The Coach's Dilemma

After several brief rounds of negotiation, Dejan Lu and Suzuki reached an agreement.

The base endorsement contract was worth $200,000 per year and lasted only one year. Under equal conditions, Suzuki had priority rights to renew it.

Every time he rode a motorcycle and appeared in a major newspaper or magazine, he would receive a $20,000 appearance fee. A major television appearance would earn him $50,000. If the event had a major impact, he would receive a share based on sales, with a minimum of $100,000.

If he made more than twenty appearances, he would receive $200,000 at the end of the season as long as the team won at least one trophy.

At the same time, the Suzuki Group would handle his promotion in Japan, as well as the promotion of his work. They had already contacted Shogakukan's magazine, Shonen Sunday.

The other side was extremely optimistic about Pokémon. There was a reason Pikachu could conquer the world.

Besides, Dejan Lu's story was more logical than the original and had added some depth.

Even a contract like this had been offered by the Suzuki Group only after gritting their teeth.

Mainly because players' commercial value was nowhere near as exaggerated in this era, and Dejan Lu was too young.

There were very few players like Roberto Mancini who could establish themselves at seventeen. Even twenty-two-year-olds were considered young players. A genius like Beckham, at twenty, was still loaned out to a third-tier league.

Interestingly, the manager of that Preston team at the time was David Moyes.

Now Sampdoria's young striker Chiesa was facing the same situation.

The Suzuki Group was worried that Sampdoria's manager, Boskov, would not give Dejan Lu many opportunities.

After all, that was the common approach in football at the time.

For an eighteen-year-old to become a regular in a top league, talent alone was not enough. There also had to be fortunate timing, usually an injury to a starting player. Otherwise, even Totti could only receive scattered opportunities and keep waiting on the bench.

"The Reggio assets were sold off. It came to about $420,000."

Dejan Lu said.

"I never expected Uncle to be so rich!" Monica exclaimed.

Italy's housing prices were in a slump. The income-to-home-price ratio stood at 8.0. In a major city, a middle-class couple would have to save every cent of their income for eight years to buy a house, which meant around $100,000.

However, Italian housing prices had always been quite stable. Even at their highest, the ratio was only a little over twelve. Even so, many young people still did not like buying homes, so the Italian government had no choice but to introduce various home-buying subsidies year after year.

Italians did not seem particularly enthusiastic about buying property. Even later on, housing in Milan cost only a little over 3,000 euros per square meter. Two people working for one month could buy roughly one square meter.

With that money, even in Milan or Rome, they could buy an excellent villa.

"After all, he had been in business for many years, and he was very frugal," Dejan Lu said.

Chinese people all had a habit of saving.

"When there's time, I'll ask my father to put in some money too. We can buy a new house!" Monica said excitedly.

Although their current apartment was nice and the rent was cheap.

Decorating someone else's home always felt like something was missing.

Dejan Lu gave her a thumbs-up!

That was a good thing. He had always heard that his future father-in-law had substantial savings.

After running a trucking company for so many years, with only one beloved daughter, he had to provide a respectable dowry, right?

There was only one place in the world where parents did not worry that their children would be mistreated for lacking a dowry. After all, people there really did take sides.

"Tomorrow, I'm going out with my teammates again to get familiar with them in advance."

Dejan Lu said.

More teammates had returned to Genoa.

In those days, the gap between football stars and ordinary people was not so great. Even if they earned more money, they did not often travel abroad.

Whenever they went somewhere, they would bring back souvenirs for their teammates.

"You might be the first person to build good relationships with the entire team before the season even starts," Monica said with a smile.

Dejan Lu nodded.

Yesterday, he had heard that the team had signed Lombardo.

Once training began, Lombardo would be shocked to discover that although everyone was new, their situations were completely different.

After dinner, the two studied separately.

Dejan Lu continued drawing his comic. Once things were stable, he would find a ghost artist.

The biggest problem with this was the difference between Eastern and Western aesthetics.

