Chapter 247: Chapter 246: Top Football Star Joins
Moreover, Gerard, who had joined Barcelona, had turned down AC Milan’s sincere pursuit for the sake of his commitment to the Blaugrana!
If he had gone to Serie A, his future might have been different.
At that time, AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso, who was a competitor for the same position as Gerard, hadn’t made any eye-catching performances and would very likely have lost the competition against Gerard Lopez.
It was starting with Gerard Lopez that Barcelona began a tradition of poaching players from Valencia, subsequently taking players like Villa, Alba, Andre Gomes, and Paco Alcacer from the bat army, among them some superstars.
In this wave of acquisitions, Barcelona had spent all the "dirty money" from the Figo deal, and even lost more than 10 million euros, which finally satisfied the fans.
Barcelona firmly believed that with such aggressive recruitment, they would welcome a bright season!
But no one expected that after spending so much money, Barcelona couldn’t make the transfer headlines even after the dust on Figo’s transfer had settled.
Because at the other end of the Iberian Peninsula, a transfer by Lisbon Sporting shocked Europe.
Lisbon Sporting Club official website: Warmly welcome the first FIFA World Footballer of the Year, Golden Ball winner, and Germany Footballer of the Year, Lothar Matthaus, to join Lisbon Sporting!
Boom!
Thunder roared!
With such news, who else could compete?
Lisbon Sporting was unremarkable.
Matthaus was already a twilight superstar with not much traffic.
But when a star everybody thought was certain to retire suddenly announced one more battle, it would still excite scores of fans.
This was just like when Torres, after several years of retirement, suddenly announced a comeback in 2022, shocking and making people crave more information, even if it was just a mere marketing stunt.
Subsequent reports exploded, with the Record Report providing nearly all the first-hand news, once again dominating the summer.
Matthaus’s mysterious signing, salary only competes with original top earners at Lisbon Sporting! A big discount from his Bayern era!
Reason one for Matthaus joining Lisbon Sporting: Trigella and Maxa are excellent coaches, and I hope to work with excellent head coaches!
Reason two for Matthaus joining Lisbon Sporting: Although the Germany team was eliminated in the group stage of the European Championship, Deng Kai didn’t tell me in advance that he predicted this result, otherwise, we might have performed even worse. Helping Deng Kai and Lisbon Sporting is my way of showing gratitude.
Reason three for Matthaus joining Lisbon Sporting: I hope to lead a group of young players to challenge for the championship, proving that Bayern and the Germany team didn’t fail because of me.
News flew in all directions.
The Sun Newspaper, with its extensive connections in England, quickly refuted some of the Report’s news.
The Sun Newspaper: "The biggest push for Matthaus to join Lisbon Sporting was Deng Kai! The influence of footballers’ wives played a key role; we previously assessed through the wives’ club that Matthaus was set to join Manchester United, but now it seems that Deng Kai had been preparing for this day!"
"Matthaus attended a high-profile party in Buckinghamshire on the eve of his transfer to Lisbon Sporting, organized by Victoria and Hathaway, with Marlene also bringing Matthaus along."
"Other heavyweight footballers attended the party too—two Frenchmen and one Spaniard!"
The Sun Newspaper always knows how to play the traffic game.
Two Frenchmen and one Spaniard indeed whetted everyone’s appetite.
Everyone speculated wildly.
But soon, one of the Frenchmen surfaced.
Lisbon Sporting took Deschamps away from Chelsea for a transfer fee of 3.5 million euros—a champion member of the France team!
"Deschamps admits attending a football wives’ gathering but did not reveal another Frenchman’s identity!"
"Found him! Zidane shot an ad for a certain brand with Beckham, location was in England!"
"Zidane: I was invited to the party; it was the girls’ home turf, and we players just gathered around and chatted."
"France Football: Zidane may choose to leave; his contract renewal with Juventus has been stuck on some terms. Did the football wives’ gathering cause him to waver towards Juventus?"
"Marca: Florentino is very interested in Zidane! Real Madrid needs all the top stars!"
"Juventus: We’re pleased to have renewed with Zidane; he’s the most important player for Juventus until 2005!"
Well, Deng Kai mentioned The Sun Newspaper’s news, but how come France Football picked up the thread, and Spain’s Marca followed suit?
Looking at it now, it seems Zidane pulled a slick move, pressuring Juventus to agree to his high salary demands for the contract renewal.
And Juventus couldn’t utter a word of complaint even if they wanted to.
Because from the beginning to the end, Zidane cooperated fully.
It’s Real Madrid and that football wives’ gathering that are stirring things up.
How can you say Zidane is not a smart man?
If you openly force the club’s hand, even if you sign the contract, can you still be that perfect Zidane in the eyes of the executives, the fans, and your teammates?
Of course, Deng Kai called Zidane after the incident to praise his strategic move.
Zidane played innocent, but in the end, he did Deng Kai a favor by getting a few phone numbers for him in France and Italy.
Both were satisfied with this "collaboration".
As for that Spaniard who attended the party, he couldn’t keep it a secret either.
Guardiola was found out by the media.
To this, Guardiola generously admitted, "I was invited by Deng Kai; it was purely for non-work-related lifestyle considerations. We talked about the idea of investing in opening a restaurant in England."
"We didn’t talk much about football; it was mainly me signing things."
Guardiola dispelled the concerns of Barcelona fans.
But to be fair, the fact that Barcelona signed Petit already indicates that Guardiola wasn’t so reliable in their eyes.
Especially since ’97 and ’98, Guardiola’s injuries seemed to become more frequent.
Last season, he actually missed several games that the head coach wanted him to play, citing maintenance reasons, which at the time led to fans blasting Guardiola.
But Guardiola explained that his sports medicine expert had advised him to rest; otherwise, he might suffer a major injury.
People never care about "what might happen;" they only care about what does happen.
Guardiola lost a great deal of trust at the time.
Some Barcelona fans even questioned during the football wives’ gathering incident why Guardiola did not go to Sporting Lisbon?
With Petit and Gerard on the team, Guardiola was actually dispensable at Barcelona.
This made Guardiola quite upset.
