Things turned out to be as Gao Han had predicted.

When ESPN's selection list was released, it immediately caused an uproar around the world, with countless supporters of Gao Han and countless fans who opposed Gao Han began to fight a war of words, and there was a large wave of silent neutral parties in the middle.

Media reporters are like sharks that smell blood, and they immediately take a stand one after another, either for Gao Han or against Gao Han, and fight a news war in major newspapers.

Even soon, some media magazines followed suit and launched their own lists.

For example, European professional sports magazines also selected the 50 most influential people in European football, and as a result, they directly pushed Gao Han to the top of the list, beating FIFA President Seppat Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini to win the title.

Soon, other media newspapers followed suit with similar selections, and Gao Han's rankings were either high or low, basically within the top 20, on a par with club bigwigs such as Berlusconi and Moratti, and far behind players such as Beckham, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, not to mention the manager.

For a time, the selection of the most influential figures in world football caused huge controversy all over the world, and Gao Han appeared again and again on the pages of media newspapers around the world, and even on the front page, once again standing on the cusp of the limelight.

Although there are different rankings and different criteria for judging Gao Han's ranking, one thing is recognized by everyone, that is, Gao Han is already one of the most influential figures in world football today.

But when the list incident was rapidly fermenting around the world, Gao Han was low-key in Madrid to deal with the contract renewal of several players of the China City team, and at the same time studied the team's tactical play, the arrangement of training programs, and boosted the team's morale with Pochettino, hoping that the China City team could get out of the three-game winless decline as soon as possible.

…………

…………

London, south of Hyde Park, Mandarin Oriental high-end meeting room.

The oval-shaped conference table is flanked by professionals in crisp suits, representing the top talents of two of London's most famous financial investment institutions, and at this moment preparing a billion-pound sale.

Next door to the conference room, in a lavishly furnished lounge, a few people dressed in traditional Middle Eastern costumes were chatting and laughing, a far cry from the tense negotiation atmosphere next door.

Mansour, the owner of Manchester City, stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, overlooking the beautiful Hyde Park, and looked a little crazy.

It wasn't until someone approached him that he was awakened and looked over.

The person who came was fatter than him, and he was also from the Middle East, but he was from a different country, Qatar.

Tamim is the **** of Qatar, the future emir, who is also the chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority, and manages more than 100 billion US dollars in assets, and this time he personally came to London to deal with an asset of more than a billion pounds.

Barclays, the main sponsor of the Premier League.

A year ago, when Mansour bought Manchester City, Barclays was in a bad situation due to the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, and a consortium including the Middle East and Asia offered them £5 billion in financing to buy a stake in Barclays.

As a result, Mansour's Abu Dhabi consortium and Tamim's Qatar Investment Authority became the two largest shareholders of Barclays.

Barclays Bank received the 5 billion pounds of financing, which replenished the bank's capital, not only survived the difficult subprime mortgage crisis, but also took out half of the financing to develop its business, and its strength began to recover steadily, profits recovered, and the stock price gradually recovered.

Now that last year's investment has made them a lot of money, it's time to consider exiting and selling their stake in Barclays, which the actuaries in the next room are settling the bill.

"You're going to be able to cash out at least £1.3 billion this time, and I've heard, Tamim, is it true that the Qatar Investment Authority is going to buy Manchester United with this money?" Mansour asked with concern.

Manchester United is Manchester City's sworn enemy, and if the Qatari consortium takes over Manchester United, the impact on Manchester City will also be great.

Now that Manchester City has Gao Han in charge, Mansour is not worried at all, but Gao Han is only willing to sign a two-year contract, and after two years, once Gao Han leaves, can Manchester City fight Manchester United with the support of the Qatari consortium?

But Tamim shook his head resentfully, "The talk has collapsed." ”

"Collapsed?" Mansour smiled, feeling much better, "Why?"

"The Yankees are a bunch of vampires, and they ask for three billion pounds, do you think we can accept it?" Tamim still looked indignant at the incident.

Mansour nodded, it was indeed a bit of a lion's mouth.

How much did the Glazer family buy Manchester United?

The outside world has always assessed that about 1.5 billion pounds can satisfy the appetite of the Glazer family, which has made them at least double their earnings, which can be described as making a fortune, but they didn't expect their appetite to be so big that they actually asked for 3 billion pounds.

"Now that the talks have collapsed, you're going to sell your stake in Barclays?" Mansour asked curiously.

Tamim nodded, "I'm not going to sell them all, I'm going to set up a sum of money to buy Harros Department Store, and buy a few shops in Knightsbridge by the way, you know, the rent for this piece is still quite considerable." ”

Mansour is noncommittal, everyone has different interests and preferences when it comes to investing.

