Barcelona, Sofia Princess Hotel
This hotel stood right next to Barcelona's home ground, Camp Nou, and had always maintained countless ties with the club. Many times, when Barcelona's senior executives secretly met with players' agents, they did so at this hotel.
The best-known example was probably when Barcelona and Atletico Madrid competed for Riquelme. It was here that they secured the Argentine midfielder's agent, Bolonikov, and brought Riquelme to Camp Nou.
That was why some people said that if Barcelona's senior executives were seen appearing at the Sofia Princess Hotel at the same time, it proved that the club was secretly preparing to sign someone—and that a major transfer was involved.
But how could Barcelona's senior executives' schedules be so easily discovered by outsiders?
Chairman Rosell and Vice Chairman Bartomeu arrived at the Sofia Princess Hotel one after the other. Without alerting anyone, they secretly made their way to one of the executive meeting rooms under the hotel's arrangements.
Mendes, the agent of Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, had already taken a seat inside. He had ordered a steaming cup of black coffee and was patiently waiting for them to arrive.
During his stay in Barcelona, he had been living at this hotel. He had met with several of Barcelona's senior executives, and today was already the second time he had met with both the chairman and vice chairman.
He had a feeling that he would get an answer tonight.
"Jorge, there's no need to waste time on any more unnecessary pleasantries."
Rosell and Bartomeu sat down across from Mendes and looked straight at the agent before them.
Although Raiola had used Yang Yang and Ibrahimovic's momentum to establish himself as a potential world-leading agent, Mendes was by no means inferior in terms of influence, especially on the Iberian