Starting With Real Madrid

Gao Shen would never have imagined that Alexis Sánchez, who would later receive a weekly salary of £500,000 from Manchester United, had grown up in such a place.

Facing the sea, there were no spring flowers blooming only the stench from garbage piled up along the shore.

The air here was incredibly polluted, and the sky was a dull grey.

All the way from Calama was a desert-like Gobi terrain. Gao Shen thought the situation might improve by the seaside, but he did not expect things to be even worse.

But he finally found Sánchez.

It wasn't too difficult to find him because he was a celebrity here a Chilean international.

Gao Shen's sudden visit left the Sánchez family feeling at a loss because they couldn't even find a clean spot in their home to offer a seat, nor could they provide decent food or water to entertain him.

The living conditions here were truly terrible.

In fact, the Sánchez family had it better than most. Sánchez, after all, was playing football and making money, while the situations of other families were even worse.

Gao Shen was standing in the yard, talking to 18-year-old Sánchez about the transfer.

Before Gao Shen left Calama, he had reached an agreement with Cobreloa 1.5 million euros, and Sánchez would belong to Napoli.

Next, someone would contact Sánchez to discuss the contract and his compensation.

This wasn't really within Gao Shen's scope of responsibilities, but he could guarantee that it would be a lot higher than what he was paid at Cobreloa.

But promises of future money can't help with the current needs.

Gao Shen took out all the Chilean pesos in his pocket, then took the money from Lucas and Roman Dias, and stuffed them all into Sánchez's hands.

This was all the money they had exchanged at Calama Airport.

"Take your family out of here and go back to Calama," Gao Shen advised.

The conditions here were just too awful.

The pride of the eighteen-year-old made Sánchez want to refuse, but he hesitated with such a large amount of money in front of him.

"I will repay you, sir!" Sánchez said to Gao Shen.

Gao Shen smiled. "When you come to Europe and play well for me, that will be the best repayment."

Sánchez nodded heavily.

...

They came and left in a hurry, but Gao Shen was no longer as upbeat as when he first arrived.

For him, coaching is a job, and for the players, playing football is also a job.

But despite being the same type of work, the meaning behind it is completely different.

For someone like Sánchez, playing football is what he and his family rely on to survive in this world, so he gives his all in every game.

"Look around, there are countless situations like this. You can't help everyone," Roman Dias sighed.

He could see that Gao Shen was a kind-hearted person.

But the impact of a good person is limited.

"In fact, a family like theirs is relatively well-off. At least Sánchez still gets a salary at Cobreloa, and he's a Chilean international with a promising future. When he goes to Europe, as long as he plays well, their family will have a future."

"But you know what? There are many more, even most families, who are poorer than the Sánchez family. Their children don't even have the talent to play football; they can only go down into the mines and never leave this small copper-mining town."

Gao Shen understood that what Roman Dias said was right.

He had never considered himself a saint, but witnessing such a scene just now, he couldn't help but feel a bit sorrowful.

Well, who hasn't been moved by something before?

Nor was he great enough to say he wanted to save all the poor people in the world.

"Anyway, if I didn't see it, I didn't see it; I couldn't help it. But since I did see it, I have to do something," Gao Shen said.

Roman Dias nodded and smiled. "If that kid has any gratitude, you helping him like this means he'll sell his soul to you!"

"I don't want his life," Gao Shen smiled at Roman Dias. "I just want him to play well."

...

Before coming to Calama, Gao Shen had spent two days in Santiago, the capital of Chile, where he visited Colo Colo Club. He spent one million euros to sign a relatively unknown player from the Colo Colo youth team, Arturo Vidal.

Up until now, Vidal had not yet played for Colo Colo's first team.

In comparison, Sánchez, a Chilean international and an attacking player, cost only 1.5 million euros, which was already a good deal.

According to Roman Dias, Udinese in Serie A was also interested in Sánchez and had even reached an agreement with Cobreloa, but they never paid or signed a formal contract.

Before coming to Chile, Gao Shen signed Peruvian left-back Juan Manuel Vargas for 1.5 million euros from Colón in Santa Fe province, north of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The 22-year-old Peruvian is a regular at Colón de Santa Fe and has been performing well.

At the same time, through his connections with Roman Dias, Gao Shen successfully signed 19-year-old Brazilian central defender David Luiz from Vitória in Brazil's second division. He also holds dual nationality.

