Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

Mendes's visit to London this time is not just to bring Li Ang the news that he is likely to receive the "Mr. Silver Ball" honor at the FIFA Awards Ceremony early next year.

For Mendes and the entire economic team behind Li Ang, what is more important is to agree on the contract renewal for the first batch of commercial endorsement companies signed with Li Ang.

Among them, the giant groups that have huge power in China and have extremely strong funds and industry resources are certainly not among the list of partners that Mendes wants to exclude from cooperation.

These large companies have also provided Li Ang with new and more generous endorsement contracts early on.

This time, Mendes wanted to find Li Ang to determine which of the original small and medium-sized cooperative enterprises should be eliminated and replaced with new large groups in the industry.

Because when he signed the endorsement contract, Mendes did not give these companies written terms of priority to renew the cooperation, and the contract period was mostly about two years.

Now that the cooperation is about to expire, it is naturally time for a new round of negotiating terms. If the negotiations cannot be reached, it is normal to break up amicably.

After Li Ang suppressed his previous excitement, he listened to Mendes finish his analysis and suggestions.

To be honest, Li Ang is really not short of money now. His total amount of endorsements has reached the number one in the industry since the end of last year - a level that is still leading by a large margin.

The personal brand projects that Mendes has prepared for him are also in the process of preparation and development.

By the end of next year, Messi and Ronaldo's combined annual income may be separated by him.

Under such circumstances, it is not a pretentious statement for Li Ang to say that he will not give priority to the amount when choosing an endorsement contract.

But considering that there is now a huge economic team behind him that is pursuing higher returns, Li Ang does not say nonsense about "money is not important".

And he felt that Mendes' analysis made sense.

The company that now offers him a sky-high contract is not necessarily a high-quality company.

But if small and medium-sized enterprises can seize his traffic, expand their territory in the domestic market, and get enough benefits, they naturally need to show their sincerity.

If you ask me to represent you, but the conditions offered and 80% of the top contracts in the industry cannot be met, then how can you talk about sincere cooperation?

So in this regard, Li Ang basically agreed with Mendes's "criteria" for changing the original cooperative enterprise.

Everyone makes money together and shares the cake together. Enterprises with a basis for cooperation can certainly be called old friends.

Because of this kind of sentiment, your competitor offers a higher price. As long as you can match 80% and provide certain profit-sharing terms, then everything is easy to say.

For those who fail to meet this standard, there will be no friendship. When the cooperation period is over, everyone will go their separate ways.

After getting Li Ang's approval, Mendes was in a good mood. He opened a bottle of red wine in the living room of Li Ang's villa in advance and had a drink with Li Ang to celebrate.

After a few glasses of wine, and with no one else present, Mendes complained in front of Li Ang about the inconvenience of handling the contract renewal between Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I don't want to bother anymore, and I don't know, what's the point of moving Cristiano to other European giants now?

He is about to turn 30, but he is still so competitive and strong!

I had previously advised him to take advantage of winning the Ballon d'Or for two consecutive years, accept the long-term contract offered by Florentino, and try to stay at Real Madrid until he retires.

But he refused to listen because he wanted to get a contract with a higher annual salary than Messi!

I said it before, Barcelona’s top management is full of shit! If you dare to give Messi such a big contract now, it will make them feel better in the future. This is not normal at all..."

Mendes obviously received complaints from both sides during the handling of this matter.

At this time, I relaxed and got a sense of work accomplishment from Li Ang, so I vented my grievances in one go.

Li Ang didn't say much, he just patted Mendes on the shoulder from time to time to comfort him.

It’s really hard to take sides on this matter, because from the perspective of Florentino and Ronaldo, both of them are right.

After Florentino returned to the helm of Real Madrid, he has always attached great importance to and strict control of the team's salary.

You know, if a superstar in the team renews his contract with a substantial annual salary increase, it will not only affect him as a player, but all the players in the entire Real Madrid first team!

At that time, all the agents of these players came to Lafayette and asked the club to increase the salary of their players, and even used Ronaldo's incident as an example.

That would be a disaster for Lafayette and Real Madrid.

But do you want to say that there is anything wrong with Ronaldo?

He won the Ballon d'Or for two consecutive years, helped Real Madrid win six crowns, and successfully defended the Champions League.

In terms of statistics, his statistics in the past few seasons are not worse than Messi at all.

More than honors, he who has completed the defense of the Champions League is more convincing than Messi, who has only won one Copa del Rey in recent seasons.

Under such circumstances, how could Ronaldo not be angry and dissatisfied when he saw his old rival get a contract extension that was much more generous than his own?

He has such a temperament, he is straightforward and says whatever he wants.

Lafayette may feel that Ronaldo is about to turn 30 now, and his competitive status is not guaranteed.

After all, there are so many examples of stars in the past. There are a lot of stars whose condition plummeted once they turned thirty.

