Chapter 260

"We are delighted to announce that an agreement has been reached with Italian club Empoli for the transfer of Italian striker Antonio Di Natale on a five-year contract with the highly effective Italian striker......

"Sporting Gijón have agreed with A-A side Palermo to join Italian international Fabio Grosso, and the Italian international left-back will play for Sporting Gijón for the next five years......"

While Leon was still in Zagreb, in Gijón, Grosso's medical examination had been successfully passed, and the club also announced the arrival of Di Natale and Grosso on the official website. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The addition of these two Italian players immediately aroused strong interest in the Gijón media.

Ten days ago, the club announced the signing of Ribery and Pepe, among whom was a Frenchman named Franck Ribery, Gijón's media was stunned that they did not find any information about the French, until finally, did they finally figure out the origin of Ribery, a guy who played for a team in the lower French league, which also caused a heated discussion in Gijón, obviously, everyone was very ' Curious about how this lower league player caught the attention of Leon, because as far as they knew, Coach Leon was very fond of the Frenchman.

And some other media in Spain, especially those with old grudges against Leon, also reported on the incident, which of course will not be a good thing...... In his words, he was also extremely suspicious and ridiculed of Ribery, and the spearhead was naturally directed at Leon.

At this time, the media of Gijón is on the side of Li Ang, which is not to say that they are optimistic about Ribery, but the views of the Gijón people are also very clear, Ribery is free to join, and Sporting Gijón did not spend a penny on the transfer fee, what is there to compare.

And now, the arrival of Di Natale and Grosso immediately aroused the interest of the media, and this time, they quickly found the information of the two Italian players.

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Antonio Di Natale plays for Italian Serie A club Empoli, however, the team has now been relegated to Serie B, where Di Natale made 33 appearances and scored five goals for the team in Serie A last season, and in Serie A last season, Di Natale made 27 appearances and scored thirteen goals for Empoli.

In the heavily defended Serie A, a total of 18 goals have been scored for the team in two seasons, which can be said to be quite good.

Therefore, the media and fans of Gijón still recognize and look forward to this recruitment, and "Voice of Gijón", which has a good relationship with Sporting Gijón, also figured out Di Natale's transfer fee: only 300,000 euros!

Obviously, in Empoli, which has been relegated, Sporting Gijón has got a more practical player at the lowest cost. Moreover, the media also heard that Sporting Gijón defeated the Serie A powerhouse Udinese to get Di Natale.

And the addition of Fabio Grosso has excited Gijón's fans and media, without him, Grosso is an Italian international, although it is only an Italian fringe international, but this is also an Italian international!

The arrival of the Italian international, who was in his playing years, made Gijón fans forget about Geoffrey, who moved to Porto.

According to "Voice of Gijón", these two Italian players were won by Coach Li Ang who personally went to Italy to negotiate with the opposing club, which shows that these two players are also deeply valued and liked by Coach Li Ang.

Now that Coach Leon has not returned to Gijón, it is rumored that he is still 'wandering' around Europe, and the media and fans are very interested, what other players will the team's respected and meritorious coach bring?!

The Spanish media still pays attention to Leon, and they have noticed that none of the players recruited by Leon are Spanish players, which is different from many small and medium-sized players in Spain. The teams in La Liga, as well as the small and medium-sized teams in La Liga, are basically based on local Spanish players when recruiting, and rarely introduce players from other leagues, on the one hand, because these players join the Spanish league and need to adapt to the new league, and their future performance is unknowable.

And look at the four players brought in by Sporting Gijón's coach Leon, Frank Ribery plays in the lower French league, Antonio Di Natale and Fabio Grosso play for Serie A teams, and Pepe, a Brazilian, plays for Porto in the Portuguese Super League.

And it is said that these four players were all hand-picked by Li Ang, to be precise, even Li Ang negotiated with the opposing club, or personally went to invite the players.

Therefore, the media and fans are very interested and want to know, why does this Chinese head coach value these players, and how did he poach these players?

Especially the guy named Frank Ribery, where did Coach Leon know such a thing?......

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After the transfer of Modric was completed, Leon was in a happy mood.

He said goodbye to the enthusiastic Modric family and prepared to leave Croatia.

After booking a ticket for the next morning's next trip, Leon lay down in his hotel and began to settle the score.

He's calculating how much he's spent on bringing in players so far.

Grosso is one and a half million euros.

Di Natale is 300,000 euros.

Modric is 800,000 euros.

Ribery is on a free transfer.

Pepe was a player exchange that did not cost a penny and also brought in 750,000 euros for the club.

In this case, the cost of bringing in these four players is now 1.9 million euros!

One million euros!

Leon sighed, a little distressed, the club gave him a budget of 3 million euros: the originally negotiated budget was 2.5 million euros, and later after the team was promoted to the first division, Leon and Benita went to the top to get 500,000 euros - this is not easy. Although it has entered La Liga, TV broadcast revenue and advertising revenue will have a lot of increases, but these revenues from La Liga will not arrive until a season later, so the current Sporting Gijón is still tight on funds.

Of the three million euros in reinforcement funds, 1.9 million euros have been spent, and only 1.1 million euros remain, which makes Leon feel painful, because according to his plan, the team still needs to fill in several positions. With only a million euros in funds, this is certainly not enough.

The team's purge and sale of existing players must be accelerated.

Leon then called the club's general manager, Benita, and the end result was that Leon provided the club with a list of up to twelve players, all of whom were available for sale.

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It takes time to collect transfer funds by selling players.

Therefore, Leon's goal now is still to choose only cheap players, especially those who can transfer freely.

This time, he needs to bring in players in the centre-back position.

