Chapter 1 Should I Have Charged Down the Stairs?

"Do you think I should have charged down the airplane stairs back then, and then… um… they all do that in the movies," Chen Yingxiong said to Decry, talking about what happened after he left that day.

In fact, his mood on the plane had been restless. He was very unwilling to just leave like that. The problem was that the other party wasn't willing. What could he do?

"Hahaha!" Decry laughed.

At this time, they were sitting in something like a conference room, but it wasn't for a meeting, but a break. They were waiting for a press conference to begin.

Chen Yingxiong's signing ceremony and press conference to join Liverpool.

In fact, this was just a "face project" to appease enthusiastic Chinese fans and the Chinese media.

The real signing required him to go to Liverpool for a medical examination before he could sign. If he failed the medical examination, all the previously drafted contracts would be useless, and Chen Yingxiong would have to return to where he came from. It was estimated that Napoli's fans would be happy…

However, there was no way Chen Yingxiong's health would have problems. He knew that very well.

This signing was just for show. The main purpose was not to sign, but to promote Liverpool.

Liverpool already had a lot of supporters in China, but compared to the fans of powerhouses like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, and the Milan clubs, the number was still a bit small. After all, Liverpool hadn't had any impressive results in recent years.

Thanks to the fact that the protagonist of the previous acquisition was Chinese, Liverpool had frequently appeared in the Chinese media for some time, and the coverage was quite extensive. This had re-attracted some popularity.

Now that Liverpool had signed Chen Yingxiong, who was extremely popular in China, if they didn't take the opportunity to promote themselves, Liverpool's foreign affairs and publicity departments, as well as the business development department, could all resign and apologize.

Chen Yingxiong's choice to return to China for vacation was also related to this arrangement. Of course, in addition to returning to attend this signing ceremony, many media outlets were lined up waiting for him to be interviewed. Even because Chen Yingxiong's time was limited and there wasn't enough time, many media outlets had to interview Chen Yingxiong in groups at the same time. Each media outlet might only get one question…

Even so, many media outlets were eager to participate.

In addition to media interviews, many brands approached him hoping to sign Chen Yingxiong as their spokesperson.

In order to help Chen Yingxiong cope with this lively but chaotic situation, Decry, after dealing with Chen Yingxiong's affairs in Naples, simply brought his entire agent team to China. They booked an entire floor of a hotel in Chengdu, which was their temporary office. Any media outlet that wanted to interview Chen Yingxiong had to register here first, submit an application, and after screening, they would get the chance to interview Chen Yingxiong. Those with too small a name and never heard of, would not get a chance at all.

It's not that Chen Yingxiong was being arrogant, but he was qualified to be arrogant now.

Originally, Decry had hoped to put the temporary headquarters in a megacity like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou to facilitate the gathering of popularity. But Chen Yingxiong rejected it in one go: "I'm returning to China to see my parents. My parents don't live in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. What am I doing going there to wait for the media? There's no reason for me to give them convenience. They're the ones asking me now, not me asking them! I'll just be in Chengdu. If they want to find me, then come to Chengdu! I'm not going anywhere else but Chengdu!"

In this way, media from all over China, and even the world, flocked to Chengdu, hoping to interview this soccer star, who was one of the most popular in the world today. The Chinese media were even more motivated, because this was one of their own, a compatriot, and it was easy to arouse the patriotic feelings and national pride of the Chinese people.

What does the media do? It incites public opinion and controls舆论 (yúlùn, public opinion), but they also need a trigger. Chen Yingxiong was an excellent trigger.

Now that he was so popular, who would dare offend him? It was just a matter of running a little more, anyway, the travel expenses would be reimbursed by the company…

In this way, Chen Yingxiong's vacation was always interspersed with interviews from various media outlets - TV stations, newspapers, magazines, websites… Even entertainment and fashion magazines came to interview him, which surprised him, and also made him realize how influential he was in China.

As for the time he could actually spend with his parents, it was only in the evenings… Fortunately, his father's clothing store had closed long ago, and he had gone on to do a bigger clothing business, otherwise that small store would have been overwhelmed.

His father was also very busy now, but when he heard that his son had returned, he still pushed away everything he could and waited for his son at home.

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Chen Yingxiong's commercial value was now skyrocketing, and many well-known international companies had approached Decry, hoping to sign Chen Yingxiong for product or brand endorsements.

The happiest was Nike. Chen Yingxiong's performance this season proved that their previous vision was correct. Although Chen Yingxiong had won the top scorer award on all fronts, it would cost Nike a lot of money, but Nike could still afford this money, and they were very happy to spend it. Yingxiong's performance in the Champions League and Serie A had boosted his popularity and further enhanced Nike's image and brand value.

