Chapter 26: The Oil Storm
Just do it, this is Zhuang Mingge's most intuitive impression of the "not doing business" Crown Prince Althani.
In 1994, Qatar's own football level, to be honest, was not even the third rate in Asia, but Crown Prince Al-Thani, who is in charge of sports, has a very important point to do well in sports, that is: they have money, and they are willing to spend money.
So, under the "inspiration" of the Qatari Jin Yuan, the 42-year-old Roger Milla took the lead in coming to Qatar, and he needed to use this expensive salary to help his African compatriots who were still in dire straits as much as possible.
Zhuang Mingge, who has not yet left Qatar, asked for this "pick-up" from Crown Prince Al Thani after learning that Roger Mira would arrive in Doha by plane today, and he wanted to meet the black player who was affectionately called "Uncle Mira" by the Chinese.
At the airport in Doha, the capital of Qatar, Zhuang Mingge met the legend of African football, Roger Milla.
Uncle Mila is very tall, his height is 1.85 meters, he is already tall among the players in the same period, Uncle Mila has been running for the improvement of the quality of life of his compatriots over the years, the corners of his eyes and forehead have begun to appear wrinkles, compared to the 90 Shijie Cup when he aged a lot.
Zhuang Mingge took the lead in paying tribute to Uncle Mira, who "made Quan Shijie re-acquaint himself with African football": "Hello Mr. Mira, I am the president of the Italian club Fiorentina, Antonio Corleone. ”
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Corleone." Uncle Mira looked around suspiciously, and found that there was no one else except Zhuang Mingge and another white-collar woman with a cold expression, "I remember that I was invited by Crown Prince Al Thani to participate in the Qatar League......"
"Haha, of course I know this, but I'm just picking you up for Crown Prince Althani."
Uncle Mila heard Zhuang Mingge say this, and couldn't help but feel a little moved in his heart, Uncle Mira, who had worked hard in Europe, of course knew the meaning of the surname Corleone, and he didn't expect that the son of the Corleone family could put down his body and come to pick up the plane for him in person.
Although Uncle Mila has the simplicity of an African, he is not stupid, he realized that Zhuang Mingge must have other plans for picking up the plane in person this time.
"Mr. Corleone can't just come and pick me up just to see me, right? What would you like to say to me? ”
"Well, I'd like to ask you, Mr. Mira, to be our GM contact person in Africa."
"GM?" Since he has been active in Africa in recent years, Uncle Mila does not know much about some of the things that are happening in Italian football, "What kind of company is this?" ”
"An agent company that has just been established in Italy, if you agree to take this job, you will have the right to recommend players to GM, and the players will get an agency contract after passing the company's review, and the company will manage its signed players in a unified manner, and if they want to land in Europe, the company will operate them to the team that best suits them, Mr. Mira, please see, this is the list of the board members of our company."
Mira took the list of directors handed over by Karin and couldn't help but gasp, he knew what the names of these directors represented together, which meant that the company could guarantee that the players he signed could find a job at least in Italy, rather than being unemployed at home.
If this is the case, he may be able to use this GM company to let more good seedlings who can only be mixed in Africa enter Europe and receive professional training, and no matter how bad it is, he can also send it to Qatar to pan for gold through the relationship between the "big man" in front of him and Crown Prince Al-Thani.
Uncle Mira thought so, and quickly made a decision: "Mr. Corleone, I agree, and it is a pleasure to cooperate. ”
"Happy working together, Mr. Mira." Zhuang Mingge wants to use Uncle Mila's popularity in Africa to recruit a large number of future African stars under the command of GM, the most recent of which is the "golden generation" who led Nigeria to Olympic gold medals, and later Eto'o, Drogba, the Toure brothers, Essien...... These are all "high-quality assets" that will make any team drool in the future!
After signing Uncle Mila as the company's contact person in Africa, Zhuang Mingge informed Valentini's manager and asked GM to introduce players to the Qatari league. So the just-established GM company took over the first large-scale business from Zhuang Ming singers, and Crown Prince Al Thani also boldly said that GM only needs to be responsible for getting players to agree to participate in the Qatar League, as for the problem of player transfer, the Qatar Football Association will personally send someone to solve it, and at the same time, the Football Association will conduct an internal "classification" of the players introduced by the GM company, according to the different levels of players, GM will get different levels of "introduction fees", The criteria for grading are mainly based on whether the player has played in the national team, whether he has participated in intercontinental level competitions, whether he has participated in the Shijie Cup, what kind of honors he has received, etc......
From Valentini and Zhuang Mingge learned the news of the ** members of the eyebrows, although these people do not have much spare money, but they have something to do with football they have launched their own contacts, in a short period of time said that a few have announced or are on the verge of retirement but still want to earn a little more "pension" players, recommended to GM company, the company signed a brokerage contract with these players, and then "introduced" them to the Qatar Football Association.
After receiving the "written statement" from these players, the staff of the Football Association quickly divided the grades for them and remitted a sum of "introduction fees" to GM, part of which will be used for the company's operation and development, and the remaining part will be returned to the "**" directors as dividends (note: "intermediary fees" have been included in the company's operating expenses).
Zhuang Mingge asked for a list of people who have been successfully recommended to the Qatar league from Valentini, and found that there are really many "big names" on it:
Alejandro Altobelli, winner of 1 Shijie Cup, 1 Serie A title, 2 Coppa Italia titles, class A-, $1 million referral fee;
Aldo Serena, member of the Italian national team in 1990, winner of the UEFA Cup once, four Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia winner, top scorer in Serie A in 1988-89 with an A- rating and a $1 million referral fee;
Cabrini, the main team of the 1982 Shijie Cup winning team, won 6 Serie A titles, 2 Coppa Italia titles, 1 UEFA Champions Cup, 1 UEFA Cup, 1 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 Toyota Cup winners' team, with an A rating and an introduction fee of $1.5 million.
……
Uncle Mira, who has arrived in Doha, announced that he would join the newly established Al Sadd club after consulting with the Qatari football team, with a contract period of one year and an annual salary of $1 million. Not to mention the discussion caused by the comeback of Uncle Mira, who has been retired for a long time, in international football, this salary alone is enough to attract many players.
In this way, under the "instigation" of Zhuang Mingge, the little butterfly, the Qataris started this "oil storm" ten years ahead of schedule.
Note: Players at the time were generally paid very little, with Ian Rush earning only £5,000 a week as a top centre-forward in the English league and Paolo Maldini at his peak in '94 earning only $1.5 million a year.
PS: The usual click to collect and recommend votes......