In a sense, Yang Yang's move to Ajax had long since ceased to be a secret.
On the business side, Yang Yang's team, led by Wei Zheng and Raiola, had already been negotiating with Real Madrid's commercial team to disentangle their affairs. The two sides would continue working together, but his departure still left plenty of issues to resolve.
The transfer affected the interests of numerous companies. Yang Yang alone had more than twenty sponsors, all of them among the world's leading brands, and he needed to give them an explanation for his move.
Yang Yang wanted an amicable parting. Naturally, he welcomed anyone willing to continue working with him, but if a sponsor decided to terminate its contract because he was leaving Real Madrid, he would not stand in its way.
In the end, only two major multinational companies chose to terminate their sponsorship contracts with Yang Yang. Several brands, including Nike and Porsche, actually expanded their partnerships with him. Nike even offered him an astronomical lifetime contract to keep him in its camp forever.
The reason was not hard to guess: Ajax's kit sponsor was Adidas.
If Nike did not secure Yang Yang's signature, Adidas might well poach him, and that would hardly be good news for Nike.
Real Madrid also suffered considerable losses. However, since Yang Yang would continue working with the club, many existing contracts could still be honored as long as the sponsors agreed. He would continue cooperating with Real Madrid and fulfilling his corresponding obligations; he simply could no longer wear its shirt.
At least, that would be the case while he played for and coached Ajax.
The transfer involved far too many competing interests, affecting the commercial interests of dozens of major conglomerates around the world. Keeping it from everyone was impossible. Their