Chapter 225: First Encounter with Carrington Base
Early in the morning of July 2007, 7, accompanied by Raiola, Ricardo Liqi arrived at the heart of Manchester United Club, Carrington Training Centre.
Carrington Training Base, officially known as Trafford Training Centre, is located in the southwest of Manchester city, about 9 kilometers west of Manchester United's home stadium, Old Trafford. It has convenient transportation and is very quiet.
It was a sunny day, and the summer sun was pouring down on the legendary Carrington training base, as if covering this green holy land with a layer of brilliant golden light. The driveway leading into the base was lined with green trees, and the lush trees lined the road to welcome all the guests coming to the base.
But don't think this is a summer paradise carefully arranged by the club for the football elite, because after entering the parking lot, you can see that there will be no more green trees covering the vast training grounds. But I don't know if it's because of my mood, but Ricardo feels that the summer sun shining on the spacious training grounds also adds rich vitality to every piece of green grass.
You can't see anything special about the buildings, nor are there any symbols to describe them; if it weren't for the "Carrington" signs on the roadside along the way, Ricardo wouldn't have known that he had entered a holy place in the hearts of many Manchester United fans.
Dense woods, buildings with dome-shaped roofs, wide lawns, no huge Manchester United logo, a slightly narrow gate, and quiet paths - this is the general impression people have of the Carrington training base.
When Ricardo got off the nanny car rented by Raiola, he saw two staff members wearing Manchester United training jerseys waiting for him. They told him that Sir Alex Ferguson was waiting for him at the physical examination center inside the training base.
Ricardo followed the staff into the main building of the Carrington training base and listened to their introduction to him.
Since the Carrington training base was officially opened in 1995, all echelons of Manchester United have trained together here, from the Boy Scouts to the first team, the U17 team, U19 team, reserve team, and even some foreign players on temporary trial. All of them must wear the red and white Manchester United training suits and gather on this green grass.
Even in the summer off-season, many underage teams from Manchester United are still training here. Through the glass windows in the corridor, Ricardo saw many young players sweating profusely on the training ground under the guidance of the coaching team, performing fierce confrontations and not-so-sophisticated skills, but their eyes all revealed their desire for victory and their love for football...
The Carrington Training Center covers a total area of approximately 0.3 square kilometers, with a total of 14 high-quality open-air football training fields of varying sizes. Each field is equipped with advanced drainage systems and night lighting to ensure that players can receive high-quality training regardless of day or night and weather.
In addition, there is a large indoor physical training center, which includes a small football training field, badminton courts, physical therapy rooms, massage rooms, swimming pools, changing rooms, laundry rooms and high-tech tactical analysis rooms. These top facilities together constitute a solid backing for Manchester United players to pursue excellence and reach the top.
After walking a few steps, "Mr. Li Qi, we have arrived at the physical examination center." At the reminder of the staff, Ricardo stopped his cursory sightseeing and looked forward. Not far in front of him stood a tall old man wearing frameless rectangular glasses, with a rosy complexion and neatly combed silver short hair. He had a leadership temperament and unique affinity. He led his team and smiled at Ricardo who came for the physical examination.
Ricardo seemed to have met his idol, a little excited and a little shy. He was stunned for two seconds before he gently greeted him: "Sir Ferguson..."
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It has to be said that both Raiola's team and Manchester United's team during this period were very efficient; although the two sides had already had the intention and tacit understanding, all the work from Ricardo's application for transfer to Barcelona, to Manchester United's offer, the two sides reaching an agreement, and the subsequent contract negotiations was completed within 10 working days.
So at 2007:7 on the afternoon of July 12, 15, Ricardo successfully passed Manchester United's physical examination and signed a contract with the club. Almost at the same time, Manchester United's official website used the half-naked photos of Ricardo taken during the physical examination to make an official announcement: Italian genius attacker, Ricardo Ricci, joined from Barcelona for 2500 million euros!
This is Manchester United's third signing this season. Before the transfer window officially opened, Manchester United had already used 2000 million euros to get the English midfielder Hargreaves, whom they had been pursuing for two years, from Bayern, and used the same price to introduce Brazilian teenager Anderson.
Manchester United has actually been tracking and examining Ricardo Reggie for nearly two years; however, the time when he really caught Sir Alex Ferguson's eye was the direct confrontation with Sevilla in the pre-season warm-up match last season.
In order to introduce Ricardo, Manchester United was very sincere. In addition to secretly communicating with Raiola, it paid a considerable price both on the surface and behind the scenes. For this reason, it also gave up the introduction of the equally famous Portuguese genius winger Nani, and unconditionally agreed to all the three conditions proposed by Ricardo.
