Champion’s Heart

Compared with the summer holidays, the winter holidays were much shorter. Zhou Yi finally only stayed at home for a week before saying goodbye to his parents.

He met Yang Muge in Beijing and returned to Germany together.

Unlike when they came back, when they left China, a large number of fans came to see them off at the airport. I don't know where they knew the exact time of Zhou Yi's departure.

At the airport Zhou Yi asked Yang Muge: How is it, Lao Yang? Are you happy going back this time?

He was talking about Yang Muge's fame.

Yang Muge smiled.

At this time, there was a huge shout outside the airport security checkpoint. This was the enthusiastic fans saying goodbye to Zhou Yi and Yang Muge.

Look, Lao Yang. When we left before, there was no such scene. Zhou Yi turned around and waved to the enthusiastic fans outside the security check. how do you feel?

Yang Muge also turned around to say goodbye to the fans: It's great.

Ha! Zhou Yi laughed.

※※※

After returning to Germany, Zhou Yi did not stay in Dortmund for long. He went with the team to the warm Mallorca, Spain. On that island, a famous European tourist resort, he started training with the team to prepare for the second half of the season. .

The recruitment work of the Dortmund club is also started at the same time.

Transfers during the winter break are generally about checking and filling vacancies in the team's lineup, and are not very heavyweight transfers.

But for Dortmund, transfers during the winter break this season are very important.

Because Mark Wagner was seriously injured in the previous national team game and bid farewell to this season completely. It is not known what will happen after returning next season.

The team lost an important point of firepower in the frontcourt offense.

Of course it needs to be strengthened.

This time, their target is Marco Reus, another Mark who has previously trained in the Dortmund youth academy.

As a native of Dortmund, Royce has been training in the youth team of the Dortmund club since he was a child.

And like every Dortmund kid, he dreams of playing for Dortmund one day.

But it is not easy to realize such a dream.

Reus did not get the chance to rise directly in the Dortmund echelon. Like Grosskreutz, he was abandoned by Dortmund midway, so he chose to go to Red and White Allen, a low-level team in the same area, and performed there. outstanding.

Grosskreutz, who also performed well in Red and White Allen, was spotted by Dortmund and was bought back by Dortmund in the summer of 2009.

Reus still failed to get into Dortmund's eyes. He went to Monchengladbach to replace the former core player Marco Marin who left the team for Werder Bremen.

At that time, his transfer value was only one million euros.

But at Monchengladbach, Reus quickly found success.

In the 2009-2010 season, his first season after moving to Monchengladbach, he played 33 times, scored eight goals and provided nine assists, with outstanding performance.

In the following 2010-2011 season, he completely secured his core position in Monchengladbach, playing thirty-two times, scoring ten goals and assisting twelve times.

In fact, strictly speaking, Royce and Mark Wagner are players with different styles. Mark is more active in the middle, while Royce is more active in the wing. Royce is fast and good at dribbling. Mark's speed is not his advantage, and his dribbling is relatively average. He has the ability to seize opportunities and his excellent ball-making ability.

Apart from the pronunciation of their names, the two of them have nothing in common.

So it would be wrong to say that Dortmund's interest in Royce is entirely to fill the gap caused by Mark's injury.

However, Mark's serious injury strengthened the determination of Dortmund's senior management to introduce Royce. After all, Dortmund's attacking lineup looks strong now, but it is not thick enough. It only relies on those few people. If one is injured, one will be missing. After Mark is injured, even if one more person is injured, it is not Zhou Yi, but someone else. Dortmund's offensive lineup will be Can't hold it up anymore.

For the future journey, Dortmund hopes to introduce Royce.

But how could Monchengladbach let go of its core so easily?

Firstly, the two sides have been at odds over the transfer fee for a long time, and secondly, they have been back and forth over the transfer matter.

Dortmund hopes that Royce can transfer during this winter break.

