Li Ang was deep in thought. His mind was thinking and analyzing quickly. In the end, Li Ang's eyes were temporarily locked on a young player from the Argentine powerhouse team, River Plate.
He was interested in River Plate's young striker, Maxi Lopez.
The 20-year-old Maxi Lopez had already emerged in the Argentine league. His performance had attracted the attention of several European powerhouses, including Barcelona, AC Milan, and Chelsea. Lopez was 1.88 meters tall, but his skills were delicate. He was good at holding the ball and making passes. If he could successfully bring in Lopez, his arrival would not only provide a substitute for the front line, but also a new style of play for Sporting de Gijón. In addition, the most important thing was that Maxi Lopez had just received an Italian passport at the beginning of December, which was the beginning of this month, so he was not considered a non-EU player.
Li Ang believed that a striker like Lopez could improve Sporting de Gijón's attacking power in the front field. In some games, he could even send a three-striker lineup of Dinatale, Diego Milito, and Maxi Lopez.
*****
Li Ang certainly knew. According to his memory, Lopez had gone to Barcelona this winter. But Li Ang still felt that his team still had the strength to compete. Li Ang thought that he was now famous for his ability to promote and "transfer" young players. This should be attractive to the young Maxi Lopez.
Of course, Barcelona was a powerhouse. The attraction of a powerhouse to a player was unquestionable. Few people could refuse an invitation from a powerhouse. The player's personal wishes played a crucial role in the transfer. Lopez could choose the team he liked. If he was bent on going to a powerhouse, Sporting de Gijón would be at a disadvantage in the competition with Barcelona.
In fact, Li Ang really wanted to tell Lopez that it was not a good choice to go to a powerhouse at this time. Instead, it was a sweet trap. Li Ang was relatively clear about Lopez's experience after joining Barcelona. The River Plate star experienced a season and a half on the bench in Barcelona and began a long period of wandering. First, he was loaned to MALLORCA. A year later, the Russian team FC Moscow brought him to the snow-covered Eastern European continent for two million euros. Then, his entire career was wasted.
Li Ang knew this, but he could not say it. Why? That was because Lopez would not believe it even if he said it. Not to mention whether he would think that Li Ang was a charlatan spouting nonsense, at the very least, he would think that it was a trick to persuade him to join Sporting Gihon.
Li Ang still wanted to fight for it. Sporting de Gijón joined the battle for Maxi Lopez. However, the result was not ideal. In the battle for Maxi Lopez, Li Ang and Sporting de Gijón lost to Rijkaard and Barcelona. The attraction of a powerhouse like Barcelona was incomparable to that of Sporting de Gijón.
*****
Li Ang, who had lost Maxi Lopez, could only wish good luck to the talented striker, who was hailed by Barcelona as Larsson's successor. If the gears of fate did not change, the future of the Argentine River Plate genius could be said to be bleak.
At this time, Banderas reported to him the news from Anelka. To Li Ang's surprise, Anelka did not reject coming to Sporting de Gijón to play football.
"Was it his brother who said that he was willing to come to Sporting de Gijón?" Li Ang asked.
"Yes." Banderas said, "His brother, Claude Anelka, patted his chest and said that he could persuade Anelka to agree to come to Sporting de Gijón."
Li Ang was silent.
"His brother's words are not very reliable." Banderas said that the player's personal wishes were the most important. Even if it was his brother's words, the player would not necessarily listen to the advice.
"No, Anelka will definitely listen to Claude Anelka's words," Li Ang said. He knew Anelka's brother agent too well.
Anelka's brother, Claude Anelka, was one of his two agents. To be exact, he was the person who had the greatest influence on Anelka.
Perhaps it was because of their family conditions when they were young, but Anelka's brother liked money very much. Claude hoped that after he became an agent, he could help the two of them make more money.
