The fall of the Club World Cup trophy and the achievement of the seven-crown crown made Lin Quan's call for the Golden Globe Award even higher.

At this time, there is less than half a month left before the Golden Ball Awards, and compared with Messi and Ronaldo, Lin Quan's lead is too big, so big that even the fans of these two people have resigned themselves to their fate.

"It doesn't matter, Messi holds four Golden Ball awards, so what if Lin Quan's one?"

Messi's fans are full of confidence, Messi, who has created four consecutive piles, is the player who has won the most Ballon d'Or awards in the history of football.

And the most terrifying thing is that Messi is still very young, he is 27 years old, and he still has at least five years of peak life.

In these five years, he can fully challenge for a fifth or even sixth Ballon d'Or.

In terms of the number of Ballon d'Or awards, Ronaldo's fans are not as confident as Mei fans.

However, Ronaldo also won two Ballon d'Or awards, tied with football emperor Beckenbauer, alien Ronaldo and others for the fifth place in the cumulative number of Ballon d'Or awards.

This is enough to make them proud!

Although Ronaldo is a little older, he will soon be 30 years old, and his peak may only be two or three years old.

However, Real Madrid are now in full swing and may not be able to win the Champions League again in the next few years.

At that time, Ronaldo can win another Ballon d'Or award for his outstanding performance at the club, so that he can squeeze into third place, tied with Platini, Cruyff, Van Basten and others.

Even if Lin Quan wins this year's Golden Globe Award, there is only one, and there is still a big gap between him and the peerless double.

And there is no shortage of players who are at the peak of their debut in football, but not every genius can have such a stable and long peak period like Messi and Ronaldo!

Maybe Lin Quan's performance will plummet next year, and he will be completely out of the ordinary?

Although Lin Quan has a great advantage in winning the award, Manchester City Club still does not dare to be careless.

No one in their club's history has ever won a Ballon d'Or, and Lin Quan is likely to break that embarrassing record.

At a time like this, Manchester City must step up their efforts to build momentum for Lin Quan.

Although winning the Ballon d'Or is closely related to the player's own performance, it is also inseparable from the operation of the club they belong to.

The reason why Ronaldo was able to beat Ribery and other opponents to win the Ballon d'Or last year was due to Real Madrid's operation behind the scenes.

Manchester City are a rising star and their connections in football are nowhere near as deep as Real Madrid's, so they need to be even more cautious.

Fortunately, Manchester City has one advantage that is particularly obvious, and that is - it is very rich!

Even if you can't directly buy the voters of various countries, you can completely buy the media of various countries and let them help Lin Quan publicize and build momentum.

So, after Manchester City began to invest in operations, there were suddenly a lot of reports about the Ballon d'Or around the world.

Without exception, these reports are all good things about Lin Quan, and at the same time promote how he deserves to win the Golden Globe Award.

Under such repeated publicity, the people naturally associated Lin Quan with the Golden Globe Awards.

In this way, the Golden Globe Awards will be held in the future, and if Lin Quan unexpectedly loses the election, it will inevitably conflict with the public's cognition, and then cause huge doubts.

This undoubtedly reduces the possibility of insider manipulation!

After Manchester City FC began to exert its strength, Nike also began to use its influence in football to build momentum for Lin Quan.

The reason why Nike wants to do this is, on the one hand, because the Golden Globe Award can greatly increase Lin Quan's popularity and influence, and Lin Quan is a signed player under Nike, and his rise in fame is a good thing for Nike.

On the other hand, Lin Quan signed half of the contract with Nike, and Nike created momentum for Lin Quan to curry favor with Lin Quan in order to renew his contract.

Nike don't have as much influence in football as Adidas, so they have to offer better terms to entice players to sign with them.

And with Lin Quan's current upward momentum, anyone can see that his future is limitless.

If Nike doesn't take the initiative to seek a contract extension, Adidas and other sponsors will definitely snatch Lin Quan.

Once Lin Quan is snatched away, it will be very unfavorable for Nike to enter the football industry.

After all, Ronaldo, another big-name player under their banner, is about to turn 30 years old.

Ronaldo's peak period can't last for a few years, and Nike must consider other spokespersons after Ronaldo who can support their football strategy cards!