Unfortunately, due to the distance, Gao Shen could not travel to Brazil to meet David Luiz in person, but he arranged for him to be sent to Italy through Roman Dias's friend.

In this way, Gao Shen's trip to South America was considered fruitful.

He spent 1.5 million euros for Sánchez, 1.5 million euros for Vargas, 1.8 million euros for Biglia, 500,000 euros for David Luiz, 800,000 euros for Cavani, 1.2 million euros to sign Di María, and 1 million euros to sign Vidal.

Among these, Gao Shen originally planned to sign Luis Suárez, but he didn't expect to be a step behind Groningen in the Netherlands.

During the transfer in the Chilean capital, Gao Shen suddenly remembered Vidal from Colo Colo and signed him on the spot.

Among the seven players, Vargas, Sánchez, and Vidal are all non-European players.

The seven deals cost Napoli a total of 8.3 million euros.

If you add the one million euros for Basel's Rakitic, Gao Shen spent a total of 9.3 million euros in just over half a month.

This is astronomical for a Serie B team.

...

Italy, Naples.

When Marino received another call from Gao Shen, his brows furrowed again.

Previously, he would receive a call from Gao Shen every two or three days, and occasionally, he would receive reports from Roman Dias about Gao Shen's every move in South America.

He was surprised to find that Gao Shen's signings had a very clear direction, even directly targeting specific players.

Moreover, many of these players were not unknown, such as Suárez and today's Sánchez.

Marino was very puzzled. Through what channels did Gao Shen learn about so many players?

His information network even went deep into the Brazilian second division. It was astonishing to discover a guy named David Luiz from a little-known club like Vitória.

Marino didn't understand, but he felt he should report it.

The transfer fee for Sánchez is not high, only 1.5 million euros, but in total, nearly 10 million euros had been spent.

While arranging someone to follow up with the Chilean club Cobreloa, Marino compiled a detailed list and went straight to De Laurentiis's office.

"Boss, this is Gao's recent signing list. Below is the list of players he arranged for me to follow up on in Europe."

De Laurentiis sat behind his desk, legs crossed, smoking a cigar and puffing from time to time. After reaching out to take Marino's two lists, he looked through them seriously.

When it comes to money, he takes things very seriously.

"They're all very young," De Laurentiis immediately noticed.

"Yes, the oldest is Juan Manuel Vargas, who is only twenty-two."

De Laurentiis smiled slightly. "It seems that he really considered our finances."

For the first season, he only gave Gao Shen a transfer budget of 20 million euros, which is already an astronomical figure in Serie B.

Yet, Gao Shen did not introduce a single established star or even the players he used at Real Madrid. Instead, he scouted for young talents around 20 years old.

The upside is that these players are cheap, but it is still worrisome.

Can these teenagers really carry Napoli?

"I did the math. He brought in eight players himself, costing us 9.3 million euros," Marino reported. "Additionally, he asked me to help him with some operations in Europe, bringing in Graziano Pellè from Lecce, costing us 1.5 million euros, Bonucci cost us 1 million euros, and goalkeeper Handanović from Udinese also cost us 1 million euros."

"In addition, signing Gervinho from Belgian club Beveren cost us 500,000 euros, and the most expensive was signing Marek Hamšík from Brescia. The nineteen-year-old cost us 2.5 million euros."

De Laurentiis's hand holding the report twitched.

Adding it all up, it cost a total of nearly 16 million euros.

Ruthless, truly ruthless!

That's 16 million euros!

Good heavens, Gao Shen didn't even bat an eyelid he just spent it all.

De Laurentiis lost his mood to smoke, and he stood up directly from his seat, trying to calm himself down.

He had never been a big spender, and this 16 million euros was a huge sum for him. It made him quite distressed.

"How's the quality of the players?" De Laurentiis asked.

"I understand that we may not have detailed information on all the players, but take Sánchez, for example he's already a Chilean international. Udinese has been monitoring him for months. And Biglia, he's a key player for Argentina in the World Youth Championship, and a teammate of Messi."

"Even though we might not know some of the players very well, based on those we do know, they seem to be quite talented."

De Laurentiis let out a deep sigh after hearing this.

Despite the promising assessment, he still felt uneasy.

"I trust him. If Udinese is interested, it means these players are of a decent level. I believe he can build a strong youth squad!" De Laurentiis said, with a tone that was as much for Marino as it was for reassuring himself.