Top of the big era

Zhu Jun, the owner of Ninetowns, was not very satisfied with Zhou Buqi. "If you want to form a multinational football group, wouldn't it be enough to just merge Shenhua into it? As for building a new team?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Shenhua is an old and strong team and cannot afford to play."

Zhu Jun was amused, "And the football team you can't afford? Whose Manchester United is it? Mine?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Shenhua is a strong team with a strong historical heritage. We need to spend more money to achieve results and meet the requirements of fans and local leaders. What I want to do is experimental in nature. It’s not necessarily that good.”

Zhu Jun didn't quite understand, "Bad grades? Then what do you mean by doing this?"

Zhou Buqi said: "At least it can be regarded as finding a possible direction for the development of the national football team. Although 99% of the possibility is failure, you still have to give it a try. Moreover, starting from scratch has the advantage of low requirements, and you can do it well or badly. There won’t be too much pressure. It’s not like Shenhua. If the results are not good, they will scold you."

To say that Zhu Jun was really wronged.

He is a football enthusiast and has invested a lot of money in Shenhua without any return. When other companies acquire teams, they all have advertising attributes.

The most typical one is Evergrande.

Originally, Evergrande was only a second- or third-tier real estate company in China. After becoming the Evergrande football team, it quickly became famous and became famous throughout the country.

Because the football performance is so good, the brand reputation of "Evergrande" is getting higher and higher, which has produced huge positive economic benefits.

Zhu Jun is different.

His football career has nothing to do with the company. It is funded by him personally. It is purely a hobby and passion for football. But even though he invested so much money for Shenhua without asking for anything in return, he didn't earn much good reputation.

None of the big bosses in domestic football have left a good reputation, which is the most embarrassing thing. It seems that they are the culprits for the failure of football to develop.

The actual situation is exactly the opposite.

Take Zhou Buqi for example, he doesn't want to play football in China at all.

But the big leaders called him personally. He was so rich and he did Manchester United so well that he couldn't refuse even if he wanted to.

Tomorrow, Rangnick will come to Shanghai.

Zhou Buqi will hold talks with him to communicate about the multinational football group. Today I will go to Chongming Island Football Base to talk to Xu Genbao.

Director Xu is a real football person. Zhu Jun likes football very much. He heard that Boss Zhou wanted to do something big and wanted to participate in the whole process. "He has been in youth training for ten years and it has already blossomed."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Yes, I know, the East Asia team has been promoted to the Chinese League One."

Xu Genbao trained a group of children at the Chongming Island Football Base. When these children grew up, they started a professional football club called East Asia Team.

Starting from the second level, they are a group of sixteen or seventeen-year-old kids who have attracted much attention in the football circles of Shanghai.

Last season, the East Asian team successfully reached the first division.

The goal this season is to reach the Chinese Super League, and General Fan was specially invited to be the head coach. The European football season runs from August to May of the next year, while in China it is a natural year and runs from March to October. It is now the end of the season. General Fan is a good football player, but his coaching level is not good enough. He is too far away from surpassing the goal and has almost no chance.

Failure to reach the Super League is not only a competitive loss, but also an economic loss.

The exposure of China League One is too poor and there are very few fans. It would be good to have 1,000 ticket-buying fans at each home court. Xu Genbao is not a rich man. He cannot afford to support such a professional team.

Zhu Jun said: "In the past two months, Director Xu has been in contact with me."

"Contact what?"

"He wanted to sell the team to me."

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi didn't know the inside story.

Zhu Jun said: "The financial situation of the East Asia team is very bad and they cannot make ends meet. In order to make Shenhua stronger in the past few years, I have integrated several professional clubs. Director Xu also wants to incorporate the East Asia team."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "What do you think?"

Zhu Jun said calmly: "The East Asian team is a group of kids, and their level is not good enough. Shenhua should still bring in more top players. I plan to buy some foreign players from Europe. I have to win a championship no matter what!"

Zhou Buqi said speechlessly: "I think you were stunned by the scolding."

Zhu Jun refused to admit it, "It has nothing to do with outside criticism. I simply think that the children in the East Asian team do not meet the current requirements of the Shenhua team. This is also for their own good. They are now 17, 18 or 20 years old." The younger they are, the more time they need to practice in games. After joining Shenhua, they can only be on the bench, which is not conducive to their development."

"It's better for young children."

Zhou Buqi hasn't met Rangnick yet, but he has talked with Hope many times and knows Rangnick's football philosophy. What he likes most is to select a group of young children and then train them according to his own tactical concepts. After three to five years, this group of children will grow up. At the same time, the team’s tactical concepts and football philosophy have also been planted in genes.

It's basically a real-life version of the Football Manager game.

