Then, Zhang Yida visited five clubs including Manchester City, Southampton, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa, and Wolves.
After Li Ruigang greeted him, Sheikh Mansour, the current chairman of Manchester City, came forward and warmly received Zhang Yida and his inspection team.
Mansour is a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He has a strong background and is mainly engaged in investment in the oil field.
He owns numerous properties in the UAE, likes sports cars and horse racing, and is the chairman of the UAE Jockey Club.
In addition, his private life is relatively well protected. According to incomplete statistics, we only know that he has 2 wives, 2 daughters and 4 sons.
The population is not very prosperous! According to local customs and the style of the royal family, how can there be only such a few people in the family.
Similar to what the outside world said, he took the initiative to chat with Zhang Yida about horse racing after learning that Zhang Yida owned an Akhalje golden horse.
Today is not a match day. Zhang Yida and Mansour walked on the empty Etihad Stadium, followed by a large number of entourage and security personnel.
Zhang Yida took a few glances at the magnificent bowl-shaped stadium with three levels of seats from east to west and south, and praised: "This stadium is pretty good, very modern!"
Mansour shook his head, "It's still a bit small. In the early years, this was the Commonwealth Games stadium, and later it was transformed into the home stadium of Manchester City."
Then he pointed to the north, "It will be great once the expansion of the North Stand is completed. By then it will be able to accommodate 62,000 spectators.
It’s not good now and can only accommodate 55,000 people. It used to be even smaller and could only accommodate 48,000 people.”
Zhang Yida nodded, stadium expansion generally means more spectators, more fans, better team performance, and things are going uphill.
Through such a small matter as the stadium expansion, we can also see that Manchester City has done well in recent years.
In fact, this is indeed the case. Manchester City's gold-dollar offensive has worked. In the past few years, Manchester City has been either the champion or the runner-up in the Premier League. It is a group of powerful players.
"I heard that the stadium expansion cost more than 100 million pounds?"
Mansour nodded and smiled: "Yes, but it's all small money. Do you know how much City Football Group has invested in the transfer market in the more than eight years since it took over Manchester City?"
"Want to hear the details!"
Zhang Yida looked like he was listening attentively and behaved very humbly.
When it comes to football clubs, he is a complete newcomer to the industry. He came here today with the intention of learning from Mansour.
"£1.3 billion!"
After hearing this, Zhang Yida smiled bitterly, "This is the real rich man! He has an oil field at home, it's your turn to criticize him."
"When I spent 210 million pounds to buy Manchester City in 2008, the outside world was generally not optimistic about it."
Facing Zhang Yida, the world's youngest billionaire, Mansour suddenly became interested and prepared to talk about his football business experience.
He was very satisfied when he saw Zhang Yida studying seriously.
He continued: "Before I took over, Manchester City was a Premier League club with the goal of relegation.
At that time, Manchester City's frequent coaching changes and lack of financial resources made it impossible for them to compete with strong teams.
Fans boycotting us, saying we don't understand football, will only ruin Manchester City.
Our colleagues laughed at us, saying that we only threw money and had no respect for football.
Anyway, few people think highly of us.
As a result, within four years, we won the Premier League championship trophy.
Now for Manchester City, the Premier League championship is no longer our most important goal. Our goal is the Champions League.
So much money was invested before and after, but it was not lost in vain.
According to the 2016 football club value list released by Forbes, our Manchester City is worth US$2 billion, ranking sixth among all football clubs after Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern and Arsenal."
Zhang Yida has also read this ranking list, which is relatively conservative and can only be used as a valuation reference.
Tottenham ranks tenth above, with a valuation of US$1.02 billion.
"Mr. Mansour, those people who looked down on and laughed at you back then. I guess they want to take back what they said before today."
Mansour waved his hand, "None of this matters anymore. What matters is that Manchester City proved themselves, right?"
"Haha, everything you said is right!"
Who said you can’t achieve results even if you have money? Zhang Yida thinks this matter needs to be viewed from both sides.
Generally speaking, wealthy people spend one or two years throwing money at it, but the results don't show up, so they can't afford to invest. How could Mansoor, like Mansour, spend seven or eight years without making any results.
Of course, the national football team may be a different species. It’s hard to say.
Mansour's exaggerated investment method must be a loss from a purely business perspective.
What he really pursues is the international status of his country. He is not only a businessman, but also a politician, a member of the UAE Cabinet Council, and the Minister of Heads of Affairs of the UAE.
"Mr. Zhang, do you also want to buy a football team for fun?"
Zhang Yida smiled and said: "I have this idea, but I lack experience, so I came to ask Mr. Mansour for advice first."
"Then you have to be mentally prepared. The Premier League is very exclusive. It took City Football Group eight years to be slowly accepted by fans and the Premier League."
Zhang Yida waved his hand, "It doesn't necessarily have to be the Premier League. We are still looking for a suitable target."
"If you need any help, just ask. I personally like making friends from China."
"Haha, I also like our Emirati friends who are generous and generous."
Then Mansour chatted with Zhang Yida about the Internet industry. He said that China's Internet industry has risen rapidly and is very remarkable.
I also specifically asked about the development of Ruixiang Group and Musical.ly, and expressed great interest in investing.
Zhang Yida would definitely not refuse such a potential benefactor, and even invited Mansour to come to China for a visit.
The two chatted for two or three hours and had lunch together before Zhang Yida left with his harvest.
Then Zhang Yida visited four other Chinese-funded clubs one by one.
The four Chinese-funded consortiums all have strong backgrounds.
