"We are pleased to announce that the team has reached an agreement with the Italian club Empoli on the transfer of the Italian striker, Antonio Di Natale. The team has signed this efficient Italian striker to a five-year contract …"
"Sporting de Gijón has reached an agreement with the Serie A team, Palermo, on the transfer of the Italian national player, Fabio Grosso. The Italian national left-back will play for Sporting de Gijón for the next five years …"
While Li Ang was still in Zagreb, Grosso had successfully passed his medical examination in Gijón. The club also announced on its official website that Di Natale and Grosso had joined the team.
The joining of the two Italian players immediately aroused the interest of the media in Gijón.
Ten days ago, the club had announced the arrival of Ribéry and Pepe. Among them, the Frenchman named Franck Ribéry was a mystery to the media in Gijón. In the end, they were unable to find any information about Ribéry. Ribéry was a player who played for a team in a lower league in France. This caused a heated discussion in Gijón. Obviously, everyone was curious as to how this lower league player attracted Li Ang's attention. As far as they knew, Li Ang favored this Frenchman very much.
Some other Spanish media, especially those who had old grudges with Li Ang, also reported on this matter. Of course, it was not a good thing. Their words were full of suspicion and ridicule towards Li Ang. Naturally, the spearhead was directed at Li Ang.
At this time, the media in Gijón stood on Li Ang's side. This did not mean that they were optimistic about Ribéry. It was just that the point of view of the people in Gijón was very clear. Ribéry joined for free. Sporting de Gijón did not spend a single cent on the transfer fee. What was the point of blindly comparing?
Now, the joining of Di Natale and Grosso immediately aroused the media's interest. This time, they quickly found information about the two Italian players.
*****
Antonio Di Natale played for the Italian Serie A club, Empoli. However, the team had now been relegated to Serie B. In the previous season, Di Natale made thirty-three appearances and scored five goals for the team. In the previous season, Di Natale made twenty-seven appearances and scored thirteen goals for Empoli.
In the tightly-defended Serie A, scoring a total of 18 goals for the team in two seasons could be considered outstanding.
Therefore, the media and fans of Sporting de Gijón recognized and looked forward to this signing. Moreover, Voice of Sporting de Gijón, which had a good relationship with Sporting de Gijón, also found out the transfer fee for Di Natale: a mere 300,000 Euros!
It was clear that Sporting de Gijón had acquired a more useful player from the relegated Empoli at a minimal cost. Moreover, the media also found out that Sporting de Gijón had defeated Udinese, a strong team in the Serie A, to acquire Di Natale.
The joining of Fabio Grosso excited the fans and media of Sporting de Gijón. There was no other reason. Grosso was an Italian national footballer. Although he was only a marginal Italian national footballer, he was still an Italian national footballer!
With the addition of an Italian national footballer in his prime, the Sporting de Gijón fans began to forget about Jeffery, who had been transferred to FC Porto.
According to Voice of Sporting de Gijón, these two Italian players were personally acquired by Manager Li Ang when he went to Italy to negotiate with the other club. It was obvious that these two players were highly regarded and liked by Manager Li Ang.
Manager Li Ang had not yet returned to Sporting de Gijón. It was rumored that he was still "wandering" around Europe to recruit players. The media and fans were very interested in which players this respected and meritorious manager of the team would bring to the team.
The Spanish media still paid attention to Li Ang. They noticed that none of the players that Li Ang had recruited were Spanish players. This was different from many of the small and medium-sized Spanish players. When the teams in Segunda División and the small and medium-sized teams in La Liga recruited players, they were mainly Spanish players. They rarely recruited players from other leagues. On the one hand, these players had joined the Spanish league and needed to adapt to the new league. There was an unknown risk to their future performance. On the other hand, they knew more about and paid more attention to the Spanish players. Unless there was a very efficient scouting system, they generally did not go to countries outside of Spain to recruit players.