And Lin Quan, who is strong and young, is undoubtedly the most suitable or even the only candidate.

Considering that Lin Quan's advantage in the Golden Globe Awards is too great, in order to increase the attractiveness of Lin Quan's contract renewal, Nike privately contacted Lin Quan's agent and said that he would give him next year's Laureus Award.

"The Lawrence Award?"

When he received a call from his agent Pere, Lin Quan was a little surprised.

Of course, he'd heard of the Laureus Award, but it had been contracted by racing, tennis and golf before.

It has never been awarded to a footballer.

As a result, Lin Quan almost never had any expectations for this award, and it was only when he heard Pere mention the Laureus Award that he was so surprised.

"Yes, Nike wants to treat you like their top athlete to compete for next year's Laureus Awards!"

The Laureus Awards are judged on strict criteria, with the winner having achieved outstanding results in international sports competitions in the past year and being unanimously recognized by the members of the selection committee.

The fields of sports participating in the selection include football, basketball, track and field, swimming, tennis and other sports, which have a wide range and fierce competition.

In recent years, the Laureus Best Male Athlete has won the majority of the awards in athletics and tennis.

Usain Bolt, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are regulars on the list of winners.

As for footballers, although Ronaldo and Messi have been selected for the final list many times, they have never won awards.

It is rumored that because of the existence of the more valuable Golden Globe Awards, the judges of the Laureus Awards do not like to vote for football players, which makes it extremely difficult for football players to win awards in this award.

Of course, this is not absolute.

Lin Quan remembers that Messi once won the Laureus Award twice for his outstanding performance.

But that's all after 2020, and before that, there really wasn't any player on the Laureus Awards.

Nike is a giant in the sports category, they sponsor a lot of sports, and they have a large number of athletes.

Therefore, Nike's influence in the sports world is definitely not to be ignored.

If he can really get their full support, Lin Quan may really hope to win the award.

After all, looking at his performance in 2014, Lin Quan almost achieved the ultimate in what a footballer can do.

He has won league competitions, cup competitions, Champions League, World Cup, Club World Cup and other team awards.

In terms of individual awards, Lin Quan has won almost all the awards he can get, such as the league golden boot, the best player in the league, the Champions League Golden Boot, the best player in the Champions League, the World Cup Golden Boot and the best player in the World Cup.

Whether in terms of group or individual accolades, he is not inferior to those competitors.

Coupled with Nike's huge influence, Lin Quan suddenly felt that if Nike hadn't fooled himself, next year's Laureus Awards would really have a show.

"Is there anything on the Nike side?"

There is no free lunch in the world, and the other party is willing to do this, there must be some intention.

"They want to renew your contract or renew a sponsorship contract for a longer period of time."

Lin Quan's contract with Nike is signed for 13 years, the contract amount is 18 million euros, and the term is 3 years.

It's almost 2 years now, and it's about to expire, so it's understandable that Nike will be in a hurry.

After all, a supergiant like Lin Quan has always been a very gunslinger.

"What price did they offer?"

Someone can't wait to send money to themselves, and no one will refuse this kind of good thing.

Of course, at this time, the initiative to renew the contract is in Lin Quan's own hands, and he will definitely take this opportunity to fight for more benefits for himself.

Sponsors may be strong against other players, but not against top players, because there is no shortage of suitors for supergiants, just as there is no shortage of licking dogs for beautiful women.

"They gave you a big contract of 45 million for 5 years!"

On the other end of the phone, Perre's voice was a little agitated.

Compared with the previous 3-year contract of 18 million, Nike's new contract can be described as full of sincerity.

The old contract was converted to only 6 million euros per year, but the unit price of the new contract has been increased by half, and the annual sponsorship fee reaches 9 million euros.

This price has already surpassed Ronaldo.

When Ronaldo renewed his contract with Nike in 2013, he signed a five-year contract of 40 million euros, and the unit price was 1 million lower than Lin Quan.

The price of the sponsor's contract is directly related to the player's position on the sponsor's side.

Lin Quan's unit price exceeds Ronaldo, which means that in the eyes of Nike, his status and commercial value exceed Ronaldo, and he is the number one star under Nike's football strategy!

This is where Pere feels that Nike is full of sincerity!

However, Lin Quan was not very satisfied with this amount.

