No Middlemen Make the Difference
Once upon a time, it was a near-monopoly business for South American players to move to Europe.
Take Ferger, the godfather of Brazilian football, as an example. As an agent, he controlled almost all the channels for Brazilian players to move abroad, recruiting partners in various European countries.
The most famous of these is Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes, who started out running errands for Figer.
But gradually, the teams in the European leagues began to realize that there were huge flaws in this model.
To put it simply, the middlemen were earning too much of the difference.
The wealthy teams don't pay much attention to these. As long as the players they provide meet their strength requirements, they don't mind letting them draw an agency fee because they don't care about money; they care about talent.
However, the mid and lower-tier teams of the five major leagues, as well as some second-tier league teams, gradually realized that there was a lucrative market here.
In fact, they have a natural advantage over middlemen like Figer.
For example, teams such as Sevilla in La Liga, Udinese in Serie A, and Porto in the Portuguese Super League were the first to tap into this lucrative market in South America. They went directly to the source and grabbed high-quality players at good prices.
Those selected by them are sent directly to their teams or satellite teams to train and play.
For example, players like Dani Alves and Julio Baptista in La Liga, who were not famous before, played for Sevilla, showcased their strength, and won the favor of the giants.
Now, Dani Alves is Sevilla's most coveted star, with many giants eagerly watching.
Players who have been verified by teams such as Porto, Sevilla, and Udinese have proven to be suitable for the European leagues, with their strength tested in competitions like the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. The possibility of them being a flop is very low.
Therefore, the giant teams are more inclined to sign players from these clubs.
As a result, more and more European teams have started expanding their scouting networks into South America and Africa.
Agent giants like Figer gradually lost their market share, their businesses shrunk rapidly, and they gradually disappeared from the fans' field of vision, replaced by teams like Porto, Sevilla, and Udinese, who operate on a "black shop" model.
Among them, Ajax was a pioneer in actively developing the African market, but unfortunately, they didn't stick to this path, which also led to their decline from the top tier in the early 2000s.
Napoli's De Laurentiis is a very shrewd owner. He could see the operational mechanism of Udinese's model at a glance, and he also understood that with his financial resources, it would be challenging to compete with the top three in the north of Serie A for a long time.
So, right after he restructured Napoli, he poached technical director Pierpaolo Marino from Udinese.
After the founder of the Udinese scouting network came to Naples, he began actively developing overseas talent markets for Napoli.
When Gao Shen and Lucas both arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Roman Dias, who received them, was Marino's partner in Argentina.
Before Gao Shen flew to Argentina, he had already faxed Roman Dias a list of the players he wanted and asked him to explore the situation in advance. The results were mixed.
...
"I just got your fax and immediately got in touch with the Uruguayan team, but unfortunately, they have already sold Luis Suarez to Groningen in the Eredivisie. You're a few days late."
At the hotel where Gao Shen and Lucas were staying, Roman Dias came to report on his latest progress.
Gao Shen frowned. He had known for some time that Suarez would transfer to the Eredivisie this summer and contacted Roman Dias immediately, but he was still a step behind.
There's nothing to be done about it that's life!
"What about the others?" Gao Shen asked with concern.
"The Independiente team is in Buenos Aires. I first contacted them. At that time, there were also some agents who were actively operating the players of Independiente to move abroad. You know, their player Aguero just moved to Atlético de Madrid for 20 million euros, and the agent made crazy money from it."
Gao Shen had also heard of this transfer, and it was indeed shocking.
Of course, from the perspective of 2021, Aguero's deal was quite worthwhile, but in 2006, paying a transfer fee of 20 million euros for a 19-year-old teenager was simply astronomical.
"What about Lucas Biglia?" Gao Shen asked with concern.
This player was also a key target for him.
Many people got to know Biglia from the World Cup in Brazil, but in fact, he was already a mainstay in Argentina's youth national teams at all levels. For example, in the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, which was Messi's only world championship, Biglia was the main midfielder.
But sometimes, choices can change a person's life.
Instead of playing in the top European leagues, Biglia went to Anderlecht in Belgium.
Although he has always been the main core of this team, his reputation has not been widespread. It wasn't until the World Cup in Brazil that he gained some recognition, which allowed him to join Lazio in Serie A, where his strength was further acknowledged.
Moreover, this player is both offensive and defensive, with considerable skill.
"I've asked around, and there are agents working on it. If you are sure you want him, I'll start negotiations right away, but it has to be quick," Roman Dias said with some urgency. He also gets a commission for completing this deal.