Take a look at the four players that Manager Li Ang of Sporting de Gijón brought in. Franck Ribéry played in the lower leagues in France, Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Grosso played in the Serie A teams, and Pepe, a Brazilian, played for FC Porto in the Portuguese Super League.
And it was said that these four players were all personally selected by Li Ang. To be exact, Li Ang even negotiated with the other clubs or personally sent out invitations to the players.
Therefore, the media and fans were very interested. They wanted to know why the China manager valued these players and how did he recruit them?
Especially the guy named Franck Ribéry. Where did Manager Li Ang find out about such a person?! Well …
*****
After settling the transfer of Modric, Li Ang was in a good mood.
He said goodbye to the enthusiastic Modric family and was ready to leave Croatia.
After booking the plane ticket for the next trip the next morning, Li Ang lay down in the hotel where he was staying and began to calculate the accounts.
He was calculating the cost of the players so far.
Grosso was 1.5 million euros.
Di Natale was 300,000 euros.
Modric was 800,000 euros.
Ribéry was a free transfer.
Pepe was a player exchange. He did not spend a penny and brought in 750,000 euros for the club.
In this case, the cost of bringing in these four players was now 1.9 million euros!
1.9 million euros!
Li Ang clicked his tongue and was a little distressed. The budget given to him by the club was three million euros. The originally negotiated budget was 2.5 million euros. Later, after the team was promoted to La Liga, Li Ang and Venita put in a lot of effort to get 500,000 euros. This was not easy. Although the promotion to La Liga would bring in a lot of TV broadcast income and advertising income, these income from La Liga would only come in after a season. Therefore, Sporting de Gijón was still tight on funds.
Of the three million euros in the transfer fund, 1.9 million euros had been used. There was only 1.1 million euros left. This made Li Ang's heart ache. Because according to his plan, the team still needed to fill in several positions to make up for the gaps. With only a little more than one million Euros, it was definitely not enough.
The team had to speed up the cleansing and selling of the existing players.
Li Ang then called the club's general manager, Venita, to communicate. The final result was that Li Ang provided the club with a list of 12 players. According to Li Ang, these 12 players could be sold.
*****
It took time to collect transfer funds by selling players.
Therefore, Li Ang's current goal was still to choose cheap players, especially those who could be transferred on a free transfer.
This time, he needed to bring in players in the center back position.
The team's main center back last season, Jago, was loaned by Sporting de Gijón from Celta. At the end of the season, Jago's loan ended and he returned to Celta. Sporting de Gijón asked Celta about the possibility of bringing in this player. Celta directly asked for 1.8 million euros. When Li Ang heard this exorbitant demand, he immediately cut off the communication channel with Celta. 1.8 million euros. They must be crazy to think about money!
Jago's performance could only be said to be average. In the eyes of Li Ang, who was familiar with the future and had the support of the system, this kind of center back was not in Li Ang's long-term plan.
Celta's exorbitant demand also made Li Ang determined to bring in a reliable player in the center back position.
Celta was still waiting for Sporting de Gijón to continue the negotiations. They were still waiting to take advantage of Sporting de Gijón. No matter what, Jago was a contributor to Sporting de Gijón's promotion. It was reasonable to say that Sporting de Gijón would definitely try their best to bring in this player. In the center back position, if possible, the team generally tried to maintain stability as much as possible. Then, there was no then. Celta did not receive any response from Sporting de Gijón.
*****
Li Ang's destination this time was Qatar.
His target was the former Real Madrid captain, Hierro.
Li Ang's most direct impression of Hierro was the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. He had seen the iron-blooded captain's desolation at the Gwangju Stadium in Korea.
On June 22, 2002, a World Cup 14 final that had nothing to do with football was held at the Gwangju Stadium in Korea. The Koreans "shamelessly" made history, and Spain "helplessly" was eliminated. This was Hierro's last game representing the national team. This veteran of the national team, who had participated in four World Cups, did not lose to his age or his opponents on the field, but lost to the referee and the black whistle.