At the very least, he has no interest in this type of asset.

'But then we're definitely going to look for the right team and you know, we're determined to win the World Cup. Tamim said with a serious face.

Qatar is trying to host the 2022 World Cup, but its competitors are also strong, including the United Kingdom and the United States, and it is not easy for Qatar to win, and the most important thing is to increase its visibility and influence in the world and football as soon as possible.

That's why the Qatari consortium wants to buy Manchester United.

"By the way, how credible is this list?" Tamim handed over a magazine.

The American edition of ESPN magazine, one of the most authoritative sports magazines in the world.

The magazine happened to flip to a page, and on it was a list of the 50 most powerful people in world football.

This news has been in a uproar recently, and Mansour has naturally heard about it and read it, so he just smiled slightly, "As far as I know, this magazine is quite authoritative and credible." ”

"What about the high cold?" Tamim asked with concern.

In this list, Gao Han is only subservient to FIFA President Blatter, even higher than Danny Jordan, the chairman of the South African World Cup Organizing Committee, which makes Tamim have to pay attention to it.

"It's hard to say, but from the many football people I have contacted, Gao Han is undoubtedly the most influential and appealing figure in world football today, you know, since his debut, he has never lost and has been winning, which is unique in the history of world football for more than 100 years. ”

From Mansour's tone and expression, it is not difficult for Tamim to see his admiration for Gao Han.

And with his understanding of Mansour, there are not many people who can get this evaluation, which shows that Gao Han is definitely the real material.

"Wait, what do you want to do?" Mansur was suddenly wary.

Although they are both Middle Easterners, Qatar and the UAE are neighbors, and when they go to Europe, they often cooperate, but they are still two groups of people in their bones, and they still have to beware of each other.

"Don't be nervous, I don't have anything right now, I won't threaten you. Tamim laughed, "However, I heard that Gao Han has a football team in Spain, and it has been promoted to La Liga step by step in nine years, which is very legendary." ”

"You want to buy this team?"

"Of course. Tamim nodded unabashedly, "Chinatown, the name of this team is interesting. ”

He values not only the China City team, but also Gao Han who stands behind this team.

"But Gao Han doesn't necessarily sell. "Mansour knows a little bit about Chinatown.

"Then I will use the most sincere price to convince him. Tamim smiled confidently.

…………

…………

Gao Han didn't know that someone was behind the scenes to buy his team, and after dealing with the affairs of the China City team, he returned to Manchester non-stop and returned to the position of Manchester City manager.

During the national team competition, Gao Han took other players to training.

Kaka was not called up by the head coach of the Brazilian national team Dunga due to a foot injury, and continued to train in the team, but he still did not train with the team, but trained alone.

After two weeks of international football, the internationals returned to the squad one after another.

In the alpine season, as well as Manchester City and other teams, including the South American international, all returned to Manchester on time in accordance with the rules of the coaching staff.

After a day of rest and training, Manchester City travelled to challenge Wigan Athletic non-stop.

Affected by the international team and away from home, the City players did not perform well in the first half, especially in the opening period, when they were hit by Wigan Athletic a couple of long-range shots, but none of them could threaten Cech.

It wasn't until the 29th minute that City made their first threatening attack.

City then gradually took control of the situation on the pitch but were never able to threaten it, and just before the end of the first half, Wigan Athletic seized a chance to play a counter-attack, and N'Zogbia scored from close range to open the scoring for Wigan Athletic.

At halftime, Gao Han harshly reprimanded the players for their poor performance in the first half, believing that the players were a little too careless.

After the rematch in the second half, Manchester City launched a counter-attack according to the strategy drawn up by the alpine midfield.

With the blessing of the assault card, Sanchez continued to form a surprise attack on the right side at the beginning of the second half, and in the 46th minute, after a series of breakthroughs, the low flat ball passed to the middle, and the back plugged in Benzema ran a little too much, blocking the defender with his body and letting the ball pass by him.

Cristiano Ronaldo stepped in and fired a right-footed volley home to level the scores.

Just five minutes later, Karim Benzema dropped back to receive a pass from midfield and made a clever pass behind the Wigan Athletic defence, where Cristiano Ronaldo dribbled into the box, but the volley was blocked by the returning centre-back Bramble, and the ball fell to the right.

At this time, Sanchez caught up and easily pushed the empty goal to reverse the score.

In the end, Manchester City, who were not in good form, reversed Wigan Athletic 2-1 to win nine in a row.

In the other games of this round, Manchester United beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at home, Arsenal beat Birmingham City 3-1 at home, and Liverpool lost 0-1 away to Sunderland.

In the other game a day later, Chelsea were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa after Didier Drogba scored first.

It was also Chelsea's first defeat of the new season.

(End of chapter)