From coaching Real Madrid

Once upon a time, it was a near-monopoly business for South American players to play in Europe.

For example, the godfather of Brazilian football, Figel, as an agent, controls almost all the channels and ways for Brazilian players to study abroad. He recruits partners in various European countries.

The most famous among them is Portuguese agent Jorge Mendez, who started his career by running errands for Figel.

But gradually, European league teams have gradually realized that this model has huge flaws.

To put it simply, the middlemen make too much difference in price.

The wealthy teams don't value these very much. As long as the players they provide meet their requirements, they don't mind letting someone charge an agency fee, because they don't care about money, they care about talent.

However, teams in the middle and lower reaches of the five major leagues, as well as some teams in second-tier leagues, have gradually become aware of this piece of fat.

In fact, they have a natural advantage over middlemen like Figel.

For example, teams such as Sevilla in La Liga, Udinese in Serie A, and Porto in the Portuguese Super League were the first to dig out this piece of fat in South America, so they swarmed in and grabbed high-quality products directly from the place of origin.

Cheap player.

The players selected by them are sent directly to their teams or satellite teams to train and participate in games.

For example, players like Dani Alves and Baptista in La Liga were once not well-known, but after playing in Sevilla, they showed their ability and won the favor of wealthy teams.

Now, Alves is Sevilla's most favored star, with many wealthy clubs watching eagerly.

Players who have been verified by teams such as Porto, Sevilla and Udinese have been proven to be able to adapt to the European League. At the same time, their strength has also been verified by the European League, and even the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. The possibility of parallel imports is very low.

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Therefore, wealthy teams are beginning to be more inclined to recruit from these teams.

As a result, more and more European teams began to expand their scouting networks into South America and Africa.

Agent giants like Figel have gradually lost their market, their business has shrunk rapidly, and they have gradually disappeared from the sight of fans. They have been replaced by teams such as Porto, Sevilla and Udinese, which are models of the black shop model.

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Among them, Ajax was a pioneer in actively developing the African market, but unfortunately, their path failed, which also led to Ajax's decline in the past two years and in the next few years.

De Laurentiis of Naples is a very shrewd boss. He saw the operating mechanism of Udinese's model at a glance. He also understood that with his financial resources, it would be difficult to compete with the three northern powers in Serie A for a long time.

contend.

Therefore, after he reorganized Naples, he immediately hired technical director Pierpaolo Marino from Udinese.

After coming to Naples, the founder of Udinese's scouting network is also actively opening up the overseas talent market for Naples.

When Gao Shen and Lucas both came to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Roman Díaz, who hosted them, was Marino's partner in Argentina.

Before Gao Shen flew to Argentina, he had already faxed a list of the players he wanted to Roman Dias and asked him to explore the situation in advance. The results were mixed.

…

"I just received your fax and immediately contacted the team in Uruguay, but unfortunately, they have sold Luis Suarez to Groningen of the Eredivisie. Your news came a few days late.

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At the hotel where Gao Shen and Lucas stayed, Roman Dias came to report his latest progress.

Gao Shen frowned when he heard this. He had known for a long time that Suarez would move to the Eredivisie this summer, and he contacted Romain Dias as soon as possible, but in the end he was still a step too late.

There is no way, this is life!

"Where are the others?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

"Independiente is in Buenos Aires. I first contacted them. At that time, there were some agents who were actively promoting Independiente players to study abroad. You know, their team's Sergio Aguero had just signed a contract with 20 million euros.

Transferred to La Liga Atletico Madrid, the agent made crazy money from it."

Gao Shen has also heard about this transfer, and it is indeed quite shocking.

Of course, from the perspective of 2021, Aguero's deal is quite worthwhile, but in 2006, a transfer fee of 20 million euros was offered for a 19-year-old youngster.

, this is simply a sky-high price.

"What about Lucas Biglia?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

This player was also the one he focused on.

Many people know Biglia from the World Cup in Brazil, but in fact, he is a direct descendant of the Argentine national brand with a well-established reputation and is the main force of the national youth teams at all levels. For example, in the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, he also

It was the time when Messi won his only world championship, and Biglia was the main midfielder.

But sometimes, choices can change a person's life.

Biglia did not go to Europe's top leagues to play, but went to Anderlecht in Belgium.

Although he has always been the main core of this team, his reputation is not obvious. He was not noticed until the World Cup in Brazil, and then he was able to join Lazio in Serie A and his strength was recognized.

Moreover, this player is both offensive and defensive and has superb strength.