As an agent, Claude only had one goal: to help his brother get a higher salary and help himself get more shares. For this purpose, Anelka began to transfer constantly. As long as the club's salary did not satisfy him, or there was no absolute main position, or the club was difficult to become a springboard for professional advancement, he would arrange a transfer for Anelka.
*****
Anelka was originally born in the French club Paris Saint-Germain, but he had a better chance at Arsenal, so he immediately switched to Arsenal. Later, he won the Premier League's Young Player of the Year award in 1999. If Anelka had stayed at Arsenal, he could have become a legend at the Arsenal Factory. However, everything started in the summer of 1999. At that time, Anelka was just a genius obsessed with football. Because of his three years of outstanding performance at Highbury, he was spotted by the Galácticos at the age of 20. However, Anelka was a young man who only knew how to play in games and go home to play.
Just like many geniuses, they would pour their talents into a certain aspect, but often they would be helpless in the face of things that ordinary people were accustomed to. In the face of complicated professional contracts and personal career plans, they would appear to be so helpless. At that time, Anelka's brother, Claude, made a magnificent appearance like a guardian angel.
Listening to his parents' admonition that it was always his brother who went to the field, Anelka obeyed his brother's every word. He began to be alienated from the club and slacked off. He publicly announced that he was leaving the team for a transfer, but ignored the brutal competition for positions and insufficient room for growth after leaving the Arsenal Factory and the Professor's transfer to a powerhouse club like Real Madrid.
On August 20, 1999, Anelka went to Real Madrid for a price of 23 million pounds. The Professor, who had bought Anelka from Paris Saint-Germain for 22.5 million euros, wanted to cry but had no tears. David Dane, the club's director at the time, thought that Anelka was a "bastard who had done all kinds of bad and immoral things." From then on, Anelka embarked on a path of no return from a young genius to a chaotic demon.
The agent's commission was usually 10% of the player's transfer contract. Generally speaking, the agent did not participate in the distribution of the player's salary and bonuses. However, in terms of commercial income such as advertising and management, the agent could receive a commission of 10% to 15%. That was also the reason why many agents kept egging their players on to transfer.
At Real Madrid, Anelka's performance was not impressive, and he also caused trouble on and off the field. Just like the former Spain national team manager, Harvey Clemente, commented, "The money used to buy Anelka is more valuable for charity purposes."
After a low season, Anelka was sold back to the French Ligue 1 by Real Madrid for a loss of 20 million pounds.
After returning to Paris Saint-Germain, Anelka was loaned out to Liverpool, Manchester City, and Fenerbahce. Outside of December 2001, he returned to the English Premier League to join Liverpool until the end of the season. Then he joined Manchester City for 13 million pounds.
Now, the conflict between Anelka and Manchester City's manager, Keegan, was irreconcilable, and they were talking about a transfer.
*****
In Li Ang's memory, Anelka had played for nine clubs in his more than ten years of professional career. His accumulated transfer fees were the highest among all the players in the world of football. Claude, as his agent, had contributed greatly.
Li Ang knew Anelka's brother, Claude Anelka, too well. Sporting de Gijón was just a small club. Although it was currently ranked in the top four of the La Liga, in the eyes of outsiders, Sporting de Gijón was still just a dark horse with an outstanding performance. They were not optimistic about Sporting de Gijón's prospects. Therefore, Li Ang was not naive enough to think that Claude Anelka would see that Li Ang had the ability to lead Sporting de Gijón to create a future and let his younger brother, Anelka, come over.
Obviously, for Claude Anelka to pat his chest and give such a guarantee, it must have stemmed from benefits.
Claude Anelka clearly saw Sporting de Gijón as a fat sheep and wanted to take advantage of it.
Anelka was indeed a star player with extraordinary ability. If Sporting de Gijón had the money, Li Ang would not have minded letting Anelka's greedy brother scoop up some money to facilitate the transfer. However, the problem was that Sporting de Gijón did not have the money.