According to the contract, when Chen Yingxiong scored twenty-five goals in a season, Nike would reward him with one million euros, one million euros for winning the league's top scorer, and one and a half million for winning the Champions League's top scorer. These three bonuses alone were almost equivalent to Chen Yingxiong's annual salary…

Those companies that had not signed Chen Yingxiong before, or missed him for various reasons, were extremely annoyed. Especially Nike's competitor, Adidas.

In fact, Chen Yingxiong didn't have many endorsement brands on him now, because Decry had always adhered to a strategy of "less is more." When Chen Yingxiong's fame was not very high, if he rushed to find many brands to endorse him, it would only rapidly depreciate his personal image, and it would be difficult to find big brands in the future. Of course, many agents can't correctly assess the potential and development space of their players. It is only natural to find many second-rate brands for players to endorse with the mentality of "earning as much as they can," after all, it is not only agents who need money, players also need money, and not every player knows that they can become Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But Decry was very confident in Chen Yingxiong's potential.

So he had been holding back, even if it meant Chen Yingxiong earning less money from commercial endorsements.

Now the harvest season had finally arrived. Chen Yingxiong's endorsements in many fields were still blank. He had enough time and qualifications to pick and choose and cooperate with those internationally renowned brands, instead of being stuck with small brands because he had signed them in a hurry before.

When he first debuted, he signed short-term endorsement agreements with Clear Shampoo, Zara, and Puls. Later, when they expired, the two sides did not renew their contracts for various reasons. These product areas were still vacant, waiting for someone to offer a high price.

Decry's agent team was working around the clock every day, just to do these things for him. So many intended signings always had to be consulted one by one, and then checked out, to know the other side as well as oneself.

In this way, Chen Yingxiong's vacation passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, it was almost over.

Then Chen Xing and Niang flew to Chengdu, Sichuan, China, to hold this signing ceremony for Chen Yingxiong.

This could be regarded as a grand event in the Chinese media and sports world. You should know that the two most powerful people in the Liverpool club were both of Chinese descent, and now the biggest star who was about to join the team was also Chinese, so the Chinese media naturally had to pay enough attention.

At this moment, in the press conference hall outside the lounge, countless media outlets had already gathered. In addition to the Chinese media, there were also several media outlets from Italy and the United Kingdom. Even Japan and South Korea had sent media to attend this press conference, which shows that Chen Yingxiong's influence had already transcended national borders.

After winning the Champions League title and the league title, Chen Yingxiong also surpassed Park Ji-sung in one fell swoop and became the number one star in Asia today. The gap between him and Park Ji-sung before was the lack of significant collective honors—the UEFA Cup title was obviously not comparable to the Champions League title, and the Russian Premier League title was not as good as the English Premier League title. Now it was different. Serie A was, after all, one of the five major European leagues, and the Champions League title was even more needless to say. What's more, in these two championships, Chen Yingxiong was the team's absolute main core and played a very important and crucial role, unlike Park Ji-sung, who was completely irreplaceable in Naples.

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Chen Xing and Niang entered the door and saw the two people chatting. He smiled and said, "Everything is ready outside, Yingxiong. Are you ready?"

Chen Yingxiong spread his hands: "Is there any need to prepare for this? I can also say polite words, and I can also say sensational things. What do you want me to say?"

Chen Xing laughed loudly.

Niang also laughed beside him: "I think the reporters must hope that you can say something explosive."

After Chen Xing finished laughing, he said to Chen Yingxiong: "More than sixty years ago, Liverpool Club signed Bill Shankly and appointed him as the team's head coach. This decision was later considered to have changed the history of Liverpool. I have an ambition, Yingxiong. I want today's signing to also become a milestone event that changes the history of Liverpool." He pointed to Chen Yingxiong.

Chen Yingxiong chuckled: "I like to hear these words, I like to hear them very much!"

"Let's go, let us go out and announce the turning point of history!" Chen Xing didn't have any airs of a boss. He stepped forward, put his arm around Chen Yingxiong's shoulder, and then opened the door. The two of them walked out shoulder to shoulder. Facing those flashing lights, they stepped onto the rostrum.

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ps, tomorrow there will still be three updates, and then starting from the day after tomorrow, there will be four updates for three consecutive days, and finally there will be a five-update burst!

Monthly tickets!

The burst is so fierce, can you let the monthly tickets also come more fiercely!?