However, when hearing Ricciardo's third condition, Sir Alex Ferguson showed a playful but indescribable expression, while insiders refused to disclose relevant comments.
Manchester United signed a four-year contract with Ricardo Liqui with a weekly salary of 4 pounds, which is the fourth tier in Manchester United's first team. However, this is 3.5 times Ricardo's salary at Barcelona.
According to Raiola, the top salary tier at Manchester United belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, with a weekly salary of 12 pounds, which is more than 620 million pounds per year. Converted into euros, it is close to 800 million euros a year.
Rio Ferdinand is also in the first tier, with a weekly salary of 11 pounds.
The second tier of players include Rooney and Hargreaves, who also joined this summer. The former has a weekly salary of 9 pounds and the latter has a weekly salary of 7 pounds, exactly twice that of Ricardo.
There are more main players in the third salary tier, including some veterans, such as Giggs and Scholes with a weekly salary of 6 pounds, Carrick, Vidic and Evra with a weekly salary of 5.5 pounds, and Gary Neville and Van der Sar with a weekly salary of 5 pounds.
Next is the fourth tier where Ricardo is, in the same tier as Park Ji-sung and O'Shea, but 5000 pounds per week higher than the two; and lower than Wes Brown, who is in the 4.6 tier with a weekly salary of 3.5 pounds...
The day after the official announcement of Ricardo's joining was the day for Manchester United to report for the new season, and the players were only given one day to train together before they all started their summer trip to Asia on the 15th. This schedule was very tight for Ricardo, who still had to settle in Manchester; but Raiola's action was very quick, and Ricardo delayed his arrival in the UK for two days because of his own reasons.
The main reason was that Ricardo took a little longer to go back to Seville to deal with his own affairs, and the reason was that Eva suddenly wanted to break up with him...
Of course Ricardo didn't really mind it. After all, there was a big age gap between him and Eva. Also, Eva, who had suffered a serious emotional trauma while going out to explore the world, didn't want to leave Seville. But Ricardo was going to England to play football. Plus, Ricardo had many girlfriends, and Eva knew that there might be more in the future... so it was unlikely that the two would be together.
However, what made Ricardo a little difficult to accept was the time and place proposed by Eva. She could have proposed it a few minutes later after reaching the station. But this was not difficult to accept. After all, the scumbag Li was mentally very strong. What really broke Ricardo's defense was that Eva was already ready for the next home, or it was the intrusion of a third party that made Eva make up her mind.
It took Ricardo a little time to accept that the one who owned everything he had in Sevilla was Palop, an honest man in the team; the house, the car and the girl were all inherited by him.
The two of them probably fell in love when Eva was helping Ricardo and Palop to coordinate the transfer of the apartment. In the end, it was all Ricardo's own fault...
Originally, Palop refused to agree to take over the apartment from Ricardo at half price, but after this incident, Ricardo restored it to 110% of the original price without mercy, and also sold the used car to Palop at the original price.
Palop, who didn't know whether he was the one who cheated on Ricardo or the one who took over, looked at Eva's face and naturally showed his masculinity and said he would take good care of his little brother and not let Ricardo suffer any loss.
Palop accepted the offer in full and felt that he owed Ricardo so he had to treat Ricardo to a seafood dinner. He also accompanied Ricardo in purchasing a large number of farewell gifts for his Sevilla teammates and promised to help Ricardo pass them on...
So Ricardo also took the initiative and the purchase and delivery of the farewell gift were all handed over to Palop. This made Ricardo feel even more like a loser in this relationship... Fortunately, he did not gain nothing, at least he gained a lovely goddaughter, Sofia.
It can be considered a gain, right? Otherwise, Ricardo would be a bit pitiful. Although Ricardo was confident and calculated, he felt that he should not lose anything, at least it was a peaceful breakup that both sides got what they needed...
So at the weekend, Ricardo returned to Barcelona with Chiara's comfort and company, but he was still a little absent-minded.
Ricardo mechanically returned to the club to sign some documents and retrieve some personal belongings left in the club. However, most of his former Barcelona teammates were on vacation overseas, and Ricardo only had a farewell meal with Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi and other teammates who were still in Barcelona.
Then he also left farewell gifts that Palop bought for other Barcelona teammates, such as the embroidered shawls with Seville's characteristics for Ronaldinho and Eto'o, which cost 600 euros each, just right for them to pick up girls...
