r18novel Chapter 59 Andy Lau in Africa
Chapter 59 Andy Lau in Africa
Two days later, in northwestern France.
Ruduru Stadium, Guinga City.
The stadium, which can only hold a little over 10,000 people, currently has two to three thousand fans watching the game.
A friendly match between Guingamp and Le Mans is underway.
Compared to the other four major leagues, the new season of Ligue 1 will start earlier, so teams will begin training and matches earlier as well.
Now, amidst the cheers and shouts of the fans in the stadium, Guingamp is launching attack after attack against Le Mans.
The Guingamp team is clearly the stronger one.
Although they are only a relegation-threatened team in Ligue 1, they still firmly controlled the initiative on the field against Le Mans from Ligue 2.
Among them, the striker wearing the number 11 jersey is undoubtedly Guingamp's most lethal weapon.
His powerful physique left Le Mans defenders helpless.
He also frequently threatened the opponent's goal with his powerful shots and headers.
The match quickly progressed to the 90th minute.
Guingamp's number 11 received a long pass from the backfield.
The ball landed in front of him.
Without pausing, he unleashed a powerful volley!
The football traced a beautiful parabola in the air, struck the top edge of the goal, and bounced into the net.
Faced with such a sudden and powerful shot, the Le Mans goalkeeper was powerless and could only watch the ball go into the net.
Goal!
2: 0!
The home team has scored again!
The name of the goal scorer appeared on the electronic scoreboard at the side of the field:
"Number 11, Didier Drogba!"
Rumble!
A huge cheer erupted from Rudulu Stadium...
Drogba also helped the team defeat Le Mans, his former club.
He played for Le Mans for two and a half years before transferring to Guingamp in the winter transfer window last season.
It has been exactly two and a half years.
……
After the match, Drogba changed his clothes and prepared to hitch a ride home with his teammates.
That's right, he doesn't have his own car yet.
Although he is already a Ligue 1 player, Drogba's family's financial situation has not improved significantly.
The main reason is that when I played in Ligue 2 a couple of years ago, my salary was indeed not high.
Initially, I signed an apprenticeship contract, earning only 7000 French francs a month, which is about 1000 euros.
After signing a professional contract, his salary finally increased to 2500 euros, which translates to about 600 euros per week.
In France, this would be considered a situation for the working class who "barely make ends meet and can't save any money."
Of course, if Drogba were single, he would probably be living a pretty good life.
But he has a family to support.
My parents used to live in a cramped 10-square-meter rented room and made a living by doing odd jobs.
Drogba had already married in 1999 and had a son.
He's essentially supporting so many people all by himself, so of course he's struggling financially.
Fortunately, he was spotted by Guingamp six months ago and transferred here to play in Ligue 1.
Putting everything else aside, my weekly wage increased three to four times, reaching over two thousand euros!
Now, he no longer has to worry about money and can finally buy some decent things for his family.
However, since it's just starting out, they haven't saved much money yet.
"I must continue to work hard at football and strive to join a bigger club. That way, I can earn more money and give my family a better life!"
As Drogba pondered this, he walked toward the parking lot.
"Hey, Didier, the boss wants you to go to his office," a teammate, Drogba, greeted him.
"Okay," Drogba replied, and headed toward the head coach's office.
He was actually a little uneasy.
Guingamp's head coach last season was Lacombe.
It was Lacombe who insisted that Guingamp buy Drogba during the winter transfer window in order to avoid relegation.
But after successfully avoiding relegation, Lacombe left Guingamp and went to Sochaux.
In other words, the head coach who appreciated him is no longer with the team.
Marchand has taken over as head coach of Guingamp.
He didn't think highly of Drogba, believing his technique was too rough and might not be suitable for his technical style of play.
Therefore, Drogba wasn't very confident about his future in Guingamp...
Upon entering the office, Drogba discovered that besides head coach Marchand, there was also a handsome young man with dark hair, who was clearly of Asian descent.
Drogba looked at the man and felt that he looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where.
At this moment, Marchand pointed to the Asian man and introduced him:
"Didier, this is Mr. Yip Hin, the head coach and manager of Everton Football Club. He's here today to discuss your transfer..."
When Drogba heard Ye Xian's name, he finally remembered.
This is the actual head coach of the Chinese team that created the miracle of finishing third in the World Cup!
I often see him directing from the sidelines on television.
But when he heard Marchand's next words, his head started buzzing.
I didn't hear anything else Marchand said after that.
Everton?
Premier League team?
Transfer?
……
The transfer negotiations regarding Drogba are progressing smoothly.
Whether a transfer can go through depends mainly on three factors.
The buyer's sincerity, the seller's wishes, and the player's own thoughts.
Everton's offer was certainly very strong, with a asking price of £100 million!
This is equivalent to about 160 million euros.
Guingamp only spent 10 euros to acquire Drogba from Le Mans...
That's like making 150 million for free in just six months!
For a Ligue 1 relegation-threatened team, this is already a significant amount of revenue.
Furthermore, since Drogba was not actually in Guingamp coach Marchand's new season squad plans, Guingamp had no psychological burden about selling Drogba.
As for Drogba himself, needless to say.
Although Ye Xian did not make any promises about playing time or anything like he did with Cristiano Ronaldo;
But the weekly wage offered to him was five thousand pounds!
That's eight thousand euros!
This is four times his salary in Gangan!
That alone was enough to make him follow Ye Xian wholeheartedly.
From then on, Drogba could truly stop worrying about making a living!
His family can finally live a good life!
Of course, for Ye Xian and Everton Football Club, this deal looks profitable, but in reality, it's not a loss at all.
In the original timeline of the 2002-2003 season, Drogba eventually earned the coach's trust with his performance and scored 17 goals!
This also placed him third on the Ligue 1 top scorers list, bringing more attention to the "African Andy Lau".
As soon as the season ended, French Ligue 1 giants Marseille spent 7 million euros to acquire Drogba.
From then on, Drogba's career took off, winning the Ligue 1 Player of the Year and the French Footballer of the Year awards in the 2003-2004 season.
So he only stayed in Marseille for a year before being signed by Chelsea, and began the legendary journey of the Blues that we are most familiar with.
At this point, his transfer fee had already soared to £2500 million, or €4000 million!
Therefore, the players Ye Xian sought out were all those who were just about to take off.
This is the best time.
At this point, they will definitely be effective in the competition, and they are also the cheapest option.
That is when the price-performance ratio is at its highest!
What a perk for time travelers...