Therefore, Anelka's greedy brother had miscalculated this time and was destined to disappoint him.
Therefore, Li Ang did not care too much about Claude Anelka's goodwill. He arranged for Banderas to continue communicating with the other side and did not bother to pay attention to it anymore.
*****
Li Ang no longer considered Lopez, who was not fated to be with him, nor was he reluctant to part with the "unreliable" Anelka. Li Ang's gaze once again turned to the Apennine Peninsula. This time, he had his eye on the 34-year-old veteran of the Italian national team — Enrico Chiesa. Li Ang had a deep impression of this name. Chiesa was one of the more enchanting veterans in Serie A who was as famous as Di Natale. When he was young, he was a marginal national footballer on the Italian national team. Why was he not the main striker of the Italian national team? It was not because Chiesa was not strong enough, but because his competitors were too strong. At that time, the Italian national team was full of strong players. There was del Piero, Baggio, Inzaghi, Francesco Totti, and Vieri. In the face of these top star players of the era, the talented Chiesa could only sigh.
Chiesa was a more typical second striker who could score. His footwork, technique, and footwork were outstanding. Among the Italian players, he was the one who was most similar to Baggio. Compared to Baggio, who was repeatedly seriously injured, he might have a certain advantage in terms of speed. What was slightly different from Baggio, who preferred to retreat to get the ball, was that Chiesa could and was willing to play at the front of the formation. That was one of the reasons why he could be put in an important position while Baggio repeatedly hit a wall in the powerhouse team. During his time at Parma, he and Crespo complemented each other well. The two of them could create space for each other and make the ball. At the same time, they could make use of each other's space and make the ball to score. At La Viola, he was in excellent condition. However, a serious injury not only caused him to miss the 2002 World Cup, but also caused his subsequent level to decline significantly. However, he still had some power even though he was old. If he could come to Sporting de Gijón, it could be said that he would be the perfect substitute for Di Natale. Li Ang admired a player like Chiesa. At 34 years old, Chiesa could definitely contribute to Sporting de Gijón.
On one hand, Chiesa was good and experienced. On the other hand, because he was already 34 years old, Chiesa would not insist on being a main player. His technical characteristics were also very similar to Di Natale.
It could be said that no matter how one looked at it, Chiesa was currently the most suitable striker for Sporting de Gijón. After making up his mind, Li Ang offered Siena of Serie A for 500,000 Euros to buy Chiesa. Li Ang asked the club to offer 500,000 Euros. It was definitely not because he looked down on Chiesa. It was because when Siena signed Chiesa from Parma in the summer of 2003, it was a free transfer. They did not pay a single cent for him. Now that Chiesa was 34 years old, 500,000 Euros was not too little. Of course, it was not a lot.
*****
Sporting de Gijón soon received a response. Siena rejected the offer.
On the one hand, Siena did not want to let go of Chiesa. On the other hand, there were many teams chasing after Chiesa. The closest team to the Italian veteran was the Italian team, Udinese. Li Ang snatched Di Natale from Udinese in the summer. This had a huge impact on Udinese.
Therefore, Udinese had set their sights on Chiesa, who looked similar to Di Natale but was much older. This time, they also offered 500,000 Euros for Chiesa.
Siena did not want to let go of Chiesa. However, when faced with Udinese's request, they realized that they might not be able to keep Chiesa. This was because compared to Siena, a team that could avoid relegation, Udinese was stronger. Chiesa would definitely be willing to go to Udinese.
However, Siena was a little hesitant about the 500,000 Euros transfer fee. They wanted more.
It was at this time that Sporting Gijon from the La Liga entered the fray for Gieza. This thirty-four-year-old veteran who looked like he was past his prime had suddenly become a hot commodity this winter ….
Siena was happy that Sporting de Gijón suddenly joined the fight for Chiesa. With one more buyer, they could raise the price …
PS: More than 4,000 words, urgently seeking monthly votes.
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