Legendary Road

"Hans, how long will it take for the representative of the Morsilis Foundation to arrive?"

In the office of the Dortmund club CEO, Watzke is talking with Zorc about what may be the most meaningful topic for Dortmund this year.

Watzke looked down at his watch, and then he took a sip of steaming coffee: "It's less than 15 minutes from the appointed time."

Zorke's eyes fell on Watzke's hand holding on to the cup. He keenly noticed that the hand of the always calm CEO holding the handle of the cup was trembling slightly.

Such a shrewd businessman feels extremely nervous... This is the first time Zork has seen Watzke in such a state. In the past, Watzke has never behaved in speeches at meetings or in negotiations in person. It is calm and composed, but the amount of the documents to be signed today is close to 8000 million euros-this amount of money is almost all the liquid funds for Dortmund now.

Zork tried to make Watzke calmer. Although the content of the conversation later will not involve negotiations, he still hopes that Watzke can face it in the best state: "Hans, as long as today's documents are signed After confirmation, the burden and pressure we have to face will be greatly reduced."

"Yes, Michelle, I know, I know."

Watzke put the cup aside, opened the debt-equity document on the desktop that had been turned over countless times before, and moved his fingers along the text on the paper.

"These are old issues... Before I officially became the CEO of Borussia Dortmund, I didn't really know what the club's debt situation was. After I read this document, I realized what a mess I inherited. "Watzke looked at Zork with emotion, "Let's not talk about the rest of the assets, even Westfalen, a holy place that should belong to many Dortmund fans, does not completely belong to them-we only have 42.8% of the shares in the Westfalenstadion, 6% of which we have recovered last season, and the other 51.2% belong to the Morsilis Foundation."

The stadium is always a team's biggest fixed asset, and Dortmund still need to pay a lot of rent to use the Westfalenstadion. The issue of "redeeming the ownership of the Westfalenstadion" was placed in the most important position on Watzke's first day in office.

After more than a year of hard work, today he finally gathered enough funds to redeem the shares of the Westfalenstadion.

Watzke rubbed his temples—perhaps he could finally sleep comfortably tonight.

Zorc smiled: "And today we finally got the Westfalenstadion back. This is a memorable moment."

"Yes, but we will still have to worry about it in the future." Watzke grinned, but he was obviously having fun in his bitterness, "After redeeming the stadium, our debt level will go up to a higher level. "

With Dortmund's current financial situation, it is of course impossible to have as much liquidity as 8000 million euros, but two days ago Watzke negotiated a loan worth 900 million euros with Morgan Stanley Bank, and this was able to Collect funds to redeem the pitch.

"Those people wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to steal money, and at the beginning they actually asked for a repayment interest rate of 8%. I really thought I was a layman who had never been in this industry before." Watzke complained rarely, "Although the interest rate was lowered in the end To 6.6%, I am afraid that in the last few years, I have to pay more than 500 million euros in interest every year, and I feel dizzy when I think about it.”

Even if he is only the director of the sports department, Zork can feel the financial pressure, not to mention Watzke who has to deal with these every day.

If this can relieve the pressure in Watzke's heart, Zork would be willing to listen to the other party's complaints: "Isn't the loan due in 2023? Hans, you don't need to worry too much about the future now." , the most important thing right now is to redeem the Westfalenstadion."

"And at least we rejected BeateUhse[Note 1]'s assistance." Zorc laughed, "I guess you must have thought about accepting it, but the thought of BeateUhse appearing on our sponsorship list... oh, what the hell .”

At this time, the landline in Watzke's office rang, and Watzke picked up the receiver. The lady at the counter told him that the representatives of the Morsilis Foundation and the notary had arrived.

"Hans, Mr. Stanley is coming soon, and my status is not suitable to stay here." Zorke turned and walked out of the door, "I'll go to the training ground first."

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"Marcel! You go forward too hard. If it was a Bundesliga game, the opponent would have already passed through the gap behind you!"

The sound of Yan Jing's lectures on the court floated, and Zorke heard it from a long distance away.

"You have to remember that your job is to defend first."

In the two days since Schmelzer participated in the first team training match, he has been reprimanded by Yan Jing more than ten times, and the team's training is often interrupted because of him.

