Deciding to give up on Robert Lewandowski, Borussia Dortmund could now devote most of their energy to dealing with Zhou Yi's agent, Schulze.

However, when the two sides negotiated once again, Schulze said that they understood the club's current situation, so they decided to temporarily shelve the contract renewal negotiations…

Borussia Dortmund went crazy when they heard the news—we finally freed up our hands, but you want to temporarily shelve the negotiations? What does that mean?!

Could it be that things have changed again?

Did Barcelona or Arsenal have some private deals with Zhou Yi's agent?

Although Schulze said that the reason for temporarily shelving the contract renewal negotiations was to understand the club's current situation, Borussia Dortmund would not believe Schulze's words. In their opinion, agents are creatures full of lies, and not a single word is worth believing.

There must be some hidden reason behind this!

After successively letting go of Götze and Lewandowski, Borussia Dortmund urgently needed some exciting news to restore their image in the hearts of Dortmund fans.

So they pinned all their hopes on the contract renewal negotiations with Zhou Yi. They hoped to successfully renew Zhou Yi's contract, and if they could also cancel the release clause, they would definitely announce it to the world, so that all Dortmund fans could know this good news as soon as possible.

In this case, Schulze, you say Zhou Yi doesn't plan to renew his contract?

Isn't this taking Dortmund's life?

For a moment, the representatives of Borussia Dortmund even wanted to go back on their decision regarding Lewandowski…

But of course they couldn't do that, otherwise Dortmund would really have no credibility in German and European football.

So they could only bite the bullet and persuade Schulze to return to the negotiating table for the contract renewal, saying that any conditions could be discussed, but don't stop talking.

※※※

"See, I was right, wasn't I?" Schulze happily reported Borussia Dortmund's latest attitude to Zhou Yi.

"Yes, not bad." Zhou Yi nodded.

Although they had previously discussed and decided to postpone the contract renewal negotiations, they didn't know at that time that the club would agree to let Lewandowski leave. After learning this news, Zhou Yi and Schulze re-discussed their strategy.

After analysis, they decided to continue to express their intention to the club to postpone the contract renewal negotiations.

But this time it wasn't out of understanding for the club's situation.

Borussia Dortmund guessed right, doing so now is definitely not because they understand the club's situation.

Schulze analyzed to Zhou Yi that Borussia Dortmund being able to give up Lewandowski was simply a heroic move. Losing two main players at once also made them determined to win the contract renewal with Zhou Yi.

Moreover, after letting Lewandowski go, Dortmund would have the time and energy to slowly negotiate the terms of the contract with Schulze.

This would make Dortmund feel confident.

In order to avoid letting the negotiations fall into Dortmund's rhythm, they had to do something that Borussia Dortmund would never expect.

Postponing the contract renewal negotiations was such a thing.

This is called retreating in order to advance.

It seems as if they're not talking about it, but in fact it's putting pressure on Dortmund.

Sure enough, Borussia Dortmund immediately became anxious when they heard that Schulze wasn't going to talk anymore.

The next thing returned to the rhythm that Schulze was familiar with.

Schulze could completely continue to insist on their conditions. If Dortmund didn't agree, then he would continue to use "postponing the contract renewal negotiations" to threaten the club, forcing them to yield.

For Dortmund, giving up Lewandowski certainly allowed them to have more energy and time to talk about contract renewal with Zhou Yi, but it also made them lose their retreat—with Götze and Lewandowski both leaving the team, Zhou Yi became someone who absolutely could not be lost. Borussia Dortmund did not dare to offend Zhou Yi no matter what. If they didn't negotiate a contract renewal with Zhou Yi this summer, Dortmund's stock price would fall. The hope of paying off their debts, which they had worked so hard to achieve, would be shattered if the stock price fell. The blow to Dortmund would probably be even greater than Götze and Lewandowski joining hands to go to their arch-rivals Bayern Munich.

※※※

The contract renewal negotiations between Dortmund and Zhou Yi progressed very slowly, but they were still moving forward bit by bit, which was the only good news for Borussia Dortmund.

From the end of last season to Zhou Yi's early return to the team, to Dortmund's first team reporting for training camp, it was not until three days before the entire Dortmund team was preparing to go to China that they finally reached an agreement.

Zhou Yi and Dortmund renewed their contract for four years, and the new contract would expire in 2017.

In order to retain Zhou Yi to the greatest extent, Dortmund can be said to have gone to great lengths—they offered Zhou Yi an amazing eight million euros annual salary!

This was higher than Götze's previous top salary of 4.6 million, and also a full one million higher than the 7 million annual salary that Dortmund was prepared to offer Lewandowski.