However, compared to those agents who work directly with European clubs, the commission is less, as it is more about facilitating negotiations between the two clubs. As for the transfer fee, that's up to the two sides to negotiate.
Each type of agent has its own survival mode, and Roman Dias survives this way.
"How much do you think it will cost?" Gao Shen asked.
After thinking about it, Roman Dias said, "Between 1.5 million and 2 million euros."
Gao Shen took note. "Tell me about the others."
"Di Maria is in Rosario, not far north of Buenos Aires, and is currently a substitute for the first team of Rosario Central. He hasn't had a standout performance yet, but he is only eighteen years old. I guess the transfer fee should be about the same as Biglia's."
Gao Shen nodded repeatedly, which was much lower than he had expected.
This should be the advantage of not having a middleman take a cut.
If he remembered correctly, Di Maria performed well at Rosario Central the following year. After his agent transferred him to Benfica, he was worth more than seven million euros. So now, signing him would be very cost-effective.
Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, are separated by a bay and are very close.
Uruguay's Danubio is in Montevideo, and center-forward Edinson Cavani is currently playing for this team. In the just-concluded league, he scored four goals in ten games and three goals in five cup games, showing good performance.
Luis Suarez from the Uruguayan national team scored ten goals in 29 games and one goal in three cup games. His overall performance is slightly better than Cavani's. The fee for his move to Groningen was 800,000 euros.
Of course, this price was a steal because a year later, Groningen sold Suarez to Ajax for ten times the price.
As for Cavani, Roman Dias believes that his price is at most around the same as Suarez's.
After all, the euro is very valuable.
Plus, with no middleman taking a cut, European teams buying players in South America is almost like a harvest.
Gao Shen realized he had made a mistake.
He initially planned to spend several million euros to acquire these three future stars, but now it seems he doesn't need to spend that much.
Now, he increasingly understood a saying: the essence of business is asymmetric information.
A player sold for only a few hundred thousand or one to two million euros in South America could sell for millions or even tens of millions in Europe after negotiation and manipulation by an agent. What a hugely profitable business!
Just like Aguero, apart from being a transmigrator with knowledge of his future achievements, what achievements does he have now to warrant a 20-million-euro price tag from Atletico Madrid?
The most valuable thing is that he played in the Argentine League at the age of 15 and is the youngest player in history. At the same time, he scored 18 goals in 36 games last season. There is no doubt about his strength and potential.
But is he worth 20 million euros?
His agent is Jose Segui, one of the most powerful agents in Spain, and he is affiliated with the world-famous IMG company.
In fact, everything behind this, to put it bluntly, is about hyping up a story.
And Atletico was willing to pay for the story.
Of course, this does not mean that Aguero has no strength or potential.
No, on the contrary, Aguero's strength and potential are beyond doubt.
But 20 million euros is outrageous!
Another classic case is the transfer saga between Neymar and Barcelona and Real Madrid. This is actually a very typical case of how a middleman operates and packages a player. The difference is that Neymar simply made his father the biggest middleman.
The South American football market is so chaotic that if there isn't someone familiar with the terrain like Roman Dias leading the way, let alone Gao Shen, even Marino would have difficulty figuring things out.
And Gao Shen is also very fortunate that in the contract he signed with Napoli, there is a clause for sharing the transfer price of the players he signed.
It turned out that this decision was incredibly smart.
...
...
After making some adjustments, Gao Shen had Roman Días accompany him as he went to handle the club's affairs.
First, they visited Club Independiente to discuss the transfer of Biglia, a player from the Argentine Youth National Team who also holds Italian citizenship. After negotiations, Gao Shen secured the transfer for 1.8 million euros.
According to Roman Días, they could have negotiated for an even lower price with a bit more patience.
Next, they headed north to Rosario, where they negotiated with Rosario Central for Di María. Gao Shen managed to sign the "Angel Wing" for 1.2 million euros. From there, they immediately crossed the bay and went directly to the capital of Uruguay.
This time, the deal was the most successful. Upon hearing that a European team wanted to buy Edinson Cavani, the other party almost didn't even negotiate. They agreed to 800,000 euros and let him go immediately, similar to how Suárez was transferred.
Gao Shen did not expect his trip to South America to be so smooth.
Meanwhile, Roman Días continued to receive more updates.
In addition to Di María, Cavani, and Biglia, Gao Shen was also interested in three other South American players.
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