Afterwards, Ricardo and Chiara returned to Milan together. He originally wanted to communicate with Uncle Charles about Chiara's report; however, Uncle Charles revealed some unclear hints on the phone, saying that he had to communicate with Ricardo's agent Raiola first, and let Ricardo go to Manchester for a physical examination and sign the contract first, and wait for Ricardo to come back from Asia.
Therefore, Ricardo arrived in Manchester on the evening of July 7, stayed in the hotel arranged by the Manchester United club, and officially went to Manchester United's Carrington base for a medical examination and signed the contract on the morning of July 11. He was officially announced to join the team in the afternoon of the same day. The 7th was the time for Manchester United's first team to gather and report. On the 12th, the whole team had a day of intensive training, and then on the early morning of the 13th, they would take a chartered flight to Japan to start their Asian trip.
So before the club's trip to Asia, Ricardo only had two days to adapt to his new life in Manchester and start looking for his new home. However, Ricardo planned to stay in the hotel arranged by the club first, and then adapt to the new life and choose a new residence when Sarafina arrived.
The person who was happiest about Ricardo's successful transfer to the Premier League club Manchester United was Sarafina. After all, it only takes 2 hours from London to Manchester by train and less than 1 hour by plane.
However, Sarafina cannot accompany Manchester United on their Asia trip this time, because the little princess is still interning in a grandchild company arranged by her family and will not be released until the end of August. Of course, Sarafina will come back to Manchester on the weekend in early August to accompany Ricardo to look at houses.
However, the little princess was not available, but the ice princess Julian came to Manchester from Chicago in advance, and will take Manchester United's chartered plane to Tokyo, Japan as Ricardo's family and girlfriend, accompanying Ricardo on this Asian trip...
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Speaking of the Asian tour, Manchester United's first visit to Asia dates back to 1985; however, there is not much historical data available on that trip. Then 10 years later, in 1995, Manchester United started its Asian tour again, this time visiting Malaysia. From that time on, Manchester United also confirmed the plan of a biennial Asian tour.
It was only later that Ricardo heard from Raiola that Manchester United had such a long-term plan: I really feel ashamed of being a Manchester United fan for 20 years...
In this way, Manchester United and Ricardo, who is deeply influenced by East Asian culture, are still a very good choice! However, this was when Sir Alex Ferguson was still in office. Manchester United, which later became an Internet celebrity team, was not an excellent team recognized by Ricardo, who was determined to win the championship.
"This was a very smart plan because Manchester United was doing very well at that time and had more and more fans." Not only Ricardo thought so, but Chairman Jin of HK International Entertainment Management Co., Ltd., who has been dealing with Manchester United since 1994, also agreed.
Since 1997, Manchester United has started to deepen its business reforms, and its business operations have become more and more perfect. Their market in Asia has also been growing, and Manchester United's Asian tour has become more and more impressive. In 1999, Manchester United's Asian tour delegation was only more than 40 people, but this time, the delegation of Manchester United players, employees and their families has reached more than people.
Manchester United has 7500 million fans worldwide, which is unmatched by any other club. Among them, more than 4000 million are from Asia, which is why Manchester United has made the development of the Asian market its primary goal. It can be said that every trip to Asia by Manchester United is a journey of conquest. In addition to countless money, they also take away the hearts of even more fans. As time goes by, Manchester United has given new elements to each trip to Asia.
Manchester United's new commercial director Sander believes that making money is not the only purpose of Manchester United organizing such a tour: "We organize such a journey for four purposes: first, to meet fans from all over the world; to get in close contact with them; second, to prepare for the new season; third, to cooperate with some charity partners such as UNICEF; and finally, to give back to our business partners around the world and seek new business opportunities.
Money is of course important, but the most important purpose is to meet and interact with the fans, to form a better club football culture, and to prepare for the new season. After all, results are the foundation of all this. "
Indeed, Manchester United, a team with mature business operations, will try to inject new elements into every visit to Asia. For example, in this trip to Asia, Manchester United has added charity and community service content, training local teenagers, visiting AIDS children, etc.
In addition, this time not only did they bring the coaches of Manchester United Football School to Asia to provide training for the children, but they also brought the Premier League championship trophy that was just won last season to Asia, allowing fans to witness the Premier League champions' lineup with their own eyes. This is not just a simple gold-digging trip.
Another important task for Manchester United's trip to Asia is to launch official websites in different languages. Every time they arrive in a place, the local language channel of Manchester United's official website will be launched on the day of the match. In the words of Sandezi, "After we leave, we also want to make the fans feel that they are close to us!"
While making money, Manchester United also did not forget to give back to fans and society. This is what makes Manchester United’s trip to Asia better than other clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona…
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