Chapter 179 Too Arrogant

Chen Hero's premature announcement that he would win the Golden Boot this season naturally sparked discussion. Once the media reported it, fans from various teams expressed their opinions.

Except for Liverpool fans, fans from other teams were basically cursing Chen Hero. But the way they cursed was quite interesting. They weren't cursing Chen Hero for wishful thinking; they were cursing Chen Hero for being… too arrogant…

This is worth pondering—why didn't these teams' fans accuse Chen Hero of wishful thinking when they heard this, but instead said he was too arrogant?

If you analyze it carefully, the meaning is very different.

If they cursed Chen Hero for wishful thinking, it would mean they thought it was impossible for Chen Hero to achieve this goal, so they called it wishful thinking, like a toad wanting to eat swan meat.

But they cursed him for being "too arrogant"... There are many possible interpretations of "too arrogant." It could mean that Chen Hero's claim to win the top scorer award for the third time was too arrogant, or it could mean that announcing his Golden Boot win in advance was too arrogant. It's somewhat ambiguous.

Arrogance can be understood as boasting without strength, or it can be understood as being arrogant even with strength, and not being humble…

It seems that Chen Hero's great strength has been "recognized" by many people—whether they admit it in their hearts or not, they have to grit their teeth and acknowledge this arrogant Chen Hero, after all, he is indeed a two-time Golden Boot winner.

Last season, he scored seventy-five goals, only one goal behind Messi, making him second in history!

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Regardless of how the outside world discusses him. Chen Hero had long been accustomed to such buzzing discussions.

Because many of the controversies surrounding players like him are actually created by themselves…

If such a person were to be defeated by the noise of controversy, it would be the biggest joke in the world.

Amidst such controversy, the league ushered in a break.

The national team match days for various countries arrived.

For these two weeks, Chen Hero's teammates flew around the world, busy serving their countries.

But all this busyness had nothing to do with Chen Hero.

More than a month ago, the matter of Chen Hero changing his nationality was still a hot topic in China. Now, Chen Hero was training alone at the Melwood training base, which made many people sigh with emotion, feeling that while the whole world was discussing national team matters, Chen Hero seemed so lonely…

In China, there was naturally another wave of accusations against the Chinese Football Association. However, the Chinese Football Association was already adept at dealing with this, and they had accumulated rich experience. They knew that it was best to remain silent at this time. As long as they remained silent, this trend would naturally subside after the national team match days passed, because Chen Hero would use his outstanding performance to successfully divert the public's interest. At that time, everyone would be paying attention to Chen Hero's goals in the league, and no one would care whether he was in the national team or not. If someone brought up this matter at this time, they might even be criticized for being a "buzzkill."

It was truly ironic that the Football Association was in trouble because of Chen Hero on the one hand, and on the other hand, it had to rely on Chen Hero to save them…

Chen Hero wasn't as lonely as everyone imagined. He had many things to do. Chen Hero was very busy now.

Because of his outstanding performance in the Shengdian Cup in Beijing, Chen Hero's status in the hearts of Chinese fans reached new heights, continuing to firmly occupy the throne of the most popular athlete in China. Even those who didn't like him before began to accept him and like him because of that event.

Many brands were drawn to his popularity among Chinese people and wanted to sign contracts with him.

But not just any brand could get Chen Hero's endorsement. Now, relying on the huge Chinese market and his own strength, Chen Hero's agent team simply looked down on ordinary brands.

First was the contract renewal. In 2010, Chen Hero signed a four-year contract with Nike, receiving four million euros in sponsorship fees each year. Now, three years of the contract had passed.

This time, Adidas was tempted to poach him, obviously realizing their mistake. Although it was no longer easy to snatch Chen Hero from Nike, seeing Chen Hero's popularity continue to rise, it was worth spending more money now. In addition to having extremely high global recognition, he also had a pivotal position in the huge Chinese market. His commercial value was limitless!

Chen Hero would never sign with Adidas, because they had looked down on him in the past. He didn't have many other advantages, but he was particularly petty and held grudges. Since you looked down on me in the past, I won't bother with you now!

However, Dekura used this to talk to Nike.

—Look, look, your mortal enemy Adidas has come to us, and the conditions they offer are quite generous… To be honest, we still have a year left on our contract with you, and we are people who abide by contracts, with guaranteed credibility. And Hero also wants to renew the contract with you, but… the other party is offering such a high price, an astronomical price, that we are under a lot of pressure…

As soon as he said this, Nike naturally knew what it meant. He was definitely using Adidas's offer to demand a better contract from them.

But this wasn't anything shameful, and Nike wouldn't be furious about it, feeling like they were being blackmailed—this was the right attitude in business. Business is business, and it was understandable that they would do this to get better personal treatment.