But Ronaldo has this confidence and can continue his peak state for as long as possible.

If Lafayette knew Ronaldo's ability to maintain his form in the future, then he would have given him the 30 million annual salary, because Ronaldo is indeed worth the price, and he can also bring more benefits to Real Madrid.

But after all, Lafayette did not open his eyes like Li Ang.

So there is no choice. Both sides have their own reasons, and both are quite firm and stubborn. It would be strange for Mendes, who is caught between these two strong personalities, not to feel aggrieved.

"Chris didn't suddenly become this character, he was like this when you first met him.

And to be honest, without this kind of stubbornness and self-confidence, Chris would have given up in the competition with Messi long ago. His character has made him, Jorge, he didn’t mean to lose his temper with you..."

Li Ang helped him explain a few words from Ronaldo's perspective.

And Mendes, who has a better understanding of Ronaldo's character and child's temper, has gradually calmed down after pouring out his bitterness.

"Well, it would be great if you were still at Real Madrid. You can help me persuade him more on weekdays. Some things I say don't sound good, but maybe he can accept it if you say it."

When Li Ang heard what Mendes said, a smile appeared on his lips.

Speaking is indeed an art.

Sometimes it doesn't mean that you think it's good for the other person, and the other person will definitely accept what you say.

You still have to turn a corner, find out his temperament, and persuade him from his perspective in order to have a better effect.

When he was still at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo always liked to chat and play with Li Ang when he had nothing to do.

Sometimes Ronaldo was provoked by his opponents on the court, and as soon as Li Ang intervened to appease him, Ronaldo would honestly leave the scene of the conflict, surrounded by Li Ang.

Therefore, Li Ang thinks he has a lot of experience in how to smooth out Cristiano Ronaldo's explosive character.

After promising Mendes that he would find time to communicate with Ronaldo on the phone later, Li Ang felt at ease.

And Mendes did not stay in Li Ang's villa for too long.

Tomorrow Chelsea will play away in the fourth round of the EFL Cup, which is the 1/8 knockout round of the EFL Cup this season.

Li Ang will not start the game, but will go with the team to the away game.

Mendes still had many things to deal with, so after wishing Li Ang successful promotion with the team in advance, he took the time to leave.

In the afternoon of the next day, Li Ang accompanied the team to Shropshire in central and western England.

At the New Turf Stadium, which can only accommodate 10,000 fans, he sat on the bench and watched the EFL Cup match between his team and English League Two team Shrewsbury from close range.

Mourinho used some rotation players and young players from the youth training to cope with this game.

Li Ang's pressure just provides more confidence to his own young players.

After all, he is one of the luckiest players in European football. Li Ang doesn't believe this, but his teammates can't help but believe it.

Well, to put it simply, he is the "mascot" on the Chelsea bench in this game.

Looking at the final 3-0 result of a stable promotion to the next round of the English League Cup, Mourinho was also extremely satisfied with Li Ang's pressuring effect.

The main players of Chelsea's first team rested comfortably for two days, and then began the preparation training for the Queen's Park Rangers step by step.

Queens Park Rangers, who successfully broke out of the English Championship last season and returned to the Premier League, this season's record can only be said to be in line with their status as a newly promoted team.

After nine rounds of the Premier League, they have lost six games in the league and are ranked second from the bottom in the Premier League with only seven points.

The exaggerated data of eighteen goals conceded makes them the worst defensive team in the Premier League so far this season.

Fighting against such a team, to be honest, the whole Chelsea team really couldn't feel any nervousness.

Considering that we are about to go to Slovenia and Maribor for the second Champions League group match.

Mourinho simply let the main veterans such as Ibrahimovic and Terry continue to rest.

So on the afternoon of November 1st, when Queens Park Rangers came to Stamford Bridge, they faced a non-main team Chelsea who continued to rotate.

But Crystal Palace and Manchester United have already given Queens Park Rangers a sample.

Now facing the rotating Chelsea lineup, no mid-to-lower Premier League team would dare to relax their vigilance.

Although the season has just begun, the mid-to-lower teams that are several positions ahead of Queens Park Rangers cannot keep up with them in terms of points.

But facing the current hegemon at the top of the Premier League, the Rangers players who lost the ball will inevitably be in awe.

Plus today they come to Stamford Bridge to challenge Chelsea again.

From the beginning of the game, the Rangers players showed a defensive attitude that had no ambition at all for victory and only wanted to get one point.

Originally, Mourinho didn't care much about the civilian version of this weak team.

But after seeing that our own players besieged the Rangers for 45 minutes but failed to break through their goal, they had no choice but to accept the result of a half-time draw.

Mourinho frowned slightly, and then asked Li Ang, who had been on the bench for half of the game, to warm up.

Commentators from various countries who saw this scene joked about Mourinho, saying that he was about to use his real trump card.

