Football giants

Chapter 549 Not For Sale

While Yang Huan was sitting in the presidential suite, talking with Sun Yue and others, downstairs from him, Sandro Russell, the chairman of Barcelona, ​​was waiting for the long-awaited knock on the door.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw Bartomeu, his right-hand man, standing outside the door.

"Josep, come in!" Roselle hurriedly stepped aside and welcomed the right-hand assistant in.

As soon as Bartomeu walked into Russell's room, he walked directly to the sofa in the reception area and sat down.

"How's the situation?" Roselle chased after closing the door.

Bartomeu shook his head and said: "I talked to Bert Hoyet about Neymar. Nike's attitude is that the sponsorship fee is easy to talk about, but they will not get involved in this transfer."

"Why?" Roselle was a little disappointed, but also a little curious.

You know, the official sponsor of Southampton, where Neymar is located, is Adidas.

From a certain point of view, Nike should be eager for Barcelona to sign Neymar.

In this way, can't everyone work together to develop the Brazilian and South American markets in the next few years?
Coupled with the fact that the Barcelona team currently has Messi, Sanchez, Mascherano and other South American stars, this is an excellent opportunity. How could Nike miss it in vain?

"Belt Hoyet said that they have a very good cooperation with Southampton and are unwilling to have conflicts over this matter."

Bartomeu's words made Rosell suddenly remember that when Southampton built a new training base, Nike sponsored 3000 million pounds to the Saints and established a mysterious Nike training center.

For this matter, sports media all over the world also reported frantically, thinking that Nike disgusted Adidas.

No one knows what kind of cooperation is involved in this, but I heard that it is very high-end and advanced.

Seeing Rosell's disappointed expression, Bartomeu said again: "I learned some news from other channels. I heard that Nike is vying for the sponsorship rights of the International Champions Cup with Adidas."

"Sponsorship? Isn't it signed by Adidas?" Russell was a little surprised.

The football used in last year's International Champions Cup was officially sponsored by Adidas. When the organizers promoted and promoted, they focused on introducing the two major sponsors, Etihad Airways and Adidas.

Bartomeu shook his head and smiled bitterly: "For this matter, Nike also fired a senior executive on the grounds of ineffectiveness!"

"what happened?"

"As early as the planning stage of the International Champions Cup, Miracle Media contacted Adidas and Nike respectively, but at that time no one knew whether the International Champions Cup would be successful, after all, there was a North American challenge."

Russell nodded. Barcelona joined in the first place for a generous appearance fee.

"So, neither side paid much attention to this event, so in the end Adidas signed it, but only for two years. As a result, the first International Champions Cup last year became a hit and directly detonated the American football market. Now, the second edition is making a comeback again. According to the survey of external authoritative organizations, the momentum and attention are even worse than last year!"

When Bartomeu said this, Russell immediately understood.

The two-year sponsorship contract, that is, this year is the last year.

Now that the International Champions Cup is on fire, Adidas is of course desperately trying to renew the contract, but the United States is the base camp of Nike, and now they have suffered a big loss. Of course, they will catch up immediately. How could they let go?
Furthermore, the International Champions Cup may expand its army next year. Once it expands, the next battlefield will definitely be in Asia.

That is the best economic development momentum in the world now, and Nike and Adidas are rushing to capture a strategic high ground.

In this case, the International Champions Cup is undoubtedly a great weapon for attacking the city.

Thinking of this, Roselle couldn't help but shook his head and smiled wryly. No wonder Nike didn't want to offend Southampton!

In this way, the greatest help Nike can give Barcelona is the negotiation of sponsorship fees!

"By the way, Josep!" Russell seemed to think of something, "Did Real Madrid also launch an offensive against Neymar?"

"Well, according to the exact information I got, the purpose of Sanchez's trip is to talk about Neymar, and they have already made an offer to Southampton!"

Roselle's eyelids twitched, and he panicked, "How much?"

"The exact amount is not very clear, but I heard it is no less than Cristiano Ronaldo!"

Roselle's mouth opened wide in surprise, almost enough to fit a fist into it.

No less than Cristiano Ronaldo?
That's over [-] million!

This will become the first football player whose transfer fee exceeds [-] million in the history of world football!

"Is the news reliable?" Roselle's voice trembled a little.

"It should be reliable, but I don't know exactly how much Sanchez made an offer to Southampton."

What is the bottom line that Real Madrid can accept is different from what they offer Southampton.

But in Rosell's view, Barcelona is completely passive.

"When I offered Yang Huan an offer of 7000 million euros just now, did you notice his expression?"

Bartomeu frowned, a little dazed, but he didn't notice.

"In my opinion, Real Madrid's offer must be higher than ours, and it is much higher!"

"Then what should we do?" Bartomeu also panicked.

If Neymar is taken away by Real Madrid, then Barcelona will be too passive.

