Chen Tao could not help but seriously consider Lin Feng's suggestion.
After the negotiations with Shenyang Ginde, he had become deeply dissatisfied with his current agent's abilities.
Not only had the agent failed to solve the problem, he had even spoken on the club's behalf and urged Chen Tao to stay in China.
If the man were truly considering Chen Tao's best interests, he should have known that playing abroad was the best choice for him.
That made Chen Tao wonder whether his agent had taken benefits from the club and was therefore saying such things.
Besides, his agent had a little influence in China, but no connections abroad whatsoever.
So, he had already been considering changing agents after going abroad since the Youth World Cup.
Chen Tao had originally planned to sign with an agent who wielded influence in the Big Five Leagues, which would help him develop better there.
But now that he owed Lin Feng such a huge favor, he truly could not refuse the invitation, so he agreed.
Seeing Chen Tao nod in agreement, Lin Feng immediately sent his phone number to his older brother and had him personally negotiate the contract details with Chen Tao.
When his older brother Lin Feng learned that the other party was Chen Tao from the China Youth Team, and that he was a client introduced by his younger brother, he gave Chen Tao considerable concessions in the contract.
Under the traditional European contract between players and agents, agents generally took around 10% of a player's transfer fee, bonuses, and annual salary.
But Lin Feng only charged a symbolic 1% commission, retaining only the normal commission on commercial sponsorships.
Chen Tao was extremely satisfied with those terms, as they could save him quite a bit of money.
As for income from commercial sponsorships, agents were needed to use their connections to find partners anyway. The more commission they took, the more income they could earn in that area.
Naturally, he had no objections.
Thus, the two sides hit it off and quickly finalized the contract details. After Lin Feng transferred him the money to cover the shortfall in the transfer fee, Chen Tao's transfer was finally completed.
On July 15, Shenyang Ginde officially announced Chen Tao's transfer to Werder Bremen.
As soon as the news came out, it once again drew widespread attention and heated discussion online.
Many fans unfamiliar with the Bundesliga began asking about Werder Bremen.
"What level of team is Werder Bremen? Is it a good choice for Chen Tao to go there?"
"Werder Bremen is pretty strong. They were last season's Bundesliga champions, and they've consistently ranked near the top of the table in recent years, often qualifying for European competitions."
"With Ailton before and Klose after, they always seem incredibly lucky when it comes to landing top-class strikers. If they had more financial strength and more consistent results, I'd really back them to challenge Bayern Munich!"
"They're that awesome? Doesn't that mean Chen Tao joined a near-giant club?"
Upon hearing that Chen Tao had joined such an impressive team, his fans were overjoyed and thrilled.
All the worries they had felt over the lack of news regarding Chen Tao's transfer vanished completely.
"They really are strong. Judging from their massive recruitment drive this season, they definitely want to challenge Bayern Munich again and take back the Bundesliga title!"
"More importantly, Werder Bremen's midfield isn't strong. Miku is the only one who can really play there. Once Chen Tao goes, he should have an easy time establishing himself!"
"Heh, all I can say is that Chen Tao and Werder Bremen are truly a match made in heaven!"
With Lin Feng, Feng Xiaoting, and Chen Tao leading the way, the other China Youth Team players also had relatively smooth paths abroad.
Zhou Haibin, who had performed outstandingly at the Youth World Cup, was signed by Eredivisie giant PSV Eindhoven for a transfer fee of 2.6 million Euro.
There was an interesting little episode here. PSV Eindhoven's initial offer had been 2.5 million Euro, but after learning what that number implied in China, they added another 100,000 Euro, sparing the player from carrying the label of "250."
Unlike Chen Tao's parent club, which had clung tightly to its player, Shandong Luneng gave Zhou Haibin's move abroad its full support. Not only did it give the deal the green light all the way through, it accepted the offer directly without even haggling.
It had to be said that Shandong Luneng had real vision.
Hao Junmin, an 18-year-old China Youth Team prospect who had also performed admirably, caught Schalke 04's eye and completed a transfer for 2.2 million Euro, becoming the fourth Chinese player after Yang Chen, Shao Jiayi, and Chen Tao to join the Bundesliga.
If Xie Hui, who joined the German 2. Bundesliga at the start of the century, as well as Lin Feng, who had spent two years there, and the ancient legend Gu Guangming were included, then he was the eighth Chinese player to set foot in the German leagues.
Not long after Hao Junmin joined Schalke 04, Zhu Ting also arrived in the Bundesliga. The club that extended an olive branch to him was another northern team—Werder Bremen's neighbor, Hamburg.
That meant there were now three Chinese players in the Bundesliga, and fans would get to see several Chinese Derbies in the new season.
Hamburg offered a transfer fee of 1.5 million Euro for Zhu Ting, which was lower than the fees paid for the players before him.
But that fee was truly not low. Without the halo of being Youth World Cup champions over the China Youth Team youngsters' heads, Hamburg would have been generous to offer 500,000 Euro, and would never have added another million.
The reason this group of China Youth Team players had found moves abroad so smoothly was mainly because of the boost from their Youth World Cup title. It earned them greater attention and recognition from more clubs, vastly increasing their opportunities abroad. It was naturally incomparable to the China Youth Team that had merely reached the Youth World Cup quarterfinals back then.
Soon afterward, Zhao Xuri, the China Youth Team's midfield anchor, joined Manchester City for 1.2 million Pound Sterling through the introduction of his fellow townsman Sun Jihai, becoming the third Chinese player after Sun Jihai and Li Tie to reach the Premier League.
Cui Peng, who also played as a defensive midfielder, was noticed by Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille and joined Ligue 1 for 1.1 million Euro, allowing Chinese players to achieve the milestone of having active players in all Big Five Leagues for the first time.
After that, Yuan Weiwei, Wang Hongliang, Tan Wensong, Mao Biao, Zheng Tao, and others were also recruited by major European leagues, joining the Belgian First Division A, Primeira Liga, Scottish Premiership, Süper Lig, and other competitions for transfer fees ranging from 300,000 to 700,000 Euro.
These China Youth Team youngsters left China one after another and blossomed all across Europe.
This was a transfer boom Chinese football had never seen before. Never had so many players gone abroad, nor had they spread across such a diverse range of leagues.
Their successful moves abroad deeply stirred other Chinese Super League players still playing in China.
After the Football Association issued its latest Salary Cap Order, stars whose maximum salaries had been capped at one million yuan lost interest in playing in the Chinese Super League. They flocked to Europe for trials with clubs, actively seeking opportunities to play abroad.
For example, Du Wei, a national team player with Shanghai Shenhua, followed in the footsteps of the China Youth Team youngsters and successfully reached an agreement with Scottish Premiership giant Celtic. On August 31, the final day of the transfer window, he officially joined Celtic.
Zheng Zhi, who had likewise been affected by the Salary Cap Order, also left the Chinese Super League two years early and joined Premier League side Charlton Athletic.
Seeing so many Chinese players leave the country to develop themselves in Europe's world-class football leagues, domestic fans rarely gave the Football Association some praise.
The Football Association's Salary Cap Order had done something good for once.
It was precisely because of this policy that players were forced to seek better paths for themselves rather than keep their eyes fixed on China's little patch of land.
Before this, fans had never had a good word to say about the Football Association. Even calling it the "Pig Association" was considered holding back.
So many players going abroad could not guarantee that every one of them would succeed, but this shift in atmosphere alone had already given fans hope.
"Heh, when we face the Japan team and South Korea team in the future, we can hold our heads high and ask: what league do your players play in?"
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