It's a hot summer day in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ricardo came to the sandy beaches of Rio de Janeiro and enjoyed himself for a few days.

He then moved to Botafogo to meet the new club hierarchy.

Although he is the big boss of the team and owns 90% of the shares, he does not hold any position.

Most of the high-level positions such as the president of the team and the director of football are recruited professional managers, and there are also old people from Botafogo, such as Jairzinho, who was invited back by Ricardo to serve as the team's vice president. With Ricardo's current status, Yairzinho is still happy to sell him a face, and his salary is quite high.

Football is a competitive sport, but the operation of a modern football club is ultimately a commercial activity.

According to Ricardo's insight, the commercial development of the club with professional managers can better maintain the financial health and sustainable development of the club.

Although Ricardo was young, no one dared to take him lightly at the meeting, at least not on the surface, and everyone listened attentively to what he had to say.

At the meeting, Ricardo said: "Botafogo is a club with a long history, a glorious tradition, one of the giants of Brazil. We have to go for results, and results are the lifeblood of the club. But we can't be too eager to pursue results, we must develop steadily, and if we take too big a step, we will get the egg. ”

"In the long run, the club should focus on the construction of the youth echelon, the construction of training facilities, the discovery of talents from within itself, the full development of business, the realization of profits, and the creation of a strong team in Brazil and South America, which will always remain competitive in the next one or two decades."

"In the short term, I can invest a certain amount of money in the club, get some quality players, bring in competent managers, keep the team stable, and spend three to five years competing for one or two big titles, such as the Copa Libertadores, Mercosur Cup, the league title and the state championship."

"I don't want the team to produce results quickly, but I want the team to be stable and sustainable. In the 2008 season, I will invest $10 million to improve the club's infrastructure, hire youth coaches, and inject $25 million into the team to bring in reinforcements; Depending on the team's record, an additional $8 million or so could be invested in the medium term. ”

"The players we buy should be mainly young players under the age of 25, and we have to look to the future and not rush for quick success."

"In the 2009 season, I will not be less committed than in the 2008 season. However, from the 2010 season, my investment in the transfer market will gradually decrease, and I will increase my investment in youth training, and I will need to find more youth talent in my team. ”

"In addition, I have established cooperative relations with many football schools and clubs in China, and the club should take on the responsibility of cultivating youth football talents for China, in this area, I will invest 10 million US dollars in the first phase, and 5 million to 8 million US dollars per year in the future, and the short-term goal is to have Chinese players in the club to play in the main ...... within 3 years."

When Ricardo finished speaking, the conference room burst into applause.

Whether he has a point or not – he is the majority shareholder, his financier, and his commitment to invest tens of millions of dollars a year deserves the applause.

Although some high-level officials were skeptical of Ricardo's "cooperation with China" policy, Ricardo did paint a rosy picture for them.

As long as he does commit to investing so much money every year, Botafogo will be able to re-emerge as a South American powerhouse in three to five years.

Why are South American teams getting worse and worse? It's not poor yet.

Don't look at the European giants often spend a lot of money to buy Brazilian teams, but Brazil has its own unique system, and many players are not all owned by the club, but more than half of them are in the hands of their agents.

Real Madrid spent $7 million to bring in Marcelo, of which Fluminense only got more than $2 million, and the rest went into the pockets of Marcelo's agent.

In another time and space, Neymar moved to Barcelona, and Barcelona spent about $100 million, of which $63 million was a transfer fee, and the remaining tens of millions of dollars were Neymar's signing fee and his agent's commission.

Of the $63 million transfer fee, Santos only got $25 million, and the rest went into the pockets of Neymar's agent.

In Brazil, as well as in some other South American countries, this has become the norm.

The agent unearths the best football seedling, first pays a small sum of money to sign the player, buys a certain percentage of his ownership, and then recommends it to the club. If the player is kicked out, when the player transfers, the agent can follow and eat until the mouth is full of oil.

An agent signs hundreds of players, and as long as one or two of them are successful, and the transfer to Europe at a high price, the agent can make a hundred, ten times the profit.

This is a bad habit in South American football, and at the meeting, Ricardo asked the club to develop players who have not been bought out by agents as much as possible in the future, expand the selection range and strengthen the scouting team.

Over three years, he will invest $10 million in building a scouting network, which will be used to pay liquidated damages, salaries, transportation subsidies for big-name scouts to run draft camps and more.

While Ricardo abhord the practice, he started a new agency that was responsible for introducing to Botafogo the best young players from Chinese soccer schools and drafts, all of whom had signed contracts of sale with his agency, which usually owned 50 to 80 percent of the players.

After the meeting, Licardo, accompanied by the club's senior management, visited the training of the club's U18, U16, U14, U12 and other echelons.

Then he met with the Chinese teenagers who had recently come to the club.

The little ones were so excited to see Ricardo that some were so nervous that they couldn't even speak.

Ricardo cordially shook hands with them, took photos, changed into jerseys, and went down to train with them in person.

The first batch of Chinese teenagers consisted of six people, the oldest was 17 years old, the youngest was 14 years old, three of them were junior and senior high school students selected through a nationwide draft, and three were former students of professional club junior echelon teams or football schools, because they were eager to get the opportunity to go abroad and switched to Ricardo's agency.

According to the head coach of the youth team, the performance of these six young players is mediocre, and they are basically at a disadvantage in comparison with Brazilian young players of the same age.

After a few months, a few people miss their hometown very much and have already begun to think about leaving.

Ricardo didn't care. This is just the first batch, and there will be a steady stream of Chinese teenagers coming here in the future, and there will always be geniuses among them.

He instructed the hired Chinese translators and Chinese team leaders to pay more attention to the mental health problems of these children and help them integrate into the training and life in Brazil as soon as possible.

If you really can't stand to leave, you can send it back to China and don't waste the club's precious resources.