In fact, seven million euros was the top salary, but Dortmund was afraid that the salary of seven million euros would make Zhou Yi think that he was just Lewandowski's backup, so they added another million on this basis.

This was really a salary condition that Dortmund gritted their teeth and offered.

In this regard, Schulze did not propose any excessive conditions.

Schulze was happy to see Dortmund's own proposed annual salary figure. The player he represented being able to become Dortmund's highest-paid player also satisfied his small vanity as an agent to some extent.

The key and essence of this contract renewal was the release clause.

Under Schulze's strong insistence, a release clause was still added to the new contract, but the amount of the release clause was increased a lot. This was also a concession made by Zhou Yi and Schulze, or rather, their sincerity in staying in Dortmund.

According to the new contract, starting from the last year of Zhou Yi's contract with Dortmund, any team could directly take Zhou Yi away as long as they could offer a transfer fee of 90 million euros.

Ninety million euros was definitely a huge sum for Dortmund. If a club was really willing to offer so much money, even for Zhou Yi, they would seriously consider selling him.

So this release clause was acceptable to Dortmund.

Zhou Yi could also accept it, because he felt that if he continued to have the same performance as last season, it wouldn't be long before he should be worth 90 million euros.

At that time, if the teams interested in him were really sincere, they wouldn't mind taking out 90 million euros to "redeem" themselves. If they weren't willing to pay this money, it would first of all indicate that the other club didn't sincerely need themselves, and secondly, it would indicate that this team's strength was insufficient and not worthy of themselves.

This number was like a touchstone, which could test the sincerity of the teams pursuing Zhou Yi, and also help Zhou Yi screen out many unreliable teams, shorten the time for releasing Zhou Yi, and narrow down his range of choices.

Out of these considerations, Zhou Yi agreed to the 90 million euro release clause proposed by Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund was generally satisfied with this contract, and Zhou Yi was also very satisfied.

Both sides felt that they had made a profit.

After the contract was negotiated, even before Zhou Yi and the club signed it, Dortmund couldn't wait to announce that they would renew their contract with Zhou Yi.

"...We are very happy that in this eventful autumn, Zhou Yi chose to stand together with the club and share weal and woe!"

Dortmund's official Twitter account posted such a tweet, and it was quickly retweeted by the media and Dortmund fans.

This was equivalent to officially announcing that Zhou Yi would stay in Dortmund.

As Borussia Dortmund had predicted and hoped, after this news was spread, the fans who had been scolding the club for being stingy and brain-damaged were now unable to scold Dortmund, and praised the efforts made by the club, praising Zhou Yi for being grateful...

For a time, the public opinion seemed to be happy.

No one mentioned the departure of Götze and Lewandowski anymore.

It was as if Zhou Yi staying alone could offset the negative impact of the departure of those two people...

On the day before Dortmund set off for China, Zhou Yi held a signing ceremony with Borussia Dortmund at the Brackel Training Center.

Under the witness of many reporters and the club's main officials, Zhou Yi and Watzke signed their names on the contract.

Afterwards, they held up Zhou Yi's jersey and took a group photo in front of the camera.

Watzke in the photo smiled very brightly, his face was red.

He was really happy from the bottom of his heart with this result.

At least for a period of time, he didn't have to think about Schulze's face that made him want to vomit.

At the signing ceremony, Watzke praised Zhou Yi to the reporters: "Everyone will eventually remember who is truly important and indispensable to Dortmund. I am happy and proud of Zhou Yi's choice. This contract renewal is no less than a great signing. We are very much looking forward to Dortmund continuing to maintain its consistent competitiveness under Zhou Yi's leadership in the new season..."

The reporters piled the microphones in front of Zhou Yi, wanting to hear what he had to say.

"I am very happy to be able to complete the contract renewal with the club. As I said before, I am willing to stay in Dortmund, and I am also very happy in Dortmund. I have many friends here—I am not just referring to my teammates..." Zhou Yi spoke eloquently in front of a large number of microphones. "I don't know what difficulties we will face in the new season, and I can't guarantee anything. But I will go all out and do my best to help the team. This is to repay the fans for their love for me."

While he was speaking, the reporters kept pressing the shutter of their cameras below.

That night, these photos appeared on the Internet, and the news of Zhou Yi's contract renewal with Dortmund was finally confirmed. The big stone in the hearts of those Dortmund fans who had been talking about it could finally be put down, while those who had been waiting to see Dortmund's jokes felt disappointed.

In any case, this summer, Dortmund's biggest soap opera finally came to an end.