One Hundred and Sixty-Six, There Is No Middleman to Make the Difference

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Once upon a time, South American players playing in Europe was a nearly monopoly business.

For example, the godfather of Brazilian football, Figel, as an agent, controls almost all the channels and means for Brazilian players to study abroad, and he recruits partners in various European countries.

The most famous of these was Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes, who started out running errands for Figel.

But gradually, European league teams have gradually realized that this model has huge flaws.

To put it simply, the middleman made too much difference.

The rich teams don't pay much attention to these. As long as the players they provide meet their requirements, they don't mind getting an agency fee, because they don't care about money, they care about talents.

But the middle and lower reaches of the five major leagues, as well as some teams in the second-tier leagues, have also gradually realized this piece of fat.

In fact, they have a natural advantage over middlemen like Figel.

For example, teams such as Sevilla in La Liga, Udinese in Serie A, and Porto in the Portuguese Super League were the first to dig out the fat in South America, so they swarmed in and snatched high-quality products directly from the place of origin. cheap player.

[To be honest, I have been using Mimi to read and update books recently, switch sources, read aloud with many timbres, and both Android and Apple are fine. 】

These selected players are sent directly to their teams or satellite teams to train and play.

For example, like Alves and Baptista in La Liga, they were not well-known, but after the Sevilla game, they all played their own strengths and got the favor of the giants.

Now, Alves is the most favored star in Sevilla, and how many giants are staring at him eagerly.

Players who have been verified by teams such as Porto, Sevilla and Udinese have been proven to adapt to the European League, and their strength has also been verified by the European League, and even the UEFA Cup and Champions League. The possibility of parallel imports is very low .

Therefore, the rich teams began to be more inclined to sign from these teams.

As a result, more and more European teams began to explore the scouting network into South America and Africa.

Agents like Figel have gradually lost their market, their business has shrunk rapidly, and they have gradually disappeared from the eyes of fans. They are replaced by teams such as Porto, Sevilla and Udinese, which are models of the black shop model. .

Among them, Ajax is a pioneer in actively developing the African market, but unfortunately, their road did not go through, which also led to the sinking of Ajax from the past two years to the next few years.

De Laurentiis of Naples is a very shrewd boss. He can see the operating mechanism of Udinese's model at a glance. contend.

Therefore, after he restructured Naples, he immediately hired technical director Pierpaolo Marino from Udinese.

After the founder of the Udinese scouting network came to Naples, he is also actively opening up the overseas talent market for Naples.

When Gao Shen and Lucas both came to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Roman Dias who received them was Marino's partner in Argentina.

Before Gao Shen flew to Argentina, he had already faxed a copy of the list of players he wanted to Roman Dias, asking him to explore the situation in advance, and the results were good and bad.

...

"I just received your fax and immediately contacted the Uruguayan team, but unfortunately, they have sold Luis Suarez to Groningen in the Eredivisie. Your news came a few days late. .”

At the hotel where Gao Shen and Lucas stayed, Roman Dias came to report his latest progress.

Gao Shen frowned. He had known for a long time that Suarez would transfer to the Eredivisie this summer, and he contacted Roman Dias immediately, but he was still a step behind.

No way, this is life!

"What about the others?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

"The Independiente is in Buenos Aires. I first contacted them. At that time, some agents were actively operating the Independiente's players to study abroad. You know, their team's Aguero just paid 20 million euros. Transfer to Atletico Madrid in La Liga, the agent made crazy money from it."

Gao Shen has also heard about this transfer, and it is indeed quite shocking.

Of course, from the perspective of 2021, Aguero's deal is quite worthwhile, but standing in 2006, a transfer fee of 20 million euros was paid for a 19-year-old teenager. , this is simply sky-high.

"What about Lucas Biglia?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

This player was also circled by him.

Many people know Bigglia from the World Cup in Brazil, but in fact, he is a direct descendant of the Argentine national name, and he is the main force of the national youth teams at all levels. For example, the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands also It was the time when Messi won the only world championship, and Biglia was the main midfielder.

But sometimes, choices can change a person's life.

Biglia did not go to Europe's top league, but went to Anderlecht in Belgium.

Although he has always been the main core of this team, his reputation is not obvious. He was not noticed until the World Cup in Brazil, and then he was able to join Lazio in Serie A, and his strength was recognized.

Moreover, this player has both offense and defense, and his strength is outstanding.

