.
In his previous life, Li Mu had read some biographies. Many media outlets had detailed descriptions of Ferguson and Cristiano Ronaldo. One of the most commonly used descriptions was "father and son." It was clear that Ferguson was very fond of Cristiano Ronaldo. He did not know what her attitude towards Cristiano Ronaldo was now. If she was very satisfied with him, then getting him to Manchester City would be a big blow to Ferguson.
Li Mu had no hatred for Ferguson, but he was a little angry at the thought that Manchester United was backed by the McMillan family at the helm.
An English rich second generation dared to show off to him and even ridicule him and Hua Xia Football and Hua Xia Sports. How could he fucking tolerate it? Even though he had already beaten him up, Li Mu was still angry. For this alone, he had to find a way to make a good show of Manchester United.
Want Ronaldo? No way. Ronaldo would transfer to Manchester City before the end of the month, and there would be no liquidated damages. No one could f * * king take him away. He would not sell even if the offer was 100 million euros.
Want Rooney? No way. He would get Rooney to Manchester City first this year and not give Manchester United a chance at all.
There was no need to poach a Manchester United die-hard player like Ferdinand, and it would not move him. But if he could keep Vidic out of Manchester United, Ferdinand's future development space and role in Manchester United would be greatly curbed. At the earliest this season, and at the latest next season, Manchester City was estimated to be able to press Manchester United to the ground and hammer them.
Manchester City's CEO, Alister, hurriedly agreed when he heard Li Mu's instructions and said, "I'll do it tomorrow morning."
Li Mu smiled with satisfaction and looked at Cristiano Ronaldo. He said, "Cristiano, you will be the most important player in the Manchester City club's forward line in the future. I hope you can quickly integrate into the team after the transfer."
Cristiano Ronaldo hurriedly nodded and said, "Please rest assured, Mr Lee, I will do my best."
Li Mu smiled slightly and said to Jorge Mendes, "Mr. Mendes, I heard that there are a lot of good players and young potential players in your agency?"
Jorge Mendes hurriedly said, "There are indeed a lot of good players and young potential players, and I am still actively signing more good players."
Li Mu asked, "Only in the player agency business?"
"Yes." Jorge Mendes said a little embarrassedly, "My current business is relatively simple and doesn't have much technical content. It's just to find some players, sign economic contracts with them, and then help them find suitable clubs to recommend. In fact, it's just a player intermediary. The scale is not large and the income is not very high. The only advantage is that as a broker, I almost don't need to spend any actual costs. It's nothing more than manpower and some connections."
Li Mu nodded and said with a smile, "I have an idea that may be able to upgrade your existing business model. I don't know if you are interested."
Jorge Mendes immediately became excited and hurriedly said, "Of course I am interested. Li Zong, please speak."
Li Mu laughed and said, "You are now in the player agency, so you might as well cooperate with me. Let me take the player agency line and export the player publicity resources. It is equivalent to our cooperation. You are responsible for the product, and I am responsible for the publicity. You know, Makino Technology has a huge amount of information delivery capacity, and the traffic is also very large. We also have our own portal, sports section, and even a special page for every kind of sports and every kind of competition.
Every club has the need for publicity and promotion, and every player is the same. If we cooperate, I will put the player publicity resources with you to ensure that every player you sign in and push out can get additional publicity resources. Then the premium of the players themselves will naturally be pulled up. The club will be willing to pay more money and pay more agency fees to sign players from your hands. I can also cash in the football publicity resources through cooperation with you. Everyone really realizes the cooperation of 1 + 1 is greater than 2, which is good for everyone. "
Li Mu was very clear that Makino Technology, as a giant enterprise, needed to cash in its resources, but it could never directly open the channel for cashing in its resources to everyone or low-end enterprises. Otherwise, the company's prestige would be pulled down to the bottom. For example, Baidu could sell any keyword and directly bid for it. Whether the other party was the so-called hospital of Urata or an individual who promoted sex products, as long as they could afford the price, they could buy the resources from Baidu.
Li Mu could not be like Baidu and sell all the Makino Technology publicity resources in football to the club at a clear price, or even to a certain player. However, the resources themselves were there. Just like the Premier League's special page, it could always attract traffic from football enthusiasts. Then, on this page, which players and clubs were placed in the best position, these players and clubs could get more traffic resources. It was too low to sell it publicly, and it was too much of a loss not to sell it. So, the best way was to find an external carrier, and then change the external indirect way to cash in.
If these resources were bundled with Jorge Mendes, first of all, it could greatly increase the premium of the players in his hands. After all, these players had their own publicity aura. When the club bought the players, they could directly convert a part of the publicity budget into it. Secondly, the premium part, both Li Mu and Jorge Mendes could benefit a lot from it. Finally, what Li Mu valued was not to use the resources to cash in indirectly through Jorge Mendes, but to use the resources as a chain to tie him and his agency company to himself.
Jorge Mendes was very interested in Li Mu's proposal. Although he was now like a fish in water in European football, to put it bluntly, the business model was too single, and the business foundation was not stable. Today, he could mediate between the players and the club, and these two parties looked for him to cooperate. If tomorrow, a stronger resource than himself popped up, the players and the club would definitely turn to him. At that time, his job would easily fall.
If he could cooperate with Li Mu, get Li Mu's publicity resources in the football field, and turn these resources into his own unique huge advantage, then not only could he increase the business scale and income, but more importantly, he could consolidate his business foundation.
Moreover, with Li Mu, the future was not just resources and benefits. As long as he cooperated deeply, Li Mu would definitely plan a broader development space for him in the future.
Therefore, Jorge Mendes blurted out to Li Mu, "Mr. Li, I'm very interested in your suggestion. How do you want to cooperate?"
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