Half an hour into the training match, Yan Jing didn't want to remember the number of times Schmelzer subconsciously moved forward in the match. Yan Jing frowned and said to Schmelzer who looked nervous.

"Marcel, you must change this habit. The games you will participate in in the future will be in the Bundesliga, not the U19 youth league. Any flaws you leave due to carelessness may be caught by the opponent and counterattack."

Schmelzer touched his nose resentfully. The training intensity of the first team was much higher than that of the U19s. Fortunately, he usually had special demands on himself, so he barely kept up with the rhythm of the team.

And Yan Jing mentioned another problem that he really can't solve - he has become a habit of advancing in the U19 echelon, but now he is suddenly asked to minimize the chance of advancing, Schmelzer finds it difficult adapt.

Schmelzer buried his head deeply, and Yan Jing looked at the other person's appearance is also a little funny - he didn't say anything hurtful, why did he seem to be bullying him?

Yan Jing stretched out his hand and patted Schmelzer on the shoulder: "But you don't have to be too obsessed with this. All in all, learn more from your idol Dede how to grasp the timing of going forward."

On the other side of the field, Nafel was walking towards the training field with a paper in his hand. Yan Jing saw it from the corner of his eye and immediately drove Schmelzer back to the field, and then walked quickly to Nafel with a anxious tone inquired.

"Nafel, has the team doctor reported Lars' injury? How is his injury?"

Nafer handed over the report in his hand: "Fortunately, it's not particularly serious. A few muscle fibers in the hamstring muscles were broken, which is a minor strain. It will take about two to three weeks to fully recover."

After receiving the report, Yan Jingzai read it carefully before finally heaving a sigh of relief. It was indeed not a serious injury, and it did not hurt the part that Ricken had been seriously injured before. This is luck among misfortunes.

Just last night, Borussia Dortmund beat Bielefeld at the Westfalenstadion 2-0.

But Lars Ricken, who contributed an assist for the team, was accidentally injured in the 73rd minute of the game.

Before that, Yan Jing was already ready to replace Rickon, but because the game couldn't find the dead ball time, he had to drag it all the time. How could he have imagined that Rickon would be in this short period of one or two minutes? Just get hurt again?

When Ricken limped off the field, the hearts of the nearly [-] fans in the Westfalenstadion seemed to have been severely twisted—their Lars Ricken was injured again.

Since recovering from a serious knee injury last season, Rickon has shown a very good competitive state after his comeback. Whether it is personal data or control of the scene, they can't help but recall the former genius Rickon again.

So the fans inadvertently began to have inexplicable expectations for Ricken again.

They have been looking forward to this for a long time-they hope from the bottom of their hearts that this midfielder who came out of Dortmund's youth training camp and became famous at a young age but fell down repeatedly due to injuries will be a late bloomer, but it seems that fate always likes to play tricks on people. Just over a month into this season, Rickon had to start recuperating again.

Avoiding this slightly sad topic, Yan Jing asked Nafel about Coentraang's recent situation: "By the way, how is Fabio doing in the second team recently? I plan to bring him in the game against Hamburg tomorrow. "

"According to the coach of the second team, he performed very well. He is very serious in his usual training, and he still stays for extra training as he did when he was in the youth team." Nafer turned his eyes to the court after answering Yan Jing Schmelzer, "What about Marcel?"

Yan Jing spread his hands helplessly: "I think based on Marcel's current playing habits, if he is allowed to play in tomorrow's game, then our left side will definitely be blown by Hamburg."

Nafel was and was Schmelzer's coach, to be honest.The young player did not impress him deeply, and the only thing he could think of was probably his hard work.

"Yan, since Marcel doesn't meet your tactical needs, then you still transferred him to the first team...?"

"Nafel, maybe you don't know him well enough." Yan Jing smiled, "It was his perseverance and perseverance that brought him from a small town like Magdeburg to Dortmund's youth training camp, and he persisted for almost six years... …this persistence will lead him to success one day, and I'm just a facilitator to speed up his maturity."

The author has something to say: Note 1: A well-known German company that produces products that are not suitable for children.