Chapter 1 The Crazy Summer

Chen Hero signed many contracts this summer, all of which the media knew about. Suddenly, some media became interested in Chen Hero's total annual income.

This was easy to calculate, because the specific numbers were all known; all one had to do was look through past news reports.

First of all, there was the salary paid by the club, which was the most basic income for a player.

Chen Hero and Liverpool originally signed a five-year contract, but before the contract expired, the two parties had already renewed it once, for a term of five years, expiring in 2018.

At that time, Chen Hero would be thirty years old.

Logically speaking, the most glorious golden years of a player's career are from twenty-six to thirty. After thirty, a player's physical fitness and competitive form inevitably begin to decline.

If Liverpool only wanted to use Chen Hero, then at thirty, they could take advantage of the fact that Chen Hero could still be sold for a good price and sell him off, perhaps making a large profit.

But because of the personal relationship between Chen Hero, Chen Xing, and Niang, Liverpool Football Club probably wouldn't sell him off to make money.

Now Chen Hero's weekly wage is the highest in the team, surpassing even Gerrard, at 150,000 pounds.

When he first signed with Liverpool, his weekly wage was 130,000, second only to Gerrard's 140,000. But these past few years, Gerrard had gradually aged, and the club couldn't give a player whose career was already coming to an end a raise. So Gerrard's new contract's weekly wage had even decreased, falling to 100,000 pounds.

Now Chen Hero earns 150,000 pounds a week, which is about 190,000 euros.

With fifty-two weeks in a year, his salary alone is 9.88 million euros, nearly ten million! Keep in mind that this is the after-tax net amount.

In addition to salary, there are bonuses. When Chen Hero signed his first contract with Liverpool, he didn't do as much with the bonuses as he did when he signed with Napoli, he just went with the simplest goal bonus. A bonus of 20,000 pounds per goal, which is already a very high amount. There were no additional bonus requirements for hat tricks or braces, at most there would be an extra reward of one million pounds after winning the Golden Boot, and this reward was calculated on a seasonal basis, not on a competition basis. That is to say, if he wins one Golden Boot in this season, he can get an extra bonus of one million pounds, but if he wins four Golden Boots, like this year, he will still only get this one million in the end.

This bonus contract was not changed when it was renewed; it was carried over.

Chen Hero's total number of goals in all official competitions this season added up to one hundred and five, which is 2.1 million pounds. In addition, he won the Golden Boot, adding another million. The bonus portion is 3.1 million pounds, which is about 3.95 million euros.

In the past season, the money he was able to get from the club was 9.88 million plus 3.95 million, totaling 13.83 million.

But fixed wages plus bonuses are never the main income for superstars of Chen Hero's level; commercial endorsements are.

Let's take a look at Chen Hero's commercial endorsement income.

Let's not count those contracts signed this year, only those signed before, which are still valid now.

Tissot, one million a year.

TCL, 1.19 million a year.

Nike, eight million a year.

Hummer, 2.25 million a year.

Gillette, 1.6 million a year.

Sina Weibo, 2.4 million a year.

Standard Chartered Bank, 1.5 million a year.

Watsons, 1.5 million a year.

Armani men's formal wear, two million a year.

Then let's look at the newly signed ones this year.

Nike's newly launched "Hero 100" will generate additional revenue sharing for Chen Hero after sales begin, but not yet.

What there are are the following—

Pepsi, 2.8 million a year.

Konami Pro Evolution Soccer, 1.5 million a year.

Lenovo, 1.8 million a year.

Vodafone, 2.4 million a year.

Wrigley's chewing gum, one million a year.

Head & Shoulders shampoo, 1.8 million a year.

Nivea Men's Skin Care, 1.5 million a year.

China Life Insurance, one million a year.

Louis Vuitton luggage, two million a year.

Nikon digital cameras, 1.8 million a year.

Ray-Ban sunglasses, one million a year.

Microsoft phone "mphone", 1.5 million a year.

Philips plasma TVs, 1.8 million a year.

All of the above units are in euros.

Adding all of these up, plus the money he got from the club, his income for this year is… 57.17 million… euros!

This income has made Chen Hero officially the highest-paid player in world football, surpassing Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others, and by a wide margin. It will be very difficult for Messi and others to catch up.

