"Perhaps we have to make a choice," Zorc said.

At these words, everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"The most important thing now is to resolve the issues of Lewandowski and Zhou Yi, right?" Zorc asked everyone.

No one objected.

"But our energy is limited. If we devote more energy to one person, it will inevitably lead to the neglect of the other..."

"Why can't we invest in both of them at the same time?" asked Thomas Tress, the Chief Financial Officer.

"We don't have that much energy to deal with two difficult agents at once," Zorc spread his hands.

His words plunged the room into silence.

It was indeed a headache. One Schulze was enough, and Lewandowski's agent, Kucharski, was no pushover either. Recently, moral criticisms of Borussia Dortmund had begun to appear in the media. They criticized Borussia Dortmund for going back on their word, reneging on their promise to Lewandowski's agent.

These media comments brought enormous public pressure on Borussia Dortmund.

After all, integrity is very important. If a club's management has no integrity at all and doesn't care about the spirit of contracts, that's a terrible thing.

And these media actions were, of course, the "credit" of Lewandowski's agent, Kucharski. His method of mobilizing the media to criticize Dortmund was indeed vicious.

The unknowing masses probably wouldn't delve into why Borussia Dortmund was doing this, or what hidden secrets were behind it. They only knew that Borussia Dortmund had gone back on their word; Watzke had promised Lewandowski's agent that they could leave the team in the summer of 2013, but now he disagreed.

This kind of perfidy was simply outrageous and chilling!

Now Watzke was receiving several calls a day from media reporters, asking him to talk about what Lewandowski's agent had said. Even if Watzke denied that such an agreement existed at all, no one believed him.

Kucharski was indeed capable. In this media war, he portrayed himself and Lewandowski as innocent victims, heartbroken by the perfidious Borussia Dortmund, an image that was deeply rooted in people's hearts. Especially since Borussia Dortmund had gone back on their word, while Lewandowski still dutifully helped Borussia Dortmund reach the Champions League final and win the two most important championships.

Just the day before, Lewandowski complained to his home country media, *rzeczpospolita*, in an interview: "If someone makes a promise, then he should keep it. I'm not just talking about transfers, I've also discussed other things with Borussia Dortmund's top management, and in the end, none of them were realized..."

Lewandowski avoided talking about contract and transfer issues before the end of the season. So in fact, his image in the eyes of Borussia Dortmund fans was still very good. Now that the season was over and the championship had been won, no one would feel that it was wrong for Lewandowski to speak out for his own interests.

If Lewandowski's agent really had such a verbal agreement with the club, then Borussia Dortmund's behavior was unjust and unkind. The attitude of Borussia Dortmund's fans towards this was very consistent, completely different from their attitude towards Götze.

They believed that Götze was an unforgivable traitor, but Lewandowski was excusable.

In this matter, who was the good guy and who was the bad guy?

Who was more worthy of respect, and who should be spurned?

It was all too clear.

Those damn agents!

Watzke even suspected that the article on *Transfermarkt* was also the work of Zhou Yi's agent, Schulze...

"Now, we should consider carefully who is the most needed by the team, the most important person for us," Zorc continued. "If we have to choose, then try to choose the answer that has the least impact on the team."

"Then of course Zhou Yi is more important," Thomas Tress blurted out.

"That coincides with my thoughts," Zorc followed.

One was the Chief Financial Officer, and the other was the Sporting Director. They both considered from their respective professional perspectives. On the sports level, Zhou Yi was the core of the team. With him, they could find another forward. But without him, even if Lewandowski stayed on the team, his importance would probably be discounted.

On the economic level, behind Zhou Yi was the huge Chinese market. If they sold Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund would lose the golden key to developing the Chinese market.

Not to mention, this summer, Borussia Dortmund also planned to make a tour to China—which was a nice way of saying it, but it was actually a money-making trip. Without Zhou Yi, Borussia Dortmund's effect of making money in China would be greatly reduced.

Seeing this, Watzke sighed, "Actually, there's no need to choose. Zhou Yi is someone we must keep."

He considered that even if they forced Lewandowski to stay, it was hard to say what kind of state Lewandowski would be in. Moreover, keeping a player who was full of resentment towards the club in the locker room would inevitably cause conflict and instability in the locker room. These were all continuous troubles for Borussia Dortmund.

Rather than spending all their energy keeping a ticking time bomb, it would be better to appease Zhou Yi...

And so, giving up Lewandowski and trying their best to keep Zhou Yi became the final decision at this closed-door meeting.

After the meeting, Watzke personally called Klopp and told him of this decision.

Klopp hoped that the club could avoid making this choice and keep both of them. But the fact was very grim. If Klopp wanted to keep Lewandowski by force, he might damage his reputation and suffer economic losses.

The only thing that could comfort Klopp was that Mark Wagner performed well in the Champions League final after his second recovery from injury. He scored the crucial equalizing goal. Without that goal, Borussia Dortmund might have lost.

It was Mark's goal that created the opportunity for Zhou Yi to score the winning goal against Bayern Munich.

If Lewandowski really couldn't be kept, at least Mark could hold on for a while, and at the same time, they could look for someone on the transfer market, hoping to find a suitable successor.

※※※

Zhou Yi was having dinner with his agent, Schulze, and they talked about the progress of his contract renewal with Borussia Dortmund.

"The progress is very slow. Borussia Dortmund's attitude is very firm this time," Schulze said to Zhou Yi. "The Götze thing has given them a big stimulus. They now deeply hate release clauses."

Zhou Yi also felt Borussia Dortmund's determination. He considered it for a while and pondered: "Why don't we do this? Anyway, my contract with Borussia Dortmund has three years left before it expires. If we really can't reach an agreement, we won't talk about it this summer. Anyway, the release clause won't take effect until the last season."

After Götze left, if Lewandowski left again, it would indeed be a heavy blow to Borussia Dortmund.

He couldn't take advantage of the situation at this time. After all, he still had feelings for Borussia Dortmund, and he didn't want to make things too difficult for the club. Although the club had been unkind in their dealings with Kagawa Shinji and Lewandowski, they had always treated him very well, and the overall cooperation between the two sides was pleasant.

If it weren't for the Götze incident, Zhou Yi might have really left Borussia Dortmund this summer, but now that the Götze and Lewandowski incidents had happened, Zhou Yi could no longer propose to leave Borussia Dortmund this summer.

This would put him in an unjust situation. Zhou Yi still cherished his feathers and reputation among the fans and was unwilling to be Judas.

Schulze also felt that Zhou Yi's suggestion made sense. He had also been under great pressure during his negotiations with Borussia Dortmund these past few days. He could feel that Watzke's face looked worse every time he saw him.

Now, if he took the initiative to propose suspending the contract renewal negotiations, he could also do Borussia Dortmund a favor.

But a day later, things changed.

※※※

Zhou Yi was holding the newspaper, staring blankly.

What did he see?

*Watzke: Lewandowski Can Leave at Any Time!*

"...Perhaps the recent series of accusations have put a lot of pressure on Borussia Dortmund. Just yesterday, Borussia Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke clearly stated to Lewandowski's agent, Kucharski, that Borussia Dortmund will not create any obstacles to Lewandowski leaving Borussia Dortmund. But if Bayern Munich really wants to get Lewandowski, then they should at least make an offer to Borussia Dortmund first..."

Borussia Dortmund actually gave up trying to keep Lewandowski?!

In one summer, two main players left. Zhou Yi could fully foresee what a huge wave the Borussia Dortmund fans would set off at that time...