Chapter 211 What? Possessed by Ronaldo?!
For Lazio, which has made almost no investment this season, entering European competitions, even the Europa League, can bring the team an extra income, allowing them to continue making minor repairs while retaining the team's main framework next season.
Especially the team's top player Milinkovic-Savic, his agent Kezman has already had many rounds of negotiations with Juventus' transfer representatives.
Although Lazio president Lotito has always set a sky-high price of 150 million euros for the Serbian, Milinkovic-Savic's contract will actually expire on June 30, 2024.
Sarri is inclined to let him stay for at least another year, and Milinkovic-Savic also intends to repay the club for which he has played for seven years. He is willing to renew the contract before it expires and then transfer to protect the club's interests, but he personally hopes that the penalty clause after the renewal will not be higher than 50 million euros.
In fact, the new contract matters of Chen Xiaoliang and Cesco are also nearing completion.
Given that the two have no intention of "running away" for the time being, club director Pinto originally planned to re-sign contracts with the two at the end of the season based on the situation throughout the season.
But the explosive performance of the two, especially Chen Xiaoliang's incredible speed of improvement and increasingly comprehensive role on the field, once again made the major giants move out in advance.
Juventus' transfer representatives have already begun to tentatively contact Pinto. They hope to have an offer of 60 million fixed and 60 million floating to bring the red national man from Rome to Turin.
The reason for choosing a third-party transfer representative instead of the club directly was mainly because of the previous feud between Chen Xiaoliang and Turin Sports Daily and the Golden Boy Award, as well as his strong opposition to the European Super League.
As everyone knows, Juventus is a staunch supporter of the European Super League.
They are worried that an open offer will cause strong dissatisfaction among the club's diehard fans and also trigger a chain reaction from other European giants.
After all, in terms of financial resources, Juventus can be said to be a big shot in Serie A, but in Europe, especially in front of several Premier League clubs, it is simply not worth mentioning.
If Manchester's famous club for raising prices gets involved, everyone might end up losing everything.
Manchester City and Real Madrid are also reportedly interested in competing for Chen Xiaoliang in the summer.
Guardiola's love for Chen Xiaoliang is well known. From Sun Jihai to De Bruyne, there have been two people who have lobbied the club in person. At that time, Tottenham also received a transfer offer from Manchester City that triggered the buyout clause.
Real Madrid intends to bring Chen Xiaoliang to the Bernabeu after having already spent 100 million euros to sign the French genius Joan Armeni, so as to use the new golden boy of the Bernabeu to fight against another golden boy Pedri of the old rival Barcelona.
However, given Real Madrid's current income and expenditure situation, they must sell one or more players to meet the club's financial requirements.
When Roma club owner Dan Friedkin learned the news, his first reaction was naturally to urge Pinto to finalize Chen Xiaoliang's contract extension as soon as possible.
In addition, Chen Xiaoliang's current contract was signed when he was under 18 years old. According to FIFA requirements, players under the age of 18 can only sign a contract of a maximum of three years. Therefore, Chen Xiaoliang's contract will expire on June 30, 2024.
This is the same as the expiration date of the contract of Cesco, who was transferred for 12 million euros.
Riise has accepted the new contract offered by the club on behalf of two agents.
Among them, Chen Xiaoliang's contract is slightly different from the previous plan, and Mourinho's opinions were also taken into consideration.
If he qualifies for the Champions League group stage next season, his annual salary will be 11 million euros, or about 210,000 euros a week.
This annual salary is already ranked 7th in Serie A. 1-6 are Vlahovic (Juventus - 12.96 million), Szczesny (Juventus - 12.04 million), Bonucci (Juventus - 12.04 million), Lautaro (Inter Milan - 11.11 million), Brozovic (Inter Milan - 11.11 million), and Sandro (Juventus - 11.11 million).
It is obvious that Rome has shown the greatest sincerity within its financial capabilities.
If the team is ranked fourth in the league at the end of the season and needs to participate in the qualifying round, the annual salary is 8.5 million euros, about 160,000 euros per week. After passing the qualifying round and entering the group stage, the annual salary will be converted to 11 million euros;
If they fail to enter the top 4 of the league, their annual salary will be 8.5 million euros.
Even with this salary, he would be ranked 17th in Serie A, which is at the bottom of the first tier.
The contract period is five years.
