Chapter 143 Greetings from Guardiola in Person, Barcelona's Embarrassment!
After packing up and saying goodbye to De Bruyne, Lin Quan returned to the host family's place. The William family was already waiting at the door, along with Guardiola, who had left the stadium early and brought a car to help him move.
"Lin, thank you for your contribution to Werder Bremen this past season!" William walked up to Lin Quan as he returned, giving him a warm hug. As a die-hard Werder Bremen fan, William had witnessed Lin Quan's significant impact on the team throughout the season, from an unknown player to someone who made the entire Bundesliga take notice and countless fans remember his name.
"Thank you for taking care of me and my family. I really appreciate all your help during this time!" Lin Quan expressed his gratitude to the William family, presenting them with a gift he had prepared in advance, along with a message of well wishes.
"Lin Quan, can you stay?" Eleven-year-old Grennie had become a fan of Lin Quan, and the thought of him leaving and never seeing him play in Werder Bremen's green jersey again made the little guy very upset.
"Grennie, don't make unreasonable demands of your brother Lin Quan!" Anna, Grennie's mother, quickly intervened, trying to stop her son's unreasonable request. Whether Lin Quan stayed or left was his choice, and others had no right to interfere.
From the perspective of Werder Bremen fans, they naturally hoped Lin Quan would stay. But from Lin Quan's personal perspective, staying at Werder Bremen would not be beneficial for his future career.
"All right, can I ask for one more signed jersey from you?" Lin Quan ruffled Grennie's hair. "No problem!" He took out a jersey he had worn at the club, signed it, and added a message: "Wishing Grennie Oto a future soaring on the green field like me - Lin Quan!"
Receiving this gift, Grennie finally smiled through his tears.
Lin Quan's things were already packed, and with the help of William and Guardiola, they were quickly loaded into the car. Before leaving, at Guardiola's invitation, they invited the William family to a farewell dinner.
After the farewell dinner, Lin Quan opened Guardiola's car door and waved goodbye to the William family. This parting, when they would meet again, was uncertain.
"Where are we going now?" Lin Quan realized he hadn't asked about the destination.
"Of course, it's Munich. We can't just drive straight back to Spain, can we?" Guardiola shrugged. Germany was too far from Spain, and driving all the way back would be exhausting.
Lin Quan didn't think it was a big deal. The distance from Bremen to Catalonia was only about 1700 kilometers, which was nothing compared to the thousands of kilometers some people drove back home during the Spring Festival in China.
"But have you sorted out your house in Munich?" Guardiola signed with Bayern in January, and unless there was a breach of contract on both sides, he would definitely coach Bayern next season.
And to coach Bayern, he needed to solve his personal and family accommodation. Excluding Lin Quan, Guardiola, and Serra, there were still three children! In Europe, there was rarely a situation where the head of the family worked alone outside while the wife and children stayed behind.
So when Guardiola came to Bayern, his family would definitely come over to live with him.
Including Lin Quan, it would be a family of six, and without a large house, they wouldn't fit.
"Well, I've found two places, one on Sophie Street and one in the suburbs. I'll take you to see them later, and you can give me your opinion as a reference!"
"By the way, you'll live with us, right?" Guardiola asked eagerly. Since sparring with Lin Quan on the training ground during the winter break, he couldn't help but want to spar with someone.
But the level of those people was too far below Lin Quan's, making it boring for Guardiola.
"Who knows? I haven't signed with Bayern yet. It's hard to say where I'll go next season!" Lin Quan shrugged, deliberately teasing Guardiola.
"Really? But I heard from Pere that you and Bayern have already reached a verbal agreement."
Guardiola wasn't fooled by Lin Quan. With a younger brother on the inside, it was not difficult for him to grasp Lin Quan's transfer situation.
"Mr. Guardiola, are you trying to make me give another Mr. Guardiola a gag order?" Lin Quan pretended to be angry, expressing dissatisfaction with Guardiola's private inquiries about his transfer.
"No need, no need. My bad. But Pere is innocent, don't involve him."
Seeing Guardiola apologize, Lin Quan didn't pursue it further.
The two of them tacitly didn't continue discussing the topic.