He remembers that when NBA star James first debuted in 2003, he signed a seven-year, $93 million contract with Nike.

After renewing his contract with Nike in 2010, it was widely speculated in the industry that James' sponsorship contract exceeded $200 million, and the unit price may reach a terrifying $40 million a year.

Compared with Lin Quan's 9 million euros a year, James's contract is about 4 times that of him.

Such a huge gap made Lin Quan feel a little unhappy.

James is currently the No. 1 man in the NBA and may have a slightly higher status than him.

But the status gap between the two is definitely not 4 times so exaggerated.

So the question is, why does Nike give James such a high sponsorship fee and give itself such a small sponsorship fee?

"Uh, this ......"

Pere was speechless for a while, not knowing how to explain to Lin Quan.

Compared to football, basketball does have much less influence in the world.

Even in the United States, basketball is not the number one sport.

Judging by the global carnival caused by last year's World Cup, in the world of sports, football is deservedly the number one sport in the world.

However, football has a fatal flaw: sneakers don't sell well!

Most of the contracts of basketball players are for the endorsement of sneakers, and some sponsors will even work with them to develop their own sneakers.

The sneakers worn by these stars, after the fans buy them, they can wear them both in sports and daily life, so the audience is huge, and there is no worry about sales at all.

Sponsors can make huge profits on the sale of sneakers, and naturally they are willing to spend money to sign people.

But football boots are too professional, and such shoes with spikes are not suitable for wearing in daily life except for wearing them on the field.

Professional football boots, on the other hand, are expensive and have narrow uses, and only fans who like to play football will buy them.

Ordinary fans will buy at most a jersey, and there is a high probability that they will not buy sneakers, which undoubtedly limits its audience and market size.

Therefore, the amount of sponsorship contracts for football players is naturally limited and not as high as in the NBA.

"This is not a problem, I don't wear sneakers all day long, I can completely endorse Nike's sneakers that can be worn every day, there is no need to limit the scope so much!"

Pere was speechless for a while, Lin Quan's ideas were really wild.

"Okay, I'll give Nike feedback and see what they say!"

After receiving Perre's reply, Nike immediately convened an emergency meeting to discuss it.

Let football players endorse other sports products that have little to do with football, and they don't know what the effect is.

They usually choose track and field athletes or simply ask movie stars to endorse such sneakers, and almost never invite football players to endorse them.

Moreover, Lin Quan's contract amount has already exceeded Ronaldo, and if it is raised, I am afraid it will cause Ronaldo's serious dissatisfaction.

Therefore, Nike politely rejected Perret's proposal.

In order to compensate Lin Quan, they promised to do their best to help Lin Quan win the Laureus Award next year.

"Then wait until the results of next year's Laureus Awards are in!"

After getting Nike's reply, Lin Quan was a little dissatisfied.

The other party is tantamount to drawing a big pie for himself and deceiving himself to renew the contract in advance.

As for whether the pie can be fulfilled after the contract renewal, the other party did not make a guarantee.

Naturally, he would not believe such a blank check, and it just so happens that the shortlist for the Laureus Award will be announced early next month.

The award ceremony will also be held on April 15, 2015 at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and it will be known when the time comes.

After rejecting Nike's contract extension, Lin Quan put his mind back to the game.

On January 10, Manchester City visited Liverpool's Goodison Park to take on the Toffees Everton.

There was good news for Manchester City, as Sergio Aguero and Kroos returned from injury and were replaced by Pep Guardiola in the second half.

Manchester City, who played their main role, led the opponent 3-0 in the first half with goals from Lin Quan and De Bruyne.

In the second half, Lin Quan scored another goal and completed a hat-trick in two consecutive games, and his state was hot.

Shortly after completing his hat-trick, Lin Quan was replaced by Pep Guardiola with Sergio Aguero.

When Lin Quan was substituted, Guardiola seemed to be afraid that he would be angry, so he hugged him and explained to him the reason why he replaced him in advance.

'You've scored three goals, the Everton players are in a hurry, and if you keep you on the pitch, they could retaliate and foul you, which would be dangerous, so I replaced you.'

Lin Quan glanced at Guardiola and asked curiously:

"When you replace Messi, will you explain it to him like this?"

(End of chapter)