novelraw Chapter 604 - 411 Nasser is Furious! How much for Tang Long, I want to buy him, buy him, buy him!!!
Chapter 604 - 411 Nasser is Furious! How much for Tang Long, I want to buy him, buy him, buy him!!!
Paris Saint-Germain CEO Nasser personally witnessed the team’s home defeat by Manchester City from his own stand!
His face was twisted, and his mouth twitched, utterly ignoring the Qatar high-profile figures sitting in the box with him;
With a heavy swing of his hand, he swept all the expensive watches that everyone was admiring off the table in the VIP box, producing a series of rattling sounds~
Several beautiful waitresses turned pale with fright, shrinking timidly in the corners, not daring to approach this man whose hair seemed to be on fire.
Under everyone’s astonished gaze, Nasser stormed off.
This defeat indeed made Nasser lose face!
Earlier, when Eevee scored the opening goal for Paris, the box-seated Nasser was still beaming with confidence.
He laughed as he raised his wine glass with everyone, clinking glasses—there was no need to worry about these shackles in Paris.
Qualification was already within reach, and the Champions League trophy was beckoning to the Qatar Consortium from not far away.
"Do you know why the guys out there are playing so well? Because I promised them a 10 million euro bonus for advancing!"
"Haha, there’s nothing in this world that money can’t solve!"
"Nasser did a neat job; nowadays, don’t expect young people to fight for you without being paid."
"Some things are timeless; even in ancient times, our Middle Eastern warriors needed to exchange enemy heads for bounties."
He and several high-profile figures discussed passionately, as if the entire world of football was under their control.
However, the second-half developments were entirely unexpected for him!
Tang Long’s solo goal first changed the dynamics abruptly;
Sterling’s two goals then completely turned the tide.
Although the Champions League knockout matches are scored over two legs, losing 1:3 at home in the first leg and conceding three away goals to Manchester City, what can they fight back with at the Itihad stadium a week later?
Moreover, witnessing the players on the field in the second half being battered and unable to run, Nasser felt for the first time that the Ligue 1 juggernaut he had built with enormous cost was far less invincible than he imagined.
In the face of a formidable opponent like Manchester City, it seemed as fragile as paper!
Nasser understood football.
Of the three goals in the second half, Tang Long scored one, while Sterling scored two;
But Nasser immediately saw that Tang Long was the key figure in this reversal!
Thinking of this, Nasser cooled off slightly after storming out of the box.
He stood alone at a turning point in the players’ tunnel, waiting for someone’s arrival.
...
Manchester City’s commercial director Belada was also present at Prince Park stadium to witness his team’s victory.
He was in high spirits, shaking hands and hugging with the coaching staff members;
Looking at the Manchester City players thanking the traveling fans, his heart was filled with grandeur!
Although only one leg was played out of two, given the team’s athletic performance and resilience in this match, returning home with a two-goal advantage, defeating the opponent and advancing to the semifinals seems almost effortless.
And once successfully advancing to the Champions League semifinals, this will be Manchester City’s best Champions League performance ever; pushing forward, winning the Champions League is completely possible!
Dream big or don’t dream at all!
Especially this match, Tang Long’s excellent performance, made this commercial director extremely proud.
As early as last summer, Belada advocated bringing in Tang Long.
At the time, the entire management was weighing between De Bruyne and Tang Long, with Belada arguing that the younger and commercially valuable Tang Long had a better growth expectation than the Belgian De Bruyne.
Facts proved bringing Tang Long was definitely worth it; Belada bet right!
Belada is ambitious; he is never satisfied with merely being Manchester City’s commercial director.
In the future, his professional aspirations first aim to become the CEO of Manchester City Club, and subsequently evolve towards the upper management of City Football Group until he becomes the head of City Football Group.
Tang Long’s rise is undoubtedly his most outstanding achievement this season.
By the season’s end, when doing his annual report presentation to City Group Headquarters, this will surely be a highlight in his resume!
Belada hummed a little tune, hands in pockets, walking down the players’ tunnel, heading towards the parking lot;
But at a corner, a hand suddenly stretched out, blocking the way.
He immediately stopped abruptly, looking up in surprise and found it wasn’t anyone else but Paris Saint-Germain’s CEO Nasser, today’s opponent, blocking his path.
"Hey! Mr. Nasser, nice to meet you."
Belada quickly stopped humming his tune, forced to suppress the smile on his face, and shook hands with Nasser.
He was filled with astonishment, secretly wondering whether Nasser had deliberately waited for him or was this just a coincidence?
Nasser’s demeanor was highly composed, with a courteous business smile.
"Hello, Mr. Belada, hasn’t it been half a year since we last met? If I remember correctly, our last meeting was at a charity gala hosted by UEFA? Welcome to Paris; do you like it here?"
Belada assumed Nasser was just making small talk, so he engaged with a smile.
"I definitely like it here; my parents are both Moroccan, but I was born in Paris. Mr. Nasser, I should know this city better than you, I love everything about it."
"Sorry for not inviting you to the box for a drink, my hospitality must have been lacking," Nasser said.
The two exchanged casual chit-chat in the players’ tunnel.
During this time, Manchester City and Paris players continuously entered the tunnel, glancing at the two occasionally.
After all the players had passed, Nasser suddenly wore a serious expression, looking at Belada intensely with a hawkish gaze full of menace.
"Mr. Belada, how much do you think I would need to spend in euros if we wanted to buy that player called Tang from your team?"
Belada assumed Nasser was joking and replied in a joking manner:
"Oh, Tang is expensive, frighteningly expensive. Look, last summer, we spent 71 million euros to bring him over, uh, with his current performance, it must be triple that, 230 million, I think he’s worth at least 230 million euros."
The figure of 230 million euros was purely a casual guess by Belada.
Until the end of the January transfer window in 2016, the historical transfer fee in world football was still the move in the 2012-13 season when Bell transferred from Tottenham to Real Madrid.
That year, Real Madrid spared no expense to bring the Welsh forward for a hefty sum of 101 million euros to the Bernabéu.
Since then, no player’s transfer fee has surpassed one hundred million euros.
The closest was last summer, i.e., 2015, when Icardi transferred from Inter Milan to Manchester United for 95 million euros.
"Oh! 230 million, that’s no small number, quite astonishing." Nasser nodded earnestly.
Belada naturally thought Nasser was fooled by the casually thrown number, continuing in a joking tone:
"Yes, indeed too expensive, you know 230 million is enough to build a considerably sized team; who would spend so much money to buy just one player? It is truly foolish, even C Luo wouldn’t be worth that."
The two chatted casually for a bit longer when Belada’s phone suddenly rang;
He took a look and saw it was a call from Pellegrini, suddenly remembering that he had specifically informed Pellegrini before the match that if the team won, he would go to the locker room to give a motivating speech to inspire the players to keep working hard, so he hurriedly bid farewell to Nasser and headed towards the locker room.
Nasser watched Belada’s back until it disappeared at the end of the corridor, staying silent for a while.
Soon after, he slowly pulled out his phone, opened a pdf file, and sat on the steps to carefully review Paris Saint-Germain’s previous year’s financial statement.
He then took out another phone from his pocket, opened the calculator app, and started calculating swiftly.
Finally, he pulled out a third phone, dialed a mysterious long-distance call to Qatar...