The Rangers players, who were still happy to hold on to a half-time draw, suddenly froze in smiles when they saw Li Ang taking off his substitute vest and starting to warm up on the sidelines.

Before the second half of the game started, Mourinho completed the first substitution adjustment of the game.

And as expected, Li Ang directly replaced Ramirez and played as a double central midfielder with Kroos.

Lampard still seemed to be playing as a defensive midfielder on the court, but the Chelsea fans at the scene knew that Mourinho would never let Lampard stay in his own half as a defensive player in the second half.

And sure enough, as soon as the second half started, Lampard, Leon and Kroos lined up directly and pressed into the Rangers' half.

This is basically blocking the Rangers' door to organize the offense. The tactics are domineering and arrogant, but the Rangers players dare not speak out.

Torres, who never got a good chance on the offensive end in the first half of the game, became more and more active in running.

After Liang came on the field, he and Lampard opened fire directly from the outside, kicking the heavy artillery one after another, which made the Rangers defenders tremble with fear.

Long shots and set kicks, Chelsea's two bus-busting tactics take turns!

The thousands of Rangers fans at the scene were nervous and kept praying for their team.

After beating the Rangers' defense hard for about 20 minutes, Li Ang looked at the Rangers defenders who were forced to start the starting position and prevented him and Lampard from taking random kicks, and felt reassured.

In the 72nd minute of the second half, Li Ang and Cross changed positions and went to the right side of the midfield to meet De Bruyne, who failed to break through.

After catching the ball, Li Ang moved the ball forward slightly and adjusted his pace.

The Rangers midfielder Sandro was so frightened that he quickly pressed forward to interfere with the long shot he was sure to hit!

But Li Ang did not take a decisive shot this time. Instead, when he was about to come into contact with Sandro, he flexibly changed the direction of the ball and dodged Sandro's interception!

After passing Sandro, Li Ang continued to drive towards the Rangers penalty area at high speed with the ball!

This sudden change caused the Rangers' defense to immediately become confused.

Rangers' left center back Caulker wanted to stop Leon immediately, but his partner Dunn wanted to quickly return to the penalty area and wait for the other midfielder Carl Henry to return to the defense to fill Sandro's position.

The two people's different ideas directly led to the separation of the Rangers' defense, and Li Ang also keenly captured the opportunity at this moment and directly pushed the ball behind Caulker!

Dunn was at the back of the Rangers defense, so when Torres made a diagonal pass into the Rangers penalty area, he was not offside!

Comfortably stopped Liang's pass that tore open the Rangers' defense like a scalpel. Torres quickly completed the push shot with his right foot before Dunn came over to defend!

Rangers goalkeeper Green reacted quickly and he also pounced on the football.

But Torres's push shot was very powerful. Even though he was tackled, the football finally hit the inside of the goal post and bounced into the net!

The hope that the Rangers had clung to for seventy minutes was shattered at this moment!

Li Ang and Torres, who personally shattered their hopes, hugged and celebrated excitedly in the penalty area in front of them.

Mourinho stood on the sidelines and let out a long sigh of relief.

As for the Rangers, who had made him unhappy for most of the game today, Mourinho was also unceremonious. After taking the lead, he immediately directed the team to switch to a counterattack posture.

But the Rangers players, who were already discouraged at this time, had no intention of aggressively attacking at the last moment.

In the end, the score of this game was fixed at 1-0.

Chelsea's victory was not as easy as the media predicted before the game, but they still won and continued their winning streak in the league.

Fans of Manchester City and Arsenal could only accept the reality that Chelsea continued to win with disappointment once again.

Li Ang's performance in the second half of this game made him once again the subject of discussion among fans.

There was no way, as soon as Li Ang came on the field, Chelsea's offense was revitalized. This effect is simply amazing, and it is difficult for fans to ignore it.

And the lesson from the difficult victory in today's game also made Mourinho directly send out the full lineup when facing Maribor four days later!

So Maribor suffered again, not as miserable as the 7-0 slaughter in the previous round, but they were still beaten 5-1 by Chelsea at home!

This time the protagonist on the court changed from Li Ang to Ibrahimovic who was well rested and wanted to perform well.

Ibrahimovic, who had been holding back for several games and failed to perform happily, directly scored four goals in this Champions League group match!

That was a head kick that really made Maribor's defense cry.

Li Ang only received one assist in this game, but he was still in a good mood and accepted interviews with the media after the game.

After Chelsea's victory over Maribor in this round, they have already locked up the right to qualify for the top spot in the group.

Therefore, what reporters ask Li Ang the most is what opponents he wants to face in the Champions League in the future.

And Li Ang's answer was as straightforward as ever.

"Of course I want to play with the strongest team, and I've always thought so."

After a brief pause, Li Ang added humorously:

"Of course, if we can meet Barcelona in the first round of the knockout rounds, then I'll have no problem~"