While Yang Huan was sitting in the presidential suite, talking to Sun Yue and others, downstairs from him, Barcelona Chairman Sandro Rosell received the long-awaited knock on the door.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw his right-hand man Bartomeu standing outside.
"Josep, come in quickly."
Russell quickly stepped aside and welcomed his right-hand man in.
As soon as Bartomeu entered Russell's room, he walked directly to the sofa in the guest area and sat down.
"How's the situation?"
Russell closed the door and chased after him.
Bartomeu shook his head and said: "I talked to Berthoyet about Neymar.
Nike's attitude is that the sponsorship fee is easy to negotiate, but they will not get involved in this transfer."
"Why?"
Russell was a little disappointed and curious.
You know, the official sponsor of Southampton, where Neymar is located, is Adidas.
From a certain perspective, Nike should be eager for Barcelona to sign Neymar.
In this way, everyone can work together to develop the Brazilian and South American markets in the next few years.
In addition, Barcelona currently has South American stars such as Messi, Sanchez, Mascherano, etc.
This is an excellent opportunity.
How could Nike miss it in vain?
"Bert Hoyet said that they have good cooperation with Southampton and are not willing to have conflicts over this matter."
Bartomeu's words suddenly reminded Russell that when Southampton was building a new training base, Nike sponsored 30 million pounds to the Saints and established a mysterious Nike training center.
For this matter, sports media around the world also reported frantically, thinking that Nike disgusted Adidas.
No one knows what kind of cooperation is involved.
I just heard that it is very high-end and advanced.
Seeing Russell's disappointed expression, Bartomeu added: "I learned some news from other channels.
I heard that Nike is competing with Adidas for the sponsorship rights of the International Champions Cup."
"Didn't the sponsorship rights be signed by Adidas?"
Russell was a little surprised.
The football used in last year's International Champions Cup was officially sponsored by Adidas.
When promoting the event, the organizers focused on introducing the two major sponsors, Etihad Airways and Adidas.
Bartomeu shook his head and smiled bitterly: "For this matter, Nike also fired an executive for poor performance."
"What's going on?"
"Early in 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 also a North American Challenge."
Russell nodded.
When Barcelona joined, they were looking for a generous appearance fee.
"So, neither side paid much attention to this event, so Adidas finally signed the contract, but only for two years.
As a result, the first International Champions Cup last year became an instant hit, directly detonating the American football market, and now The second session is back again, and according to surveys by external authoritative organizations, the momentum and attention are even greater than last year."
When Bartomeu said this, Russell immediately understood.
The two-year sponsorship contract means that this is the last year.
Now that the International Champions Cup is popular, Adidas is of course desperately trying to renew the contract, but the United States is the home base of Nike.
Now it has suffered a big loss.
Of course, it is about to catch up.
How could it let go?
Furthermore, the International Champions Cup may expand its ranks next year.
Once the ranks are expanded, the next battlefield will definitely be Asia.
That's the best economic development momentum in the world right now, and Nike and Adidas are both trying to capture a strategic high ground.
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In this case, the International Champions Cup is undoubtedly a powerful tool to conquer the city.
Thinking of this, Russell couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.
No wonder Nike is unwilling to offend Southampton.
In this way, the biggest help Nike can give Barcelona is to negotiate sponsorship fees.
"By the way, Josep" Russell seemed to have thought 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."
Russell's eyelids twitched and she panicked, "How much?"
"The exact amount is not clear, but I heard it is no less than Cristiano Ronaldo."
Russell was so surprised that his mouth opened so wide that it could almost fit a fist into it.
No less than Cristiano Ronaldo That’s over 100 million This will become the first football player in the history of world football whose transfer fee exceeds 100 million.
"Is the news reliable?"
Russell's voice was trembling.
"It should be reliable, but I don't know exactly how much Sanchez offered Southampton."
What is the bottom line that Real Madrid can accept and what is the offer they make to Southampton are two different things.
But in Russell's view, Barcelona is completely passive.
"When I made an offer of 70 million euros to Yang Huan just now, did you notice his expression?"
Bartomeu frowned, a little confused, but he didn't notice.
"I think the price offered by Real Madrid is definitely higher than ours, much higher."
"What should we do?"
Bartomeu also panicked.
If Neymar is taken away by Real Madrid, then Barcelona will be too passive.
Adidas has made harsh words to fully support teams such as Real Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich in poaching Messi.
If Messi is poached and Neymar cannot be signed, what will Barcelona do?