However, Monchengladbach is determined not to let him go, saying that if Dortmund insists on completing the transfer during the winter break, then Monchengladbach will not sell.

Dortmund wants to let Reus transfer during the winter break, naturally because of the Champions League knockout rounds in the second half of the season.

But Monchengladbach performed well this season. After the first half of the league, Dortmund ranked first with 38 points, while Monchengladbach ranked fourth with 33 points. They also have the opportunity to compete for the next place. Qualified for the Champions League this season.

In this process, Royce took the greatest credit and was very important.

If Royce is let go during the winter break, his qualification for the Champions League next season may be in vain.

Monchengladbach's club executives are not idiots. Although Dortmund and Monchengladbach have basically reached an agreement on Royce's transfer price, which is 17.5 million euros, Monchengladbach It is clear that if you can participate in the Champions League next season, even if it is only the group stage, the economic income you will receive will not be less than this transfer fee.

If Royce were to go to Dortmund now, Monchengladbach would be making a big loss out of a small gain.

The senior management of Monchengladbach Club can still calculate such a simple mathematical problem.

So they rejected Dortmund's proposal very firmly.

In the end, after a long period of back and forth between the two sides, Dortmund finally agreed to Monchengladbach's transfer plan - the transfer contract can now be finalized, but the transfer will not be implemented until the end of this season.

It is equivalent to Dortmund finalizing Royce's transfer half a year in advance.

For Dortmund, although they have to wait half a year more, as Royce's performance gets better and better, Dortmund will inevitably have more competitors. They finalized the transfer deal half a year in advance, which was a reassurance. Even if Royce really helps Monchengladbach qualify for the Champions League next season after this season, his value, contract salary, etc. will not increase because of this. Other teams will want high prices at that time. Poaching Reus from Monchengladbach is no longer possible.

It's like taking insurance.

Of course, this operation is not without risks. If Royce's condition declines in the second half of the season and his performance is not worth the current price, Dortmund will have to admit that it is unlucky.

As for the greater risks, they are all stated in the contract. For example, if Reus is seriously injured in the second half of the season, Dortmund has the right to return the player.

After all the contract details have been finalized, after the contract between Dortmund and the player himself has been negotiated.

On January 14, 2012, Dortmund officially announced that they already owed Marco Reus. The transfer contract will take effect on July 1, 2012.

When the news was announced, the happiest people were the Dortmund fans. Because of their extraordinary sense of identity, Dortmund fans attach great importance to and love every player from the Dortmund youth academy. They hope that more local players from Dortmund can wear Dortmund jerseys. So players like Grosskreutz and Mark are very popular among Dortmund fans.

When Mark was seriously injured, the saddest thing was the Dortmund fans who recognized his relatives.

Now that the Dortmund player who was drifting away can return to Westchester United, it is still very exciting and exciting.

The saddest thing is probably the Monchengladbach fans.

Some excited Monchengladbach fans even went outside the training base to protest against the club's easy sale of the core of the team.

Marin was sold before and Royce was bought.

Now that Reus has been sold, can Monchengladbach still find a qualified replacement for Reus?

However, this is the way for small and medium-sized clubs to survive. They do not have the strong financial support of large financial groups, nor the belief bonus of a large number of fans, so they cannot carry out global business development. The annual salary budget of some teams may not be worth the transfer fee of a player from a giant like Bayern Munich.

Therefore, if these clubs are to be self-financing, they can only rely on selling players, poaching talented players from smaller teams at low prices, and then playing for two years and achieving results before selling these players to big clubs. , earn the price difference.

Although Monchengladbach was once a well-established team in the Bundesliga, in an era when football is becoming more and more commercialized, they have gradually failed to keep up with the times and have become a mid- to lower-tier team in the Bundesliga. They are also downgraded from time to time. .

Although selling the core will make fans dissatisfied, compared with the club falling into financial crisis and going bankrupt, losing the core is not a big deal... (To be continued.)