Converted into RMB, that is a staggering 438.77 million!

The amount of money that many people can't earn in several lifetimes, Chen Hero earns in one year!

If he were in China, Chen Hero would have already entered the ranks of billionaires.

But this is not Chen Hero's limit, because in the future, as his fame grows and his results get better and better, he will get more contracts. In addition, when the "Hero 100" begins to be sold, Chen Hero will receive a steady stream of royalties from the sales revenue of this shoe, perhaps the final income may reach an astronomical figure!

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Being able to earn so much money in a year should be a good thing for everyone.

But if you are a celebrity, a famous professional player, a professional player who is already very controversial, it is not necessarily a good thing.

Because there are many people in this world… who hate the rich.

Having money is a sin in their eyes, as for whether the money is ill-gotten gains, or whether you earned it through hard work and frugality, it has nothing to do with them. As long as they know you have a lot of money, you are guilty.

The media has always been blackening professional players in this regard.

Even when reporting the income of professional players, they mostly start from a very bad angle, making people feel like professional players shouldn't earn so much money.

For example, the media will often report that professional players spend a lot of money to buy good cars and luxury houses, play with women, go to nightclubs, buy all kinds of luxury goods, have crazy parties, drink and fight, speed racing… etc. These reports actually deepen ordinary people's dissatisfaction with these nouveau riches.

Because the media is originally designing and packaging players according to the image of "nouveau riche."

They emphasize that players have low education and low quality, they emphasize that these people's past experiences are either little混混from the slums, or hooligans from the streets, if it weren't for football they would definitely be in jail… They also emphasize that these people with low education and low quality can actually easily earn the money that we ordinary people can't earn in a lifetime, it's simply unforgivable!

Of course, it is a fact that players have low quality, but low quality has nothing to do with them earning money through sweat.

No matter how low the quality is, as long as they don't steal, rob, or cheat, train on the training ground, endure the training intensity that ordinary people can't bear, pay sweat and hard work in fierce competitions, and show what they have gained from training, what's wrong with earning as much money as they can?

It's their own money that they earned, whether they want to buy cars or houses, whether they want to pick up girls or get drunk, even if they give it away, it's their freedom, and others have no right to interfere, as long as they don't do anything illegal.

Many media outlets blindly emphasize that these professional players earn money quickly, easily, and easily, but rarely mention what these players have paid to earn this money.

Of the many people who have a love for football, a yearning for professional football, and plan to make a living from it, how many people ultimately succeed in reaching the other side? How many people know and want to know how fierce and cruel the competition in this industry is?

There is a saying in China: "People only see the thief eating meat, but they don't see the thief being beaten."

This is a common mentality of many people.

What's more, professional players themselves have a limited career, and the working time that can earn money is very short. Since it is short, then naturally the return is high, because it is scarce.

This is the same as models, many people only see the scenery and income of models on the catwalk, but they don't see the hardship of this industry.

Having said that, every industry is hard, but the price that players have to pay is different from most ordinary people.

Many players end their careers with injuries all over their bodies. When they are young, their bodies may still be able to bear it. But as they gradually get older, these hidden time bombs will be detonated one after another.

In order to provide for their old age in the future, so that their lives are not too miserable, what's wrong with earning more when they are young?

Many people actually understand this truth, but hatred of the rich blinds their minds, making them unwilling to look at this at all.

Therefore, many media outlets have very strange angles when reporting that Chen Hero has become the highest-paid player in world football.

They vigorously render how much money Chen Hero has earned, emphasizing that he is worth 50 million euros at a young age, and then they change the subject, and begin to emphasize how bad his temper and character are, how much controversy he has caused on and off the field, and how the outside world's comments on him are mixed…

Anyway, after the readers finish reading their reports, they have only one feeling—this bad boy earns money so easily! He must be a nouveau riche! Low education, low quality, speaks without thinking, makes enemies everywhere!

Chen Hero simply ignored these media reports.

Sour grapes mentality does exist, and it has a large market.

Anyway, no matter how jealous others are of him, this money will not fly from his bank account into the pockets of those jealous people.

He is happy that he has become the highest-paid football player in the world, because he has surpassed Messi in economic income, and the next step is to pull Messi down from the throne in the competitive field!