"So, who do you think will win the Champions League final?"
The journey was boring, and soon the chatterbox Guardiola started looking for new topics.
"I think Bayern has a better chance of winning."
Lin Quan knew the result of the match. If the butterfly effect he brought wasn't so strong, Bayern would probably win.
"Yeah, I think so too. Honestly, Heynckes has done a good job with the team. If Bayern wins, it will be tough for me to coach the team next season!"
Guardiola frowned.
Any championship team, especially one that wins the Champions League, has its own pride. Bayern is currently on the rise, with good results, flexible tactics, and high spirits among the players.
In such a situation, a sudden change of coach, letting another person coach them, would be a challenge for both sides.
To be honest, Guardiola regretted it a bit.
If he had known Bayern would win the championship this season, he might not have been willing to take over Bayern.
Facing a team that had just won the championship, even with his prestige, he didn't dare to make changes lightly.
But if he didn't reform and continued to follow Heynckes's coaching plan, what was the point of Bayern signing him?
And if he really carried out radical reforms, if the team's performance fluctuated or even declined, fans and players would inevitably become dissatisfied.
The feeling of dancing with shackles, living in the shadow of his predecessor, was really uncomfortable.
Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a little sympathetic to Villanova.
I wonder if he had experienced the painful experience of living in his own shadow after taking over Barcelona...
On this, Lin Quan could only shrug. You chose it yourself!
...
Germany's autobahn has no speed limit, and there aren't many cars on the road at night, so Guardiola drove fast, giving Lin Quan a real sense of speed and excitement.
After arriving in Munich, it was already past three in the morning.
Both of them were exhausted. After arriving at the designated hotel, they went to bed immediately and slept until around ten in the morning the next day.
After calling the front desk, the hotel sent over a prepared breakfast, along with several newspapers for the day.
Lin Quan didn't need to read the content. Just by looking at the headlines and cover photos, he knew they were definitely reporting on last night's match.
He flipped one open, and sure enough.
"Witnessing History, Bundesliga Rising Star Emerges, Breaking a Forty-Year Record!" "The Birth of a Legend? Barcelona's New Star Breaks Eight Bundesliga Records in a Single Season!" "42 Goals in a Single Season, Third in History!"
Hehe, Lin Quan felt a bit embarrassed seeing the newspaper blowing him up so much.
Feeling embarrassed himself, Guardiola on the other side seemed to be enjoying it.
When he encountered some viewpoints he agreed with, he nodded frequently, looking like he had found a kindred spirit.
Although the newspaper wasn't praising him, why did he feel happier than if they were?
The newspaper in front of Lin Quan was just a small part of it.
After this game, the major media outlets all gave extensive coverage to it.
Among them, the Bundesliga media paid more attention to Lin Quan breaking the Bundesliga record itself.
Gerd Muller's record was extremely difficult to break, otherwise it wouldn't have been sealed for forty years.
The Bundesliga has two fewer teams than the other major leagues, which means they play four fewer games a year.
Scoring 40+ goals in a 34-game season is much harder than in the other major leagues.
Therefore, they were all amazed by the latest record Lin Quan created.
The media not only carried out extensive coverage, but even found the former record holder Gerd Muller and interviewed him.
Gerd Muller was very magnanimous and did not feel unhappy about Lin Quan breaking his record. On the contrary, he was very optimistic about Lin Quan and praised him heavily in the interview:
"Lin is a very, very outstanding player. The new record he created is of great significance, at least higher than the significance of my record back then!"
Gerd Muller smiled and said, this was not modesty, but the truth.
His record was created while playing for Bayern Munich, while Lin Quan created his record at the small club Werder Bremen.
What level is Bayern, what level is Werder Bremen? At Bayern, he could get the support of high-level teammates, but Lin Quan couldn't enjoy such treatment at Werder Bremen. His teammates clearly weren't as strong as Gerd Muller's teammates back then.
The support and help Lin Quan received from his Werder Bremen teammates were far less than what his teammates provided him with initially.
So, a large part of Lin Quan's goals were scored with his outstanding personal ability.