Adidas has already released harsh words to fully support teams such as Real Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich to poach Messi. If Messi is poached and Neymar cannot sign, what should Barcelona do?
You know, Messi is currently the most commercial star in the Barcelona team, and also the most threatening attacker on the football field. Losing Messi, not only will Barcelona suffer heavy losses, even Russell and Bartomeu may have to take the blame and resign.

At the very least, fans who don't know the truth will definitely vent all their anger on them.

Unfortunately, these things, they can't say a word.

Thinking of this, a trace of determination flashed in Roselle's eyes.

"Josep, we only have one choice now!"

A look of surprise flashed across Bartomeu's eyes, "Don't tell me...you want to..."

"Yes, that's the only way to do it, take down Neymar at all costs!" Russell said harshly.

Bartomeu thought about it again, sighed inwardly, and nodded.

In this case, that's the only option they have.

"Although the team's performance has been good in the past few years, and the transfer fee that can be paid is quite a lot, but if you want to compete with Real Madrid for Neymar, I'm afraid it's still not enough."

When it comes to borrowing money to buy stars, Florentino's ability is several blocks away from them.

Not much else to say, Florentino can call the heads of all the big banks in Spain brothers, can they?

"Southampton buys and sells players and has always asked for cash transactions. I'm afraid..." Bartomeu said worriedly.

Russell nodded, "Then try to add existing players in the transfer transaction as an addition, or ask Southampton to show mercy and allow us to pay in installments!"

In the European transfer market, it is quite normal to pay player transfer fees in installments.

On the contrary, like Southampton, the purchase and sale are paid in full, which is unusual!
But also because it is paid in full, Southampton always has an advantage in terms of signings, and the price is relatively cheaper.

"Any player?" Bartomeu asked tentatively.

After all, Roselle authorized him to negotiate, so he must determine how much bargaining chips he can control, right?
"Anyone except the core players like Messi, Xavi and Iniesta!"

Roselle's words were quite weak, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The situation has developed to the present situation, and he can't help it!
"Okay, I'll talk to Ron Gourley tomorrow morning!"

"It's best to talk about the progress in these two days!"

"Yes, I know!"

…………

…………

On the second day, over a thousand media from all over the world gathered at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

Like last year, this year's lottery ceremony is still live broadcasting the lottery process to all netizens for free through WeChat video.

Not only that, the organizer also specially organized some live performances, and invited entertainment superstars including Uncle Psy and Yoona Lin to sing, and even the guests who drew lots were very important football stars like Beckham.

On the whole, this is a very high-standard draw ceremony, not even losing to the UEFA Champions League knockout draw ceremony.

Although there are relatively few participating teams, each of them is the top giants in Europe.

Coupled with the huge repercussions in the United States last year, the second International Champions Cup naturally attracted much attention.

Southampton eventually drew three opponents, Barcelona, ​​Juventus and Manchester United.

Real Madrid are in the same group as Manchester City, Arsenal and Bayern Munich.

This also made many fans feel very excited, thinking that the strength of the teams in the two groups is quite good, and they are both veritable strong teams in Europe. Such a game is undoubtedly quite interesting.

But what makes the fans even more excited is that in the past few days of the International Champions Cup draw, messages have been sent from the United States to all over the world.

For example, Manchester United took a fancy to Southampton's Chilean midfielder Vidal, and the transfer fee was as high as 6000 million euros.

But in a blink of an eye, there was news that Arsenal and Real Madrid were also interested in the Chilean international.

But soon, this news was overwhelmed by Neymar's transfer rumors.

The Sun was the first to break the news, taking photos of Ron Gourley and Barcelona vice-chairman Bartomeu having dinner at the Wangjiangge Chinese restaurant branch in Miami, revealing that Neymar is infinitely close to Barcelona.

But the Marca newspaper quickly gave another piece of news, that is, when Real Madrid general manager Sanchez was interviewed by the Marca newspaper, he unabashedly stated that Real Madrid's number one signing target this summer is Neymar!

Even Real Madrid coach Ancelotti, who is far away in Spain, said in an interview with Aspen that Neymar is an exciting superstar and a player that all coaches dream of!

But in just two or three days, when the media all over the world were excited about Neymar's transfer, Yang Huan once again reiterated in an interview with a reporter from the New York Times, "Neymar is not for sale!"

This immediately made Neymar's transfer confusing again.

In the next few days, Neymar's father and his agent also stood up for interviews, saying that Neymar was excited about the invitations from Barcelona and Real Madrid, but the most important thing right now is to help Southampton continue to chase Manchester United.

And just when Neymar's transfer rumors were heated up, the Sun, which has always been known for its pervasiveness, broke out again.

Not only is Neymar stared at by the two giants of Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​another player of the Devil's Wings, Gareth Bale, is also listed as the number one signing target of this summer by Manchester City, and the transfer fee is expected to be as high as 5000 million pounds.

This once again made the media all over the world excited.

Could it be that Southampton will be poached by a wealthy team again this summer?
(End of this chapter)