Behind Southampton is Leyinda Holding Group, which owns an A-share listed company, Lein Sports;
West Bromwich Albion is 88% owned by Yunyi Guokai, which is a sports investment company established by the actual controller of A-share Palm Holdings and various partners.
Both companies are currently in the Premier League, and the Chinese consortium each spent about 200 million pounds to successfully win them.
The two clubs still welcome the arrival of Zhang Yida and his entourage.
Because Zhang Yida is not unknown in China, the standard of reception is quite high.
The management of the two clubs led Zhang Yida and his party to visit various hardware facilities such as their own stadiums and training grounds, and also explained the operation models and business philosophies of their respective clubs.
Then, we went to Aston Villa.
This English Championship club is very interesting. The British royal family and British people are all fans of this club.
The Chinese shareholder who acquired the club is United Ruikang Group, which also owns three A-share listed companies: Lotus Health, Ruikang Shares, and Tianxia Wisdom. It is called Ruikang Group in the industry.
The boss, Xia Jiantong, is also very powerful. He went to college at the age of 14. He is the youngest design doctorate from Harvard and was selected into the first batch of the country's "Thousand Talents Plan".
A person with such high academic attainments is very successful in capital transfer in A-shares. In two years, he controlled three listed companies.
Zhang Yida remembered that this person also collapsed in his previous life and became another Boss Jia.
Boss Xia was not in the club. Zhang Yida and his party visited for a while and then left.
Behind the Wolves is Fosun Group, whose owner Guo Guangchang is known as the richest man in Shanghai.
From the Wolves' operating model, we can get a glimpse of the wisdom of this capital operation tycoon.
Wolves have reached a strategic cooperation with football agent Mendes.
Mendes is not a nobody, he is the agent of many famous stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Di Maria, Silva, James Rodriguez and so on.
He has extensive connections in his hometown in Portugal, and has brought many Portuguese young players to the Wolves who are good at playing, cheap and obedient.
Fosun has given Mendes benefits, such as buying 20% of the latter's agency, making Cristiano Ronaldo the spokesperson for a Chinese mobile phone brand, Mourinho becoming the spokesperson for a resort hotel in Sanya, and transferring players from China and Europe.
meeting.
Boss Guo really has a good way of doing business, and Zhang Yida has learned from it.
While Zhang Yida was inspecting various clubs, "The Sun" was also not idle.
Not only did Zhang Yida’s net worth and industry become clear, but also the fact that Beckham endorsed the former’s dog food brand and that Beckham’s son became a Musical.ly internet celebrity were revealed.
The editor of The Sun was very excited. Zhang Yida's age, net worth, and Chinese identity were all very impressive.
As for why Zhang Yida came to the Tottenham boss?
Combining the former's worth and Beckham's star status, it is easy to analyze the result.
As for investing in Tottenham Stadium, the possibility is slim.
Chinese capital has been aggressively acquiring football leagues at all levels in the UK in the past two years, and the whole UK is aware of the financial resources of the Chinese tycoons.
With the polish of the editor of The Sun, a report titled "China's 21-year-old entrepreneurial genius worth US$30 billion is about to acquire Tottenham" was released.
"Accompanied by Beckham, the Internet tycoon from China came to the estate of Tottenham owner Lewis...
In view of the financial difficulties Tottenham is facing due to the new stadium, it is speculated that they are negotiating with the Chinese buyer about the sale of the club.
Let’s take a look at the properties of this Chinese tycoon: Yimin Internet Finance with a market value of US$11 billion, and Yimin Wealth with a market value of US$2.8 billion...
The Green scooters in the streets of London are also his business, as is the Musical.ly short video app that my son also plays.
It must be admitted that this is a very powerful rich man. At the same time, I wish you all the best wishes to Bai Lily, you are about to welcome a boss with strong assets.
I also want to lament that the Chinese are so rich that they are about to buy out all the Premier League clubs. Let’s just change the name to the Chinese Super League in the future..."
The newspaper also posted several photos that William "risked his own life" to take, and the faces of Zhang Yida and Beckham were clearly photographed.
When other newspapers saw this big news, they also followed up and reprinted the report.
For a time, the news spread throughout Britain.
Tottenham fans have also divided into two groups. One group thinks that it is good to introduce powerful Internet wealthy shareholders like Zhang Yida, so that they can spend money to buy big-name players. The league championship and the Champions League championship are no longer within reach;
The other group is conservative, believing that Levy has managed the club very well and its performance has steadily increased. A sudden change of shareholders is likely to cause fluctuations in the club's performance.
There are also some extremists who say they will not accept the invasion of foreign capital and want to keep the club's British capital pure.
Levi went to work the next day and saw the dark crowd of protesters outside the club's training ground, and his good mood suddenly disappeared.
These protesting fans held various signs and shouted various slogans.
Levy had no choice but to have the club issue a clarifying announcement, stating that the existing shareholders had no intention of selling the team, and also called on fans not to believe the rumors.
Fans don’t believe it. There are real photos and they are still fooling me.
The protesting crowd refused to leave for a long time, and reporters who came after hearing the news rushed into the crowd and conducted interviews.
"Let that damn Chinese get away with his dirty money. Lily Baihe won't welcome him!"
A tall, muscular man yelled into the reporter's microphone.
"Tottenham are not short of money now, nor are they short of results. I don't understand what Levy is thinking?"
The more rational fans faced the camera and expressed their opinions in a very calm tone.
"Chinese people can only play table tennis, let's forget about football!"
…
At the same time, Zhang Yida received a Chinese boss who had just flown over from Italy in the hotel.