In terms of liquidated damages, the club finally set up two liquidated damages clauses after many rounds of communication, which are only effective for clubs outside of Italy. Both clauses will only take effect after June 30, 2023, that is, in the summer window after the end of next season.
This is also Roma's clear requirement to keep Chen Xiaoliang for at least another year.
First, if the Serie A title or the Champions League final is not won during the contract period, the liquidated damages are 150 million euros;
Article 2: If the Serie A title is won or the Champions League final is reached during the contract period, the liquidated damages will be 120 million euros;
The above penalty includes installment payments for no more than 5 years.
Roma's intention is very clear. If the team can really win the championship, whether it is regaining Serie A after 22 years or reaching the Champions League final for the first time in history, the team's reputation and influence will increase significantly, and the bonuses and profits obtained will be able to cover the sponsorship and combat effectiveness lost due to Chen Xiaoliang's departure.
Even if it is 120 million euros, it is enough to buy two practical first-class midfielders.
Originally, Riise had always rejected these two penalty clauses. The main reason was the value of the penalty. Once this value was set, it would mean that there would be only a handful of clubs for Chen Xiaoliang to go to next. There were only four or five clubs that could pay this price for a midfielder.
But Chen Xiaoliang accepted it.
The reason is simple. If your performance and ability are not enough to allow you to go to the top club, why not stay in Rome?
The boss spoke, and Reese had to agree. The contract was scheduled to be signed soon, but it would not take effect immediately. It would have to wait until May 21, when Chen Xiaoliang turned 18.
Cesco's side is much simpler. The purpose of signing a new contract is also very simple, because he has become the club's top scorer. The current annual salary cannot match his actual performance, and it is not conducive to the club's long-term retention of the main players. Therefore, a 5-year contract with an annual salary of 6 million euros and a bonus clause of 500,000 is also offered.
However, there is no termination fee.
This is also to prevent some big clubs from coming and poaching players by force.
For example, Manchester United.
Mantai is everywhere, not only Cesco, but also Gakpo's potential transfer targets include the Red Devils' name.
The annual salary increase for the two players will cost the club nearly 10 million euros more each year, but owner Dan Friedkin hopes to use this to show all players the board's ambition to build a championship team and its determination to retain strong players.
After the news was made public by the club, it undoubtedly prompted the Roma players to perform at their best in this game.
Roma played very patiently, so patiently that even Mourinho sat back in the coaching seat and quietly watched the performance of his disciples.
He has never had such a satisfying moment since he took over the team.
Everyone selflessly gave their best, and even if some details were not in line with his requirements, their full fighting spirit and impeccable attitude made these flaws no longer important.
Sarri's formation change is indeed effective. When the team's overall movement is slow, shrinking the defense to protect the middle is indeed the best way to prevent the opponent's quick transfer to the flanks.
Otherwise, blindly following Roma like a headless fly, constantly switching between the two flanks would only expose space in the middle of the defense and make it exhausted.
But no matter how effective the formation change was, it only stopped Roma from scoring goals.
Immobile was lost alone in the frontcourt, watching the other 10 teammates focus on defense, trying hard to head out Roma's cross and block Roma's long shot again and again, like a group of soldiers in a defensive position, going forward one after another and using their bodies to block the attack.
The only few times the ball was passed were when the central defender or defensive midfielder who got the ball after clearing the ball would make a long pass to Immobile who was at the front, hoping to use the ball from behind to bring out the speed of this Golden Boot striker and break through the defense of the two central defenders who were specifically responsible for marking him.
But Immobile is not the Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi of the past, nor is he the Mbappe and Haaland of today. Although he has won the Golden Boot three times, long-distance running, passing several people, and leaving the others far behind are not his strong points.
Throughout the entire first half until the very end, it was only in the 38th minute that Immobile received a long pass from Veretout and controlled the ball when Roma took advantage of a corner kick and the central defenders went to the penalty area to compete for a header and switched to Veretout and Malacia to defend Immobile.
But Immobile made some hand movements on this ball but the referee did not make any penalty.
After receiving the ball, Immobile dribbled all the way to the front left and waited for his teammates to catch up.
Sure enough, not long after, players from both teams rushed into the Roma half like a tide.
Immobile passed the ball to Felipe Anderson who was following in the middle. The latter dodged Binya who was returning to defense and wanted to rush into the penalty area but found that Chen Xiaoliang had caught up to him less than 2 meters behind him. He immediately passed the ball sideways to Pedro who was following on the other side.