Nuclear weapons on.

Buy some high potential young players.

Then slowly develop them into top talents and then sell them to bigger clubs. As long as this football ecosystem is running, the team will have a steady stream of blood-forming machines from youth training, reserve team to adult team, and a team will be formed.

In his previous life, Rangnick, as Germany's godfather-level tactician, twice shockingly demoted the team to the third level and built it from scratch.

One is Hoffenheim and the other is Red Bull Leipzig.

After many years of his development, these two small town teams have become strong teams in the Bundesliga.

Zhu Jundao: "The current financial crisis of East Asia is quite serious. The leaders of the city are taking the lead and intend to merge the two clubs, Zhongbang and East Asia."

"China?"

"It's not the China club I bought, it's a newly established small team."

"Xu Genbao agreed?"

"No." Zhu Jun smiled, "He looks down on China. He only has two ideas now, one is to merge with Shenhua, and the other is to become an independent super league. But, in fact, to sum up, there is only one idea."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What is it?"

Zhu Jun said: "Sell it for a good price. China is also a very poor small team. If it is merged into East Asia, it will only cause additional burdens. For East Asia, it must either sell to Shenhua or succeed in reaching the Super League. Sell ​​to other big companies willing to take over.”

Zhou Buqi asked: "Isn't it a financial difficulty? How can I surpass it if I don't have money?"

Zhu Jun hesitated for a moment and shook his head, "I don't know. New funds may be introduced, and some players may be sold. There are several good prospects in East Asia, and many teams are interested."

Zhou Buqi immediately said: "Then we have to take action as soon as possible!"

"That's it?" Zhu Jun was a little funny, "Dong Ya?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "It's almost the same. The new batch of young children in the country, the ones brought up by Xu Genbao, have great potential. If they are trained well, they should go abroad to develop if they have the opportunity."

I went to Chongming Island and met Director Xu who was in his 60s.

Simple and clear, get to the point!

Xu Genbao thought he heard wrongly and thought it was Shenhua who wanted to acquire East Asia.

I heard that Boss Zhou wants to try something new in football, to build a multinational football group covering North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, and to use a unified football concept to provide tactical guidance to these teams, so as to bring these teams together. After the team became a step-by-step promotion relationship, I couldn't help but be stunned.

He knew that the young boss Zhou was great and spent huge sums of money to acquire Manchester United.

Unexpectedly, he had bigger plans for football.

This is a good thing!

Xu Genbao has been engaged in football all his life, and he is very aware of the current situation of domestic football. The level of the national football team is getting worse and worse, and a very important reason is that players have fewer and fewer opportunities to study abroad.

In fact, there is no need to go to the five major European leagues to play. Even going to Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, or even going to the Korean and Japanese leagues is better than staying in the Chinese Super League.

This new football model designed by Boss Zhou is actually a tailor-made opportunity for players to study abroad.

In his previous life, Xu Genbao also tried this after selling the East Asia team. He went to Spain to acquire a second-division team, intending to create some opportunities for domestic players to study abroad.

It can be said that Boss Zhou’s philosophy coincides with Xu Genbao’s. The gameplay created by Boss Zhou is obviously more ambitious and larger-scale.

As for the price, it's all trivial.

Xu Genbao just briefly talked about the financial crisis of the East Asian team. It is said that in 2000, when he was building a football training base in Chongming Island, he took out a loan of 22 million yuan, and the annual interest was as high as 1.4 million yuan. The tuition fee is simply not enough.

He had no choice but to accompany him with drinks, sell signed footballs, sell group photos, and rely on his personal brand image to make money.

The first few years were fine.

But in recent years, the children have grown up and played in professional teams, so this is no longer possible. When he was in school, it was the children who paid him. Now that he plays in a professional team, he pays the wages to his children.

This is too difficult.

Speaking of emotional aspects, Xu Genbao was a little tearful, saying that he was ready to sell a few young players to help the East Asian team overcome the current difficulties.

This little money is really nothing to Zhou Buqi.

The next day, I met Rangnick, who wore black-rimmed glasses and looked gentle. He is very interested in Boss Zhou's football industry concept.

Rangnick is a standard German and he is very interested in creating this standardized football system.

He is not too interested in money, but more interested in whether his football philosophy can be continued. In Germany, there are too many football celebrities and football bosses.

Although the younger generation of German coaches are all his disciples and have taken his tactical theory classes. But in terms of influence, he is far inferior to those football bosses in Germany.

If you can accomplish this with Boss Zhou, it will definitely be a huge honor.

It was a coincidence that I met Xu Genbao. When Xu Genbao dominated League A, the football philosophy he advocated was "press to press", which coincided with Rangnick's philosophy.

This matter is settled!