The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 455 - 95: Frenzied Signings! The Bundesliga’s Salary Ceiling! The Highest Price in Football! The New Season’s Goal: Break Records

Even the advertisements were to be custom-made for him.

Simply put, the sincerity Adidas showed was in offering to elevate Wang Shuo’s status.

Hearing this, Herbert Hainer also realized how tricky the situation was.

Adidas’s performance in the Greater China Region during the first half of the year had been subpar, and Nike wasn’t having an easy time either. They hadn’t achieved any growth, but had merely stayed flat.

This meant both sporting goods giants had to make a move.

In recent years, China’s domestic sports brands had been developing better and better. If they didn’t take this seriously, they would sooner or later be squeezed out. Losing the Chinese market was a price neither could afford to pay.

"Hurry up. No matter what, we have to finalize Wang Shuo’s contract renewal as soon as possible!"

Hainer recalled Beckenbauer’s assessment of Wang Shuo.

In last year’s European Golden Ball Award rankings, Wang Shuo was 11th.

Given his performance last season, as long as he didn’t completely fall apart in the new season, he was sure to remain in the top 20 this year.

As for whether he could break into the top ten, that was hard to say.

Because 2010 was a World Cup year, many stars who performed exceptionally well in the tournament would get a huge boost in their rankings.

This was precisely Wang Shuo’s biggest disadvantage.

However, given Wang Shuo’s age and the momentum he was showing, Hainer trusted Beckenbauer’s judgment.

A top-four superstar from China—just how much influence would he have in the Greater China Region and the rest of Asia?

Incalculable!

...

After returning to Europe, Wang Shuo first traveled from Frankfurt to Mainz.

He had brought some things back from his hometown for Zhang Xiaopeng.

When he got back to Dortmund, Shen Qinghe had three pieces of news for him.

First, the contract renewal with Adidas hadn’t been settled.

Mainly, Shen Qinghe felt the price Adidas offered lacked sincerity.

"They’re only willing to offer 4 million euros. Even though that’s already the highest price in the world of football right now, I still think it’s far from enough." Shen Qinghe clearly wanted to fight for more.

Next were two sponsorship deals.

One was from the world-famous sports drink, Gatorade. That company was also very optimistic about the Chinese and Asian markets.

The other was from the Japanese game company Konami, whose most famous game is Pro Evolution Soccer.

Wang Shuo was very satisfied with Shen Qinghe’s efficiency.

"We’re just getting started."

Shen Qinghe, however, was quite dissatisfied, mainly because her team was taking too long to assemble.

"Did you know? Messi and Ronaldo’s annual commercial income exceeds 20 million euros. And us?"

"Even if we add these two contracts, not counting the domestic deals, our annual commercial income so far is only 5 million euros. Including Adidas, it’s just 6.5 million euros."

Compared to the twenty-plus million euros in annual commercial income that Ronaldo and Messi easily pulled in, this number was peanuts. It meant Wang Shuo still had enormous potential to be tapped.

On the internet, for example.

Strangely enough, aside from match days, Wang Shuo would post on Twitter at a fixed time every day.

In Shen Qinghe’s words, his Twitter was actually a bit boring.

But unexpectedly, his follower count was soaring.

As of now, his Twitter followers exceeded two million.

What did that mean?

In the global sports world, he was ranked 5th, behind only NBA star O’Neal, Kaka, cyclist Armstrong, and Ronaldo.

Remember how Shen Qinghe was putting together a media team?

They had just registered a Facebook account for Wang Shuo, and in less than a month, his followers had quickly surpassed one million.

There was also YouTube and other social media platforms.

In addition, the domestic team had also registered accounts for him on Weibo and other social networks and had begun managing them.

All of this made Wang Shuo realize just how popular he actually was!

"Feeling more motivated now?" Shen Qinghe asked with a smile.

Wang Shuo nodded repeatedly.

He hoped that through his own relentless efforts, he could deliver an even better performance and not disappoint all the fans who followed and supported him.

"The team is almost fully assembled now. We’re going to launch a full-scale offensive next. Your job is to deliver an even better performance on the pitch in the new season and put more pressure on Adidas."

...

After returning to Dortmund, the first teammate Wang Shuo saw was none other than the team captain, Sebastian Kael.

He was in the gym doing recovery training.

"Hey, Sebastian, how’s it going?"

Wang Shuo walked over with a smile to greet Kael.

He noticed that when Kael was using the weight machines, his movements were cautious, as if he was afraid of getting injured again.

This was a type of stress reaction that players have after a serious injury.

It was like how many players known for their breakthrough ability, after suffering a serious injury from a foul, no longer dared to take on defenders after their return. It was a psychological issue.

"It’s going okay. It’s just that these things are too fragile," Kael said with a wry smile, stroking his legs.

Even though his movements weren’t large, Kael was covered in sweat.

Clearly, for him, the real problem wasn’t physical.

The constitution of a "glass man" was truly fragile, both physically and mentally!

Wang Shuo later also saw Krag and De De. Both were on the injured list; they were either receiving treatment or undergoing recovery therapy, all in preparation for the new season.

De De’s situation was similar to Kael’s; both were longtime veterans of the injured list.