Cristiano Ronaldo Joins Real Madrid, The Entire Football World Goes Mad

While Chinese football was undergoing sweeping reforms, undercurrents were also stirring in the football world.

First came Europe. On July 1, the summer transfer window opened.

Spurred on by Real Madrid's back-to-back Champions League titles, the major powerhouses all increased their spending and went on recruitment sprees, hoping to stop Real Madrid in next year's Champions League.

Affected by the quantitative easing policies of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, currencies around the world—whether the US dollar or the Euro—were going through a rapid wave of depreciation.

The depreciation of currencies not only sent the prices of energy and commodities such as oil, natural gas, steel, aluminum, and copper soaring, but also filled the entire football world with bubbles.

Compared with last year, the major clubs' spending in the transfer market had risen by more than fifty percent, with some clubs even doubling their transfer budgets outright.

In previous years, a transfer worth thirty or forty million was enough to shake the football world.

But this year, transfers at that level were everywhere, and even deals worth fifty million or more came one after another in a dizzying stream.

On July 1, just hours after the transfer window opened, Liverpool impatiently announced a blockbuster signing.

Inter Milan's star player and leading scorer, Torres, joined Liverpool for 61 million Euros.

Ever since the Istanbul Miracle four years earlier, Liverpool, who should have been heading toward a revival, had failed to sustain their glory.

Not only were they still suppressed by Chelsea and Manchester United in the league, but in the Champions League, they had also been exceptionally unlucky to run into Lin Feng and the teams he led for three consecutive years.

Over those three years, Liverpool's best Champions League result was reaching the semifinals, while their worst was