Monica was quite good at drawing, but even her comics leaned toward a Marvel-like style.

Dejan Lu was not used to overly realistic comic art.

So he decided to leave the matter of finding a ghost artist until later.

The story had reached the part where Ogawa crossed a river in a small boat with an unfamiliar girl. The girl falsely accused Ogawa of touching her. After being unable to prove his innocence, he finally learned that sometimes he had to directly use force to protect himself.

Japanese men would probably find a plot like that deeply relatable.

Next year, the "work email harassment incident" would emerge. Japanese radical feminism would reach its peak, causing Japanese men to refuse contact with women at work to avoid breaking the law.

When they kept picking fights like crazy, the men simply stopped paying attention to them and began competing with them instead. The two sides were not on the same level in terms of stamina and energy. They could not fucking compete, and that was why Japanese women became housewives.

The later establishment of general affairs departments was also merely to meet legal requirements for the number of female employees.

In the end, it was about giving them errands to run, avoiding public criticism, while not daring to let them take charge of truly important work, lest there be cases like female data-entry workers or false accusations. They found somewhere to place them.

Later, women returning to the home also became popular in Europe and America for much the same reason.

The other side had too many buffs. They could not win the ideological fight, and working was too exhausting and competitive.

Monica showed no reaction at all when she saw the new plot.

That was the good thing about Italy.

Early the next morning, Dejan Lu took Roberto Mancini with him to the Verchowod house again.

Vialli was already playing Dungeons & Dragons with Little Verchowod and several others.

Roberto Mancini complained, "Gianluca, you look like a pervert playing something so childish. And you like fiddling with movie costumes too."

"Aren't you having plenty of fun yourself?" Vialli shot back immediately.

Dejan Lu said with a smile, "There's nothing wrong with liking movie and game merchandise. Roberto's thinking is just too conservative. Maybe in a few days, we'll see him dragging women off the street to burn them at the stake."

The group slapped their thighs and burst out laughing.

Verchowod's mother also joined in the teasing. "There are no witches in our house, so don't arrest me."

Roberto Mancini rolled his eyes viciously.

He realized that he simply could not outtalk Dejan Lu, which meant his sharp tongue backfired on him every time.

At times like this, it was better to say less.

Little Verchowod, who had just returned from football summer camp, waved at them. "Come play with us."

It was his first time meeting Dejan Lu, but he was not reserved at all.

Verchowod liked inviting all his teammates over to eat his mother's cooking.

"What, are you scared, Roberto?" Vialli mocked.

"Who's scared? Fine, I'm coming." Roberto Mancini sat down and began learning the rules as well.

Dejan Lu had played before, but he did not know what rules they used.

Players often added their own local rules to tabletop games.

After playing for more than an hour, Roberto Mancini complained, "This is not fun at all. I'm done, I'm done."

"You're obviously just bad at it," Vialli said.

"Then what would make it fun?" Dejan Lu asked. "Randomly grab a player and make him play Louis XVI?"

While he was frequently gathering with his teammates, Boskov was also racking his brains over Dejan Lu.

It was the first time he had seen a player become hugely popular before even making an appearance.

Several English newspapers lay on the Yugoslav manager's desk.

His English was not very good, but he could look at pictures.

The front pages of The Sun, The Times, Corriere della Sera, and other newspapers all featured photos of Dejan Lu.

He had also heard that Dejan Lu had received a huge endorsement fee.

He could not quite get a read on such a flamboyant young man.

Even Roberto Mancini had been somewhat reserved in his younger days.

But Dejan Lu's confidence was practically overflowing.

He turned to his assistant and asked, "How should we handle Dejan?"

"Keep his behavior within certain limits while giving him enough freedom?" assistant coach Narciso Pezzotti said uncertainly.

There were only a few players in all of Serie A with endorsement contracts.

He had never dealt with anything like this either.

"No!"

Boskov shook his head and said, "I think Dejan is still too young. I'm afraid he'll lose himself in the praise of the media and fans, so this season we need to do our best to temper his mentality."