After all, they weren't forcing Nike to renew the contract. If Nike couldn't accept the other party's asking price, they could not renew the contract and let Chen Hero leave after a year…

But could they let Chen Hero leave?

Adidas already knew the importance of Chen Hero. If Nike still didn't know, then all of their executives were idiots.

Back when Cristiano Ronaldo's contract with Nike was about to expire, Adidas also came to poach him. After Nike found out about this, they immediately signed a new sponsorship contract with Ronaldo, offering an astronomical price of six million euros per year! The contract Ronaldo received was also the most valuable endorsement contract in football history.

Now that Nike had a contract with Chen Hero, this was Nike's advantage, and they naturally had to make good use of it.

So Nike also expressed their desire to continue working with Chen Hero.

Since both sides had this idea, then the following things were much easier to handle. It was just a matter of sitting down and asking for the sky-high price and bargaining on the spot.

This matter had started not long after the end of last season. At that time, Chen Hero scored thirty goals in the Europa League, creating a "record that doesn't belong to Earth"—according to an English media outlet—and Adidas came knocking on the door.

And soon Dekura also started negotiations with Nike.

After two months of constant haggling, Dekura, the vampire, brought Chen Hero a sky-high contract—renewed for five years from 2013, which meant the contract would last until 2018. During these five years, Chen Hero would receive a fixed bonus of eight million euros from Nike every year!

Eight million euros! The highest personal sponsorship contract in the history of world football was freshly baked!

When Nike and Chen Hero's official personal website announced the news at the same time, the media and fans were shocked.

In the world of football, no one had ever earned such a high sponsorship fee from a brand in a year.

Cristiano Ronaldo's current contract with Nike is six million euros per year. In addition, if his number of goals reaches a certain number, he can receive an additional one million euros, which is seven million euros.

But Chen Hero's new contract surpassed Ronaldo.

The number eight million looked scary, but those who knew the inside story believed that Nike still made a profit. Dekura ultimately made some compromises to get this "highest endorsement fee in the world" gimmick.

Because Dekura initially proposed a guaranteed seven million euros a year. In addition, if Chen Hero's number of league goals exceeded thirty, he would add another one million, one million for winning the league's top scorer award, and one and a half million for winning the Champions League's top scorer award. If Chen Hero could collect all these honors in one season, Nike would have to pay Chen Hero at least ten and a half million euros in endorsement fees per year!

And seeing Chen Hero's current momentum, these honors were easy for him to obtain, so if Nike accepted Dekura's conditions, they would have to spend more than ten million every year.

This was too high for Nike. You should know that the highest-paid athlete in the world, golfer Tiger Woods, could earn sixteen million euros from Nike every year, which was the highest single sponsorship contract in the world. LeBron James, an athlete in the American professional men's basketball league, earns nine and a half million euros every year, Kobe Bryant earns seven and a half million euros, and the highest-paid person in football is Ronaldo, who earns six million euros every year.

Nike didn't want Chen Hero to raise the upper limit of endorsement fees for football players all at once, because they were about to start negotiations with Ronaldo. If they agreed to Chen Hero's exorbitant asking price, it would be very passive for them to renew Ronaldo's contract—Ronaldo would naturally not tolerate Chen Hero being so much higher than him…

Finally, after negotiation between the two parties, a compromise proposal was put forward. That is, Chen Hero's sponsorship fee must be the highest in the world of football, and his position must be guaranteed. To this end, they can give up reward clauses such as adding one million euros if the number of goals reached a certain number, and another million euros for winning the top scorer award.

Nike proposed a sky-high sponsorship contract of eight million euros, and finally obtained Dekura's consent.

Before the two parties officially signed the contract, the media had already received wind of it, but they only knew that Chen Hero and Nike were talking about a big contract. They didn't know how big it was…

Some people had guessed, but it was no more than six million per year, an increase of two million compared to Chen Hero's current four million per year.

Who would have thought that the final news announced would be eight million! A whole double!

Beast!

This thought popped up in many people's minds immediately.

The people in the western region are still eating grass, and the people in Africa are still starving. This bastard can easily earn eight million euros a year just by showing a few smiles at the camera! What is he if not a beast?

When the official announced the news, Chen Hero was at Nike headquarters in the United States signing the contract.

This time, Nike headquarters invited many well-known global media to witness this historic moment together.

Compared with the first signing, the entire treatment was different now.

And this also showed the improvement of Chen Hero's strength and reputation from the side!

Facing the flashing lights and cameras of hundreds of media outlets, Chen Hero smiled calmly.

He boasted to the camera: "One day you will find that this eight million is actually very cheap!"