All Old Friends!

"Benitez?"

In a gym in Beijing, Winston Bogarde shifted his gaze from the fresh morning newspaper to Yang Yang in the equipment area, staring at him in disbelief.

"Florentino is planning to gather every player capable of restraining Barcelona and bring them all to Real Madrid."

The Dutch fitness coach also looked extremely surprised by Real Madrid's extravagant spending this summer. They had already spent far too much, with the two superstars Kaka and Ibrahimovic alone costing more than 130 million euros. Adding Xabi Alonso and the other players, as well as the man in front of them—Yang Yang, whose transfer had yet to be publicly disclosed because the contract details were still being negotiated...

"Good grief, does he really have a 300-million transfer fee?" Winston Bogarde asked with a click of his tongue.

Yang Yang had just finished his bench presses. He exhaled, got up, and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from his head. After finally catching his breath, he replied, "I suppose so. For a club like Real Madrid, borrowing money is pretty easy. A lot of banks are practically begging to lend to them."

The greatest advantage of member-owned clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona was that they were tax-exempt while also receiving strong support from the banks. The banks had no reason to worry about them going bankrupt, so they were perfectly willing to lend them money.

Of course, this was not an advantage of member-owned clubs in general. It was an advantage unique to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The two teams represented two different Spanish cultures: one represented Madrid, while the other represented Catalonia. They also represented Spain's two most developed cities, which naturally made them even more exceptional.

That was why Spain's member-owned model had already begun to falter, with every other