You know, Messi is currently the most commercially attractive star in the Barcelona team, and he is also the most threatening attacker on the football field.
Without Messi, not only Barcelona will suffer heavy losses, but also Russell and Bartow.
Mewu, I'm afraid they all 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.
However, they cannot say a word about these things.
Thinking of this, a trace of determination flashed in Russell's eyes.
"Josep, we have only one choice now" Bartomeu's eyes flashed with surprise, "Do you want it?"
"Yes, we can only do this, win Neymar at all costs," Russell said loudly and fiercely.
Bartomeu thought about it again, sighed secretly in his heart, and nodded.
In this case, they have only this option.
"Although the team has performed well in the past few years and has been able to afford a lot of transfer fees, I am afraid it still has a lot of power to compete with Real Madrid for Neymar."
When it comes to borrowing money to buy stars, Florentino's ability is miles ahead of them.
Not much else to say, Florentino can be brothers with the top leaders of all the big banks in Spain, can they?
"Southampton has been asking for cash transactions when buying and selling players, I'm afraid," Bartomeu said with concern.
Russell nodded, "Then try to add existing players to the transfer transaction, or ask Southampton to be merciful and allow us to pay in installments."
In the European transfer market, it is quite normal for player transfer fees to be paid in installments.
On the contrary, like Southampton, where the sale and purchase are all paid in full, that would be unusual.
But because it is paid in full, Southampton always has an advantage in signings, and the price is relatively cheaper.
"Any player" Bartomeu asked tentatively.
After all, Russell gave him the authority to negotiate, so he has to determine how much bargaining chip he can hold.
"Anyone apart from the core players like Messi, Xavi and Iniesta" Russell's words were quite weak, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The situation has developed to this point and it is no longer up to him to say anything.
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"Okay, I'll go talk to Ron Gurley tomorrow morning."
"It's best to make progress within these two days."
"Yeah, I understand."
The next day, more than a thousand media from all over the world gathered at Miami's Sun Life Stadium.
Just like last year, this year's lottery ceremony will still be live broadcast for free to all netizens through WeChat video.
Not only that, the organizers also specially organized some live performances and invited entertainment superstars including Uncle Psy and Lin Yoona to sing.
Even the lottery guests were very important football stars like Beckham. .
On the whole, this is a very high-standard draw ceremony, not even inferior to the knockout draw ceremony of the Champions League.
Although there are relatively few participating teams, each one is one of the top giants teams in Europe.
Coupled with the huge response last year in the United States, the second International Champions Cup naturally attracted much attention.
Southampton ended up drawing three opponents: Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester United.
Real Madrid is in the same group as Manchester City, Arsenal and Bayern Munich.
This also makes many fans feel excited, thinking that the teams in both groups are very good and are truly powerful teams in Europe.
Such a game is undoubtedly quite interesting.
But what makes fans even more excited is that in the past few days during the International Champions Cup draw, messages were constantly being sent from the United States to all over the world.
For example, Manchester United has taken a fancy to Southampton's Chilean midfielder Vidal, with a transfer fee of up to 60 million euros.
But in the blink of an eye, news came out that Arsenal and Real Madrid were also interested in the Chilean international.
But soon, this piece of news was drowned out by Neymar's transfer rumors.
The Sun was the first to break the news, taking photos of Ron Gurley and Barcelona Vice Chairman Bartomeu having dinner at the Wangjiangge Chinese Restaurant branch in Miami, revealing that Neymar is infinitely close to Barcelona.
But Marca soon gave another piece of news, that is, in an interview with Marca, Real Madrid general manager Sanchez unabashedly stated that Real Madrid’s number one signing target this summer is Neymar.
Even Real Madrid's new 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 media around the world were excited about Neymar's transfer, Yang Huan once again reiterated in an interview with a reporter from the New York Times that "Neymar is not for sale."
This immediately made Neymar's transfer confusing again.
In the following days, Neymar's father and his agent also came forward for interviews, saying that Neymar was excited about the invitations from Barcelona and Real Madrid, but the most important thing right now was to help Southampton continue to chase Manchester United.
Just when Neymar's transfer rumors were getting heated, The Sun, which has always been known for its pervasiveness, once again broke the news.
Not only is Neymar being watched by the two giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, but another player on the Devil's Wings, Gareth Bale, is also listed as the number one signing target this summer by Manchester City.
The transfer fee is expected to be as high as 5,000. million pounds.
This once again excited the media around the world.
Could it be that Southampton will be poached by a wealthy team again this summer: