Today was a very important day: the Club World Cup final between Manchester United and Al Hilal.
Al Hilal were actually a fairly unfamiliar opponent for Manchester United, since they were, after all, a team from the Middle East.
But if you had started watching football a year or two ago and had been following Tang Ye all along, you might have known Al Hilal very well.
The current value of this team's starting lineup was only around 80 million euros, less than 100 million in total. But Saudi Arabia's big-money football plan was already in place. Barring surprises, Al Hilal's starting lineup would be worth at least 250 million euros within three years.
In other words, they were actually a team with tremendous potential. They simply had not fully developed yet.
"Tang Ye to Al Hilal? Why would Tang Ye go to Al Hilal? Honestly, he'd be better off going to Al Nassr. I checked out the Saudi league—Al Nassr could never beat Al Hilal. Ronaldo's in big trouble, man. Not a single trophy."
"Al Nassr can't afford players anymore..."
"Hey, brother, don't say that. Seriously, don't say that."
Wang Chao looked extremely serious. "Newcastle is the perfect example. You never know how much money those guys in headscarves can pull out. Buying Tang Ye just isn't cost-effective for Al Nassr, because they already have Cristiano Ronaldo, but that doesn't mean they can't afford him."
"Let's see how this match goes. Al Hilal must have something if they made it to the Club World Cup final."
[Holy shit, I just realized this is Tang Ye's first Club World Cup]
[What's there to say about the Club World Cup? It's just got a cooler name. There's no real prestige to it—the Champions League winner gets it for free]
[Al Hilal