"I've asked, and there are also agents operating it. If you are sure you want it, I'll talk to you right away. We have to do it quickly." Roman Dias said with some urgency. He would also get a commission for making this deal.

It's just that compared to those scouts who directly work for European clubs, the draw is relatively small, and it is more about facilitating negotiations between the two clubs. As for the transfer fee, it is up to both parties to negotiate.

Each kind of agent has its own different survival mode, and Romain Dias relies on this to make a living.

"How much do you think it will cost?" Gao Shen asked.

After thinking for a while, Roman Dias said: "Between 1.5 million and 2 million euros."

Gao Shen knew it well, "Let's talk about the other people."

"Di Maria is in Rosario, not far north of Buenos Aires, and is currently a substitute for the first team of Rosario Central. He has not performed very well, but he is only eighteen years old. I guess,

The transfer should be similar to Biglia's."

Gao Shen nodded repeatedly after hearing this, which was much lower than he expected.

This should be the advantage of not having a middleman to make the difference.

If he remembered correctly, Di Maria performed well at Rosario Central in the following year. After being moved to Benfica by his agent, his worth reached more than seven million euros. But now he is just starting out, with one or two million euros, really

It's a good deal.

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, are separated by a bay and are very close to each other.

Uruguay's Danubio team is in Montevideo, and center Edinson Cavani is currently playing for this team. In the league that just ended, he scored four goals and five goals in ten games.

Scored three goals in each cup match and performed well.

Suarez of the Uruguay National Team has scored ten goals in 29 games and one goal in three cup games. His overall performance is slightly better than Cavani. He is still the main player. They are both the same age, and Suarez

The transfer fee to Groningen is 800,000 euros.

Of course, this was a miss, because a year later, Groningen sold Suarez to Ajax for ten times the price.

As for Cavani, Roman Dias believes that the price is at best similar to Suarez.

After all, the euro is too valuable.

In addition, there are no middlemen to make profit, which leads European teams to buy players in South America, which is almost a harvest.

Gao Shen realized that he had made a mistake.

He originally planned to spend millions of euros to take away these three future stars, but now it seems that he doesn't need to.

Until now, he has come to realize more and more that the essence of business is information gap.

A player who was sold in South America for only a few hundred thousand or one to two million euros, after arriving in Europe, through the negotiation and operation of the agent, they can sell it for millions, or even tens of millions. What a huge profit.

Business!

Just like Aguero, leaving aside the perspective of a time traveler, what achievements does he have now, is it worth Atletico Madrid's 20 million euros?

The most valuable thing is that he played in the Argentine League at the age of fifteen, making him the youngest player in history. At the same time, he scored 18 goals in 36 games last season. There is no doubt about his strength and potential.

But is it worth the 20 million euros?

His agent is José Seguy, one of the most powerful agents in Spain and affiliated with the world-famous IMG company.

In fact, everything behind this is, to put it bluntly, a hype story.

And Atletico is willing to pay for this story.

Of course, this does not mean that Aguero has no strength and potential.

No, on the contrary, there is no need to doubt Aguero's strength and potential.

But 20 million euros is outrageous!

Another classic case is the transfer farce between Neymar and Barcelona and Real Madrid.

This is actually a very typical case of how middlemen operate and package a player. The difference is that Neymar simply let his father become the biggest middleman.

The South American football market is so chaotic. Without a familiar professional like Romain Dias to lead it, let alone a sophisticated one, it would be difficult for Marino to figure it out in person.

Gao Shen is also very fortunate that the contract he signed with Naples includes a share of the player transfer price difference.

Facts have proved that this decision was too smart.

…………

…………

Gao Shen made a slight adjustment and let Roman Dias take him to the club.

First, he went to Independiente to negotiate the transfer of Biglia. The Argentine National Youth Team player also had Italian nationality. After negotiations, Gao Shen directly bought him for 1.8 million euros.

In the words of Roman Dias, if we talk patiently, it can be even lower.

After that, he went north to Rosario, negotiated with Rosario Central for Di Maria, and signed the Angel Wing for 1.2 million euros. Then he crossed the bay without stopping and went directly to the capital of Uruguay.

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This time it was the smoothest. When the other party heard that a European team wanted to buy Edinson Cavani, they took him away directly for 800,000 euros without even negotiating the price, just like Suarez's transfer.

Gao Shen had no idea that his trip to South America would go so smoothly.

Romain Dias also received more news one after another.

In addition to Di Maria, Cavani and Biglia, Gao Shen also wants three South American players.