"No problem, madam," Raiola said, almost thumping his chest in assurance. "Whether it's seeking a psychologist for stress, visiting a hospital for a cold, or dealing with scandals created by media manipulation, we can handle all matters, big and small.
Maximizing client benefits and minimizing losses, ensuring a comfortable professional career, is the highest goal for me and our company…"
Raiola's incessant talking only stopped when the lawyer approached.
The lawyer handed Anna the contract. "No issues, the key points are clearly marked.
The scope of agency is limited to football business-related matters.
Commission is calculated based on the player's actual take-home amount.
Conditions for contract termination within the term are only if the player ends his professional career due to force majeure, or if the agency is involved in a scandal that jeopardizes the player's image.
Other aspects also follow standard templates; no problems!"
Anna's expression visibly relaxed, and her gaze towards Raiola softened considerably:
'The media is full of curses against this fat man, all saying he is insidious and cunning, but he shows no ill intentions towards Sean. It seems to fit his self-proclaimed standard just now, prioritizing the client's interests.
This is a good start; I can feel a bit more at ease.'
Anna casually handed the document to Sean. "What do you think, son?"
Sean promptly signed his name, then returned it to Raiola and extended his right hand. "Pleasure working with you!"
Raiola beamed, shaking Sean's hand firmly. "Pleasure working with you!"
The partnership was now officially established.
Anna busied herself with arrangements for a celebratory dinner, while Sean briefed Raiola on his current situation.
Just a few minutes later, Raiola exclaimed, "What? You gave an exclusive interview to a rookie reporter?"
Raiola was speechless. He originally thought Sean was very mature, but now it seemed he was still a child, doing unreliable things.
What does a rookie reporter know? You just took it for granted and gave her an exclusive interview?
Does she know how to arrange the content appropriately to highlight your brilliant image?
Does she have the connections to secure more space for you?
Does she have the ability to decide what content to publish and what to suppress… Fortunately, it's just an exclusive interview, so it's not a big problem.
As for their collaboration, Raiola scoffed even more. What's the difference from children playing house? It can't be taken seriously at all!
Of course, even if it's just an exclusive interview, it can't be taken lightly.
Raiola returned to Amsterdam with Sean, intending to personally review the interview content.
Of course, this matter was just a side trip; the main task was to discuss Sean's contract with Ajax.
What a joke! Sean's current contract severely under-matches his contributions.
For this to happen to his client, Raiola felt it was an insult to himself and had to be changed immediately.
Three thousand euros a week?
Players at the thirty-thousand-euro level are only fit to eat dust behind Sean!
Even if the contract was just signed recently and cannot be changed now, it must be improved next season.
Time seemed ample, but Sean's contract period was still very long, so some tactics were not easy to use. Raiola felt somewhat constrained and thought it best to contact Ajax as soon as possible… Upon meeting Natalia, Raiola immediately understood why Sean had agreed to give her an exclusive interview: such a beautiful girl, if it were him, he wouldn't be able to resist either!
Natalia truly had some skill; she had prepared thoroughly for this exclusive interview, and the interview went very smoothly, with content that Raiola was quite satisfied with.
It started from Sean's childhood, how he participated in street football club activities, how he joined youth training, how he persevered, how people around him were pessimistic, how he passed Ajax youth training, and his views on his current achievements, and so on.
Only two points of content made Raiola slightly concerned.
One was his professional goal: Sean frankly stated he wanted to explore the limits of human achievement in football.
Not just Natalia, but Raiola was also stunned.
Human limits?
Even those few football kings wouldn't dare to say such a thing!
The other was a social issue.
Sean expressed agreement with and support for all progressive ideas, including sexual liberation. Of course, the main subject was humanity, not just one gender.
Natalia only felt something was off, but Raiola immediately frowned: those radicals don't think that way.
Their wish is for women to be progressive and men to be conservative.
Otherwise, if women achieve the fruits of liberation, and there's no one to take responsibility, wouldn't they be unable to bear the consequences?
So, after the interview, Raiola made a suggestion to Natalia:
"Changing the goal to the Ballon d'Or is enough.
If Sean truly wins the Ballon d'Or in the future, you can even make up a short story and publish today's content as a curiosity, which might cause another sensation.
As for the progressive content, you can just gloss over it; no need to elaborate.
If possible, deleting it is fine too; no one dictates that a star must express politically correct views!"
Sean was indifferent; he would defer to Raiola's judgment on these matters.
Natalia could also accept it.
Others couldn't interview Sean, but she could, and that was enough to establish her reputation; the specific content of the exclusive interview didn't really matter… The two-day holiday quickly ended, and Ajax reassembled for training.
The two injured players from the previous training camp had also recovered and returned to the team.
Sean always felt that they were lukewarm towards him, but he didn't pay much attention to it.
Teammates are just teammates; getting along on the surface is enough. You can't expect everyone to be good friends.
However, if they don't cooperate during a match, that's unacceptable!
On February 7th, in the 22nd round of the Eredivisie, Ajax hosted Groningen.
Sigthórsson, though not long recovered from injury, was scheduled to start.
Perhaps considering his team's strength far surpassed the opponent's, and playing at home, Coach Frank de Boer made this arrangement.
Sean felt it didn't matter, even if Sigthórsson occupied the center-forward position.
After all, with Bojan injured, Sean started as a left-winger, while Bojan sat on the bench.
As long as he started, it was fine; there was no need to insist on starting as a center-forward.
Mainly, his status wasn't there yet, and Sean was quite aware of this.
However, in the 13th minute of the match, Klaassen sent a through ball into the box from the right.
Sigthórsson diagonally cut to the near post, closing in on the ball.
The Groningen players instinctively converged.
Sean ran into the empty far post and shouted, "Here!"
"Bang!"
Sigthórsson ignored him, forcing a shot.
The ball hit an opposing center-back and rebounded.
If Blind hadn't cleared the ball out of bounds in time, Groningen might have even launched a counter-attack.
Sean's expression immediately changed, and he threw his hands up in question. "Hey, what's wrong with you?!"
Sigthórsson seemed unconvinced and even glared at Sean.
"Hey~"
Sean was amused and angry. I'd like to ask you what you mean!
After taking just two steps forward, Sean was stopped in time by Sean. "Forget it, forget it. This guy wasn't like this before. He's just returned from injury and needs goals to regain confidence, which is why he was a bit greedy."
Is that so?
Sean stopped being angry and looked curiously at Sigthórsson…
...
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