At that time, the team encountered great difficulties. The successive controversial decisions made the Spanish players mentally unbalanced, and the situation was very unfavorable for Spain. It was under such circumstances that the game came to a penalty shootout. As the captain, Hierro was the first to go to the penalty spot and calmly scored, stabilizing the team's morale. But in the end, Spain was still blocked out of the top four. This was the closest they had ever been to the World Cup dream, and also the most unreachable due to various reasons.
Whether it was in Real Madrid or the national team, Hierro was the team's unique captain. As the center back, he was the absolute core of the defense. He was excellent at headers and was good at physical confrontations. He also grasped the timing of the ball very accurately. He used to play as a defensive midfielder, and his coordination and passing awareness were also very good. The only shortcoming was that Hierro's turning was a little slow, especially at the end of his career. It had always been a weakness that the opponent's strikers took advantage of, and it was also an area that some media and fans criticized.
It was also worth mentioning that although Hierro played as a defender, he scored 29 goals for the national team. At one time, he occupied the first place in the national team's goalscoring list until he was later surpassed by Raúl and Villa. His offensive ability was evident.
*****
Real Madrid had almost missed out on their legendary captain.
In 1989, Hierro wanted to join another team in Madrid, Atlético Madrid. However, the president of Real Madrid, Mendoza, spent 30 million pesetas to snatch Hierro to Real Madrid. From then on, Hierro started a white legend at the Bernabéu. When he joined Real Madrid, Hierro said to the fans, "Since I was a child, I would cry when I saw Real Madrid lose. Every time I cried, I thought, I have to work hard to train so that Real Madrid will no longer lose, so that more people who like Real Madrid will no longer cry!" Hierro did it. During his 14 years at Real Madrid, he won five La Liga titles, three Champions League titles, one Copa del Rey title, four Spanish Super Cups, one UEFA Super Cup, and two Toyota Cups for the team. He brought countless happiness to the fans.
Sometimes, glory is too dazzling, and it can cover up a lot of things that are more worthy of attention. Hierro's love for Real Madrid was not only reflected in glory. For the benefit of the team, he took the initiative to retreat from the midfield to the center back position (he scored 21 goals in the 9192 season, becoming the second scorer in La Liga that year) without a word of complaint. For the future of Real Madrid, he even bravely stood up to challenge the president. In 2003, Hierro, in order to protect the local Spanish players, had a disagreement with the president's policy of "global superstars." With the arrival of Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, and Beckham, Florentino was seen as the hero of Madrid. Hierro, in order to protect the position of his compatriot, Morientes, made public his disagreement with the president. He said that players were not commodities, and Real Madrid should bring in more suitable players instead of pursuing superstars with a strong commercial flavor. That season, after Real Madrid won the league title, Hierro called on the players not to participate in the celebration and refused to be interviewed. But after only 24 hours, Florentino kicked Hierro out of the team. Real Madrid's legendary captain left Real Madrid just like that. After Hierro left the team, Real Madrid did not have the chance to win the league title, let alone the Champions League trophy.
Even after being purged by Real Madrid, he never said a word to criticize his old club. Hierro's love for Real Madrid was like a river flowing into the sea. He poured everything he had and held nothing back.
"I don't care about the club's attitude. It's my honor to return to the Bernabéu. No matter what happens in the past or in the future, my heart will not leave this place. Real Madrid taught me that once you wear the jersey of this club, you must learn to give 100%. In Real Madrid, you are not allowed to relax for a second. The club instills in you the creed to win all the trophies. Live for Real Madrid, die for Real Madrid. "After retiring, Real Madrid was still Hierro's favorite.
It was inevitably regretful that he was not able to retire at his beloved club, but Hierro's selfless love for Real Madrid was incomparably shocking.
Because of this, Li Ang did not have much confidence in inviting Hierro to join Sporting de Gijón on this trip to Qatar. Hierro's love for Real Madrid was too deep. He did not have much confidence in persuading Hierro to return to La Liga and face his beloved Real Madrid as an enemy.
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