At the end of the interview, Gerd Muller once again made a suggestion to Lin Quan:
"I still think that a player as excellent as Lin should come to our Bayern Munich. Here, he can achieve more honors and higher achievements, just like me!"
Gerd Muller wanted to bring Lin Quan to the Allianz Arena, this was not the first or second time.
It's just that this time, his attitude was obviously more positive.
Different from the Bundesliga media, the Spanish media was more concerned about Lin Quan's next destination.
News from Barcelona indicated that Lin Quan's contract was about to expire, but there had been no progress in the renewal.
This led the outside world to generally believe that Lin Quan would not renew with Barcelona, and Barcelona would soon lose this super new star.
This result was naturally a heavy loss for Barcelona, but for other La Liga teams, it didn't seem like bad news.
With Lin Quan's strength, if he returned to Barcelona, how could the other La Liga teams play? One Messi was enough for them to handle, if another one came, they might as well surrender without a fight!
From this point of view, they didn't want Lin Quan to return to La Liga and go back to Barcelona.
However, if Lin Quan came to their own team, they would naturally welcome him with open arms.
...
In the office of the Barcelona club president, with a slap, a newspaper was thrown onto the table.
The headline and cover photo of the person in the green number 10 jersey were so glaring in Rosell's eyes.
"Barcelona's Super Nova Not Renewing with the Team, May Transfer to Real Madrid!"
He never expected that the kid he had planned to get rid of would grow to this extent.
And what embarrassed him even more was that the other party was dissatisfied with his actions at the time and did not want to renew with the club.
If Barcelona really let the other party leave, it would not only be a heavy loss for Barcelona, but he himself would inevitably be questioned or even attacked by the Barcelona fans.
"Damn it, Enrique!"
Thinking of this, Rosell started cursing the already departed Enrique again.
In his opinion, it was all Enrique's fault, if it weren't for him messing things up, his current situation wouldn't be so passive.
Not only Rosell in the Barcelona club was in a bad mood, but also their sporting director Zubizarreta.
Messi's father, and also his agent Jorge Messi, found him and asked him about Lin Quan.
"Mr. Zubizarreta, I want to know, can Oriol's main position in Barcelona be guaranteed next season!"
Lin Quan's position on the field was the same as Messi's, his playing style was similar, and his strength was also very strong.
If he came back, he would definitely pose a threat to Messi's position.
And this was something Messi's father couldn't accept.
He needed the club to guarantee Messi's absolute core position without being threatened!
"Mr. Jorge, have you heard any rumors? Why are you asking such a question?"
Zubizarreta looked at the other party in surprise, not understanding why he had such concerns.
"Messi is the core of our Barcelona, our top player, we will never move his main position, please rest assured!"
The renewal issue on Lin Quan's side was already enough to give him a headache, but he didn't expect there to be a problem on Messi's side as well.
"Is that so? Then why don't I feel the club's sincerity?"
The sincerity Jorge referred to naturally was about money.
Upon hearing the other party raise this request again, Zubizarreta suddenly felt a headache.
Jorge was very greedy, and previously he had been using Messi's contributions to Barcelona to blackmail the team, asking the team to give Messi a raise, demanding that Messi's annual salary should not be lower than Ronaldo's at Real Madrid, otherwise it would be disrespectful to him, and he would not deserve his status in the football world.
What he said was not wrong, but the problem was that Ronaldo at Real Madrid only had a portion of the image rights, while Messi at Barcelona had 100% of the image rights.
The difference between these two was too big!
It could be said that Ronaldo's high salary was exchanged for a portion of the image rights.
If Messi was willing to give 40% of his image rights to Barcelona, then Barcelona would be happy to offer him a salary comparable to Ronaldo's, or even higher than Ronaldo's.
And Messi's current salary was not low, his current annual salary had reached 11 million euros, and with bonuses, it was as high as 16 million euros.
This was after-tax figures, if calculated before tax, the amount Barcelona spent on Messi each year reached 36.4 million euros.
With such high costs, Messi's father still demanded the club to give his son a raise, Barcelona said it was impossible!
"Sorry, Mr. Jorge, we have really done our best on the salary issue, but I know some ways to help Messi increase his income..."
(End of this chapter)