The former Barcelona main player passed the ball back to Immobile who had already circled back to the top of the penalty area.
Lazio's Golden Boot shot a low shot towards the bottom left corner, but it was caught by Fuzzato as it was far away.
This time, there was no need for Ibanez to remind him. After holding the ball firmly, Fuzato immediately got up, quickly glanced at the situation in front of him, and then threw the ball to Mancini who was halfway back to defense on the right front.
After besieging for a long time without any effect, we finally took advantage of Lazio's counterattack and sent a lot of people to attack. Shouldn't we respond with a quick counterattack?
Mancini pulled the ball and turned around, and seeing Lucas Leiva rushing towards him, he immediately used an awkward but effective posture to kick the ball with the instep of his foot and passed it to Cesco in front of him.
Cesco stopped the ball with his chest, and as soon as the ball hit the ground he felt the force of Marusic's hand pushing him up from behind.
There was no one behind Cesco, and he wanted to pass the ball back to Pellegrini who was following behind him, but the video of Gakpo came to his mind again.
What Cesco was thinking was, if others can do it, why can't I? !
I exerted a little force on my back, then dribbled the ball with my left foot and swung my right arm to hit Marusic's right arm that was pushing me.
This swing not only knocked away Marusic's hand, but also blocked him behind him.
Cesco rushed forward with big strides!
Chen Xiaoliang ran forward quickly, feeling delighted!
Damn! This guy is going crazy today!
There are only two central defenders in front of Cesco, Luiz Felipe and Acerbi!
Cesco dribbled the ball to 2 meters in front of Luis Felipe, stopped suddenly and changed direction to the right. He wanted to make room and move forward a few meters, then shoot directly outside the penalty area!
Luiz Felipe immediately moved sideways and followed closely, while Acerbi next to him retreated, blocking Dusco's shooting route while paying attention to the running routes of other Roma players.
Seeing that Cesco was about to create enough space to shoot, Luis Filipe had no choice but to pull his arm hard. Cesco was on one foot and immediately lost his balance and fell to the ground.
“Beep!”
The referee blew the whistle, gave Luis Felipe a yellow card, and at the same time awarded a free kick outside the penalty area, about 30 meters away from the goal.
The fact of the foul was clear, and players from both sides did not say anything more to the referee, but immediately took their positions according to the tactical arrangements for set-piece offense and defense.
Pellegrini really wanted to take the penalty kick, as he felt that he was in good form today, but he still looked at Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang walked over, pretending to steal glances at the wall of players, and covered his mouth with his left hand and said to Pellegrini: "How are you going to play? Do you need me to help you with a fake move or a pass?"
Pellegrini was very happy when he heard Chen Xiaoliang "agreed" to let him take the free throw.
"I'll take the penalty directly, you help me run with a fake move."
Chen Xiaoliang blinked: "Okay, but let's pretend for a while."
Then he muttered some nonsense while pointing at the human wall, the goalkeeper, and the line with his other hand.
Pellegrini kept nodding and then responded with some equally meaningless nonsense.
But the conversation between the two caused trouble for Lazio players.
Assistant coach Martuscielo stood up and walked to the sidelines. He was very uneasy: if this ball went in again, the game would be completely over.
His original plan was to return to the locker room, let Sarri adjust the personnel and tactics for the second half, and then fight back.
But if the score is 3-0 at halftime, how can we fight back? It is impossible for every team to be AC Milan, which was overturned by Liverpool that year...
The referee came over and reminded Chen Xiaoliang and Pellegrini that they could end their discussion and prepare for the kick-off.
Chen Xiaoliang took the initiative to nod to the referee, and then patted Pellegrini on the chest. Pellegrini was also possessed by a sense of drama and made an OK gesture to Chen Xiaoliang.
Strakosha watched the two of them chatting and laughing, full of confidence, and couldn't help cursing in his heart: Who the hell is kicking this?
“Beep!”
The referee blows the whistle!
Chen Xiaoliang looked at the ball firmly, then at the goal, and then stepped back straight along the line connecting the ball and the goal, one step, two steps, three steps, four steps!
Then open your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, take a deep breath, and exhale deeply!
Not only Strakosha, but also the players from both teams, the bench players, the entire stadium, and all the fans watching the live broadcast were stunned!
This is Ronaldo's preparation before taking a free kick!
Mourinho stood up!
What is Chen Xiaoliang doing? !
