Contract Issues

When he got home, he happened to see Guardiola kicking a ball around in the yard.

Guardiola had become a coach after retiring as a professional player. He still played football now and then to relax.

There was a large lawn and a goal in the backyard of their house, serving as the father-and-son pair's little pitch.

"Why are you back so early today?"

Guardiola was a little surprised to see Lin Quan home at this hour.

He had coached Barca's youth team before and knew their training schedule very well.

And if he remembered correctly, the youth team had an important match coming up in a few days. They should have been intensifying their training at a time like this.

From what he knew of Lin Quan, he was not the sort to skip training for no reason.

So there had to be more to it.

"When the people are gone, the tea goes cold."

Lin Quan took off his coat, ran onto the grass, and started practicing with Guardiola.

As Guardiola controlled the ball, he asked,

"What did the club arrange?"

Although he tried his best to keep his tone calm, Lin Quan could still hear the anger in his voice.

"They want to loan me out."

"Where to?"

"Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga!"

Guardiola fell silent for a while. Ever since Lin Quan had told him that he wanted to leave Barca, he had begun using his connections to find a suitable club where Lin Quan could gain experience.

He had not expected the club to move so quickly. Before he had even found Lin Quan a new destination, Barca had already acted impatiently.

"The Bundesliga..."

Guardiola pondered it. He had never played in the Bundesliga, but he had faced Bundesliga teams plenty of times and knew the league fairly well.

Compared with the other leagues, the Bundesliga was a pretty good destination.

They had many young players—not only talented youngsters from across Europe, but also many young players from other continents.

That was because, compared with other leagues, the Bundesliga had relatively relaxed restrictions on non-EU player slots.

There was no limit on the number of non-EU players teams could register, which made young players from countries outside the European Union like to use the Bundesliga as a springboard when entering the Top Five Leagues.

For example, many young Japanese and South Korean players began their overseas careers in the Bundesliga.

China had once had quite a few players enter the Bundesliga as well, but as the Chinese National Football Team declined and the Chinese Super League's cash-fueled football bubble rose, the number of players capable of meeting the standard for playing abroad dropped sharply.

Even when there were occasionally a few who met the standard, they tended to prefer staying in China for lucrative contracts.

After all, if they could earn an extremely high salary playing close to home, there was naturally no need to travel far away to an unfamiliar place and start from scratch.

But players from other non-EU countries did not have such favorable conditions. So they went to the Bundesliga to accumulate match experience in the Top Five Leagues.

At the same time, they improved their abilities and waited for the right opportunity. Once they made a name for themselves, they could consider transferring to other leagues for big contracts.

As a result, the Bundesliga had an enormous number of young players, and its average player age was the lowest among the Top Five Leagues, at under twenty-five.

Thanks to the influx of young players, some Bundesliga teams had turned themselves into talent factories.

They bought promising youngsters cheaply, developed them through domestic league and cup competitions, then sold them at high prices to Giant Clubs in leagues like the Premier League and La Liga once they had made a name for themselves, earning a huge profit in the process.

Among them, the most famous was the Yellow Wall, Dortmund.

Although Lin Quan was not going to Dortmund, Giant Clubs all loved buying players from the Bundesliga.

As long as he performed well at Werder Bremen, scouts from the Top Five Leagues would notice him all the same.

It would not be difficult to transfer away from Werder Bremen then. With that in mind, Guardiola asked,

"How much time is left on your contract with the club?"

The issue was not just the loan, but also his contract with Barca.

He could tell that Lin Quan was deeply dissatisfied with the club's behavior of discarding him after using him.

Although he had not said a single bad word about the club, his indifferent attitude made it clear that he no longer had any attachment to Barca.

In that case, even if he succeeded at Werder Bremen, he probably would not want to return to Barca.

But that was not something he could decide on his own.

As long as he was still under contract, Barca could absolutely recall him once the loan deal ended.

"There's one year left. Didn't you say you were planning to take a break for a while? So I didn't renew with the club."

Lin Quan was currently on a youth academy contract, which he had signed with Barca when he was thirteen. It had a four-year term and an annual salary of twenty-two thousand euros.

Originally, when he turned fifteen last year, he could have signed a professional contract with Barca.

But for players whose ability did not stand out particularly, Barca would not immediately offer them professional contracts. Instead, they would continue observing them for a while, only signing them once they were sure the players could meet their requirements or could be sold for profit.

According to the original plan, if Lin Quan had not left this year, Barca should have renewed his contract. Otherwise, if they waited until next year, he might become a free agent and get lured away by another team.

But now, after Guardiola resigned, Barca had clearly shown that they did not want to renew with him, while Lin Quan himself had even less desire to renew.

So he had only one final year left on his contract.

"What's the release clause?"

Guardiola also knew that the contract was the key issue. If the release clause was not too high, he could simply pay it himself and buy Lin Quan out.

That way, Lin Quan would no longer be restricted by Barca.

"The same as Messi's. Five million euros!"

Lin Quan looked innocently at Guardiola. The latter slapped his bald head, suddenly remembering that he himself had set the release clause in that contract.

"Heh, I had high expectations for you back then, so I set the same release clause as Messi's!"

Messi's youth-team contract had also carried a five-million-euro release clause. Even so, Barca had still been terrified that someone would lure him away. The moment he turned sixteen, they handed him a professional contract lasting nine years, then kept Boss Messi for seven or eight years on an absurdly low salary!

Barca really knew how to get something for nothing!