The team's main central defender Yago last season was loaned by Sporting Gijón from Celta, after the end of the season, Yakgo ended his loan and returned to Celta, Sporting Gijón asked Celta about the possibility of fully introducing this player, the latter directly offered 1.8 million euros, as soon as Li Ang heard the lion's big mouth, he directly closed the call channel with Celta, 1.8 million, think about money and go crazy!

Yago's performance can only be described as mediocre, and in the eyes of Leon, who knows the future well and has a system to support him, such a centre-back is not in Leon's long-term plans.

Celta's lion's wide opening also made Leon determined to bring in a reliable player in the central defender position.

He closed the negotiations with Celta here, but he didn't know anything about it, Celta is still waiting for Sporting Gijón to continue negotiations, they are still waiting for Sporting Gijón to stab, anyway, Yago is the promotion hero of Sporting Gijón, it stands to reason that Sporting Gijón will definitely try their best to bring in this player, in the position of central defender, if possible, the team will generally try to maintain stability...... And then, no more, Celta didn't receive any more response from Sporting Gijón.

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The destination of Leon's trip was Qatar.

His target is former Real Madrid captain Hierro.

Leang's most intuitive impression of Hierro is the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where he witnessed the death of the iron-blooded captain at the Gwangju Stadium in South Korea.

On June 22, 2002, a World Cup quarter-final that had nothing to do with football was played at Gwangju Stadium in South Korea. The Koreans "shamelessly" made history, and the Spanish were "helpless" eliminated. It was Hierro's last match for the national team. This veteran of the national team, who has participated in 4 World Cups, did not lose to his age or opponent on the field, but lost to the referee and the black whistle.

At that time, the team was in great difficulty, and a series of controversial decisions made the Spanish players mentally unbalanced, and the situation was very unfavorable for Spain. It was under such circumstances that the game came to the penalty shootout, and as the captain, Hierro was the first to go to the penalty spot, calmly scored, and stabilized the morale of the army. But in the end, Spain was kept out of the last four, the closest to the World Cup dream, and the most out of reach for various reasons.

Whether in Real Madrid or in the national team, Hierro is the team's unique captain, sitting in the center of the back, he is the absolute core of the defense, he has excellent heading ability, good at physical confrontation, and the time of the grab is very accurate, he once played in the back He is also very good at scheduling and passing awareness, the only deficiency is that Hierro's turn is a little slow, especially at the end of his career, it has always been a weakness used by the opposing striker, and it is also a place criticized by some media and fans.

It is also worth mentioning that although he played the position of defender, Hierro scored 29 goals for the national team, and once occupied the first place in the national team's scorer list, until he was later surpassed by Raul and Villa, and his offensive ability can be seen.

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Real Madrid came close to missing out on their legendary captain.

In 1989, Hierro was about to join another Madrid team, Atletico Madrid, but the then president of Real Madrid, Mendoza spent 30 million pesetas to snatch Hierro from Real Madrid, and Hierro started a white legend at the Bernabeu. When he joined Real Madrid, Hierro said to the fans: "I grew up and cried when I saw Real Madrid lose, and every time I cried, I thought I should train hard so that Real Madrid will not lose again, so that more people who like Real Madrid will not shed tears!" Hierro did it, and in his 14 years at Real Madrid, he won 5 La Liga titles, 3 Champions Leagues, 1 Copa del Rey title, 4 Spanish Super Cups, 1 UEFA Super Cup, and 2 Toyota Cups. It has brought countless joys to the fans.

Sometimes the honor is too dazzling, and it will cover up a lot of things that deserve our attention. Hierro's love for Real Madrid is by no means only reflected in honors: for the benefit of the whole team, he took the initiative to retreat from midfield to central defender (scored 21 goals in the 91/92 season, becoming the second highest scorer in La Liga that year), without a word of complaint, and for the future of Real Madrid, he even bravely stood up to challenge the president: in 2003, in order to protect the local Spanish players, Hierro had a disagreement with the "global superstar" policy of the then president Florentino. With the arrival of Zinedine Zidane and Beckham, Florentino was seen as Madrid's city hero, and Hierro, in order to maintain the position of his compatriot Morientes, opened up with the president, saying that players are not commodities and that Real Madrid should bring in more suitable players, rather than blindly pursuing superstars with a strong commercial taste. That season, after Real Madrid won the league title, Hierro called on his players not to participate in the celebrations and refused to be interviewed. But after all, the arm could not twist the thigh, and only 24 hours later, Florentino swept Hierro out of the house. Real Madrid's legendary captain left Real Madrid in this way, and this season after Hierro left the team, Real Madrid did not win the league title, let alone the Champions League trophy.

And even after being purged by Real Madrid, he never said a word to criticize his old club. Hierro's love for Real Madrid is like a river flowing into the sea, giving everything she has and without reservation.

'I don't care about the attitude of the club, it's an honour to be back at the Bernabeu. No matter what has happened in the past and in the future, my heart will not leave here and Real Madrid has taught me that once you wear the shirt of this club, you have to learn to give 100 per cent. At Real Madrid you are not allowed to slack off for a second, and the club instills in you the credo of winning all trophies. Born for Real Madrid, Die for Real Madrid. "After retiring, Real Madrid is still Hierro's favourite.

It is regrettable that he was not able to retire at his beloved club, but Hierro's selfless love for Real Madrid is extremely shocking.

Because of this, Leon is not very sure about this trip to Qatar and about inviting Hierro to join Sporting Gijon, because Hierro's love for Real Madrid is too deep, and he is not very sure to persuade Hierro to return to La Liga and face his beloved Real Madrid as an enemy. (To be continued.) )