"I've asked, and there are also brokers in operation. If you're sure, I'll talk to you right away, and it must be fast." Roman Dias said with some urgency, and he also got a commission for making this deal.

It's just that compared to those scouts who directly operate to European clubs, the draws are relatively small, and more are to facilitate the negotiations between the two clubs. As for the transfer fee, it is up to the two parties to negotiate.

Each agent has its own different survival mode, and Roman Dias relies on this to make a living.

"How much do you think it will cost?" Gao Shen asked.

After thinking for a while, Roman Dias said, "It's between 1.5 million and 2 million euros."

Gao Shen knew it well, "Tell me about the others."

"Di Maria is in Rosario, not far north of Buenos Aires. He is currently a substitute for Rosario Central's first team. He hasn't done much, but he is only eighteen years old. I guess, The transfer should be about the same as Biglia."

Gao Shen nodded repeatedly, this was much lower than he expected.

This should be the advantage of no middleman earning the price difference.

If he remembers correctly, Di Maria performed well at Central Rosario in the following year. After being transferred to Benfica by his agent, Di Maria was worth more than seven million euros. It's a great deal.

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is very close to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, across a bay.

Uruguay's Danubio team is in Montevideo. Center Edinson Cavani is currently playing for this team. In the just-concluded league, he scored four goals in ten games and five goals. Scored three goals in the first cup game, which is a good performance.

Suarez of the Uruguayan national team scored ten goals in 29 games and one goal in three cup games. The overall performance is slightly better than Cavani. He is still the main player. The two are also the same age, and Suarez The cost of the transfer to Groningen was 800,000 euros.

Of course, this was a miss, because a year later, Groningen sold Suarez to Ajax for ten times the price.

As for Cavani, Roman Dias believes that the price is at most similar to Suarez.

After all, the euro is too valuable.

In addition, there is no middleman to make the difference, which leads to European teams buying players in South America, which is almost a harvest.

Gao Shen realized that he had made a mistake.

He originally planned to spend several million euros to take away these three future stars, but now it seems that it is not necessary.

Up to now, he is more and more aware of one sentence: The essence of business is poor information.

A player who only sells for hundreds of thousands or one or two million euros in South America, after arriving in Europe, after negotiation and operation of agents, they can sell for several million, or even tens of millions, what a huge profit. Business!

Just like Aguero, aside from the perspective of a traveler, what achievements does he have now, is it worth 20 million euros from Atletico Madrid?

The most valuable thing is that he played in the Argentine League at the age of fifteen. He is the youngest player in history. At the same time, he scored 18 goals in 36 games last season. His strength and potential are beyond doubt.

But is it worth 20 million euros?

His agent is Jose Segui, one of the most powerful agents in Spain, belonging to the world-famous IMG company.

In fact, everything behind this, to put it bluntly, is a story of hype.

And Atletico Madrid are willing to pay for the story.

Of course, this is not to say that Aguero has no strength and no potential.

No, on the contrary, there is no need to doubt Aguero's strength and potential.

But 20 million euros is outrageous!

Another classic case is the transfer farce between Neymar and Barcelona Real Madrid.

These are actually very typical, a classic case of how a middleman operates and packages a player. The difference is that Neymar simply made his father the biggest middleman.

The football market in South America is so chaotic. Without the leadership of a professional like Roman Dias, let alone advanced, it is estimated that Marino will come in person, and it will be difficult to figure out the way.

And Gao Shen is also very fortunate that in the contract he signed with Naples, there is a share of the player transfer price difference.

Facts have proved that this decision was too smart.

…………

…………

After Gao Shen made some adjustments, he let Roman Dias lead him to run the club.

First, he went to the Independiente team to negotiate the transfer of Biglia. This Argentine national youth team player also has Italian nationality. After negotiations, Gao Shen directly bought it at a price of 1.8 million euros.

In the words of Roman Dias, if you talk patiently, it can be even lower.

Then he went north to Rosario, negotiated with Rosario Central for Di Maria, signed the Angel Wing for 1.2 million euros, and then crossed the bay non-stop and went directly to the capital of Uruguay .

This time was the smoothest. The other party heard that a European team wanted to buy Edinson Cavani. They hardly bargained for 800,000 euros and took them away directly, just like Suarez's transfer.

Gao Shen never expected that his trip to South America would be so smooth.

And Roman Dias also received more news one after another.

In addition to Di Maria, Cavani and Biglia, Gao Shen also wants three South American players.