First Professional Contract, Teammates Are Jealous!

After the first round of the Premier League season ended.

Li Yufei spent two days clinging to Taylor, all lovey-dovey.

Then it was back to daily training and life.

Seeing that Li Yufei had performed brilliantly in his debut, the Old Man rewarded him with an extra day off.

That counted as a privilege for Li Yufei.

After all, during his years in Arsenal's youth training, Li Yufei often skipped training sessions on time.

At first, the youth head coach Neil would pull Li Yufei aside for a talk.

But later, he found that no matter what Li Yufei did in daily life, he always carried the game when it mattered, so he stopped bringing it up.

The Old Man had originally planned to crack down hard on Li Yufei's bad habit.

But then he realized that whether Li Yufei trained or not, his match performance was about the same, so he just turned a blind eye.

Of course, the premise was that Li Yufei couldn't go too far—he had to strictly follow normal training.

Li Yufei knew this in his heart too.

The reason he didn't train so diligently wasn't because he wasn't hardworking.

It was because his body's talent ceiling had already been reached.

No matter how much he trained, it was hard to improve further.

The rest could only rely on system points to add stats and cheat.

That was the real reason Li Yufei couldn't be bothered to invest too much in training.

His current training was mostly just to maintain form and keep his touch, not to boost his abilities.

Li Yufei's various abilities at this stage had basically peaked, with no room to rise.

The rest had to be left to the cheat—if the system required training, he would naturally start grinding like crazy.

Otherwise, it was all pointless!

Also, right after the first league round ended.

The first First Team Professional Contract of Li Yufei's life was finally negotiated.

Actually, when Li Yufei was promoted from youth training to the first team.

Discussions about Li Yufei's professional contract had already started.

After all, since Li Yufei had entered the first team, he couldn't keep taking the youth-level child labor contract.

Although Arsenal had been bought out by Li's Father, one thing was separate from another.

Li Yufei couldn't just play for Arsenal at a friendly price just because his old man was a major shareholder.

First of all, doing that would break the rules, and the FA wouldn't allow it.

Otherwise, the whole European Football scene would have been in chaos long ago!

Second, setting aside Li Yufei's father, the relationship between Li Yufei and Arsenal was essentially that of a worker and capital.

This naturally opposing relationship wouldn't change just because of Li's Father's presence!

Whether it was Li Yufei himself or his agent Allen.

They would both do their best to secure a better contract for Li Yufei.

Similarly, Arsenal's higher-ups would try to drive the price down.

The process in between relied on the tug-of-war between labor and capital.

But Li Yufei's special identity did play a role in this negotiation—Arsenal's side didn't dare push too hard on the price, that was a fact.

Plus, Li Yufei's performances in the warm-up matches and the first league game were just too outstanding!

With ample leverage, Allen naturally crushed the restrained Arsenal higher-ups.

"Frey, your contract issue is settled!"

"Arsenal's side, probably because they saw you perform so well after joining the first team, plus your father's influence, basically gave in without much resistance."

"Your contract is for four years, with a Weekly Wage of four thousand Pound Sterling, and each year within the contract term, your salary will increase by 25% from the previous year."

"Plus, the goal bonuses and championship bonuses you asked for—I got them all for you."

"A goal bonus is 5,000 Pound Sterling, and an assist bonus is 3,000 Pound Sterling."

"There's also a win bonus—for any match you play in, if you get a win, you earn 3,000 Pound Sterling."

"As for the championship bonuses you mentioned, if Arsenal wins the League Cup with your help, you get 300,000 Pound Sterling."

"If they win the FA Cup, that's 600,000 Pound Sterling."

"If they win the Premier League title, you get 1.5 million Pound Sterling."

"Finally, if they win the Champions League Title, you get 3 million Pound Sterling."

"Of course, there's a condition—your playing time must account for two-thirds or more of the total tournament minutes."

Hearing this string of clauses involving pounds sterling, Li Yufei couldn't help but give Uncle Allen a mental thumbs-up.

No wonder his mom had specially assigned him as his agent.

This business acumen—damn impressive!

To be honest, for a pure rookie, this contract was absolutely outrageous!

Take Messi, for example. His first official contract with Barcelona was signed in the 2004-2005 season, with an annual salary of 300,000 euros.

Remember, that's 300,000 a year, converted to a weekly wage of less than a paltry 6,000 euros.

Messi's first raise came in the 2005-2006 season, when his annual salary jumped to 1 million euros.

Then his second raise was in the 2006-2007 season, pushing his annual salary to 5 million euros.

After that, the 5-million-euro salary held steady for two years, until 2008, when Messi won the Silver Ball Award and was poised to contend for the Golden Ball.

His contract then rose to an annual salary of 8.5 million euros.

It wasn't until 2009, when Messi officially claimed the Ballon d'Or, that his salary climbed to the current 10.5 million euros.

Now look at Li Yufei.

His first official contract in his career started with a weekly wage of 40,000 pounds, which translates to an annual salary of 2.08 million pounds.

That's more than double Messi's salary after his first raise of 1 million euros!

If that comparison doesn't hit home, just look at the current salary structure within Arsenal.

Right now, Arsenal's top earner is Fabregas at 100,000 pounds a week.

Next is "Tsar" Arshavin at 80,000 pounds a week.

Goalkeeper Almunia comes in third with 75,000 pounds a week.

Even Arsenal's godfather, Wenger, earns just 75,000 pounds a week, tying with Almunia.

As for "Little Tiger" Walcott, his weekly wage is 70,000, placing him fourth.

And the genuine "General" Van Persie? His weekly wage is a mere 35,000 pounds!

That means Li Yufei's salary now surpasses Van Persie's, who's been playing for years.

This sounds absolutely explosive and unbelievable, but it's an ironclad fact.

Still, considering Van Persie's pitiful attendance rate and his atrocious injury history...

This salary is actually pretty reasonable!

Who told you to spend half the year lying on a hospital bed?

You could say that in the years since Van Persie joined Arsenal, it wasn't until this season that he started getting consistent playing time.

The following season, he'd go on to deliver the best performance of his career, smashing 30 goals in a single Premier League season and winning the Premier League Golden Boot!

But at the start of the 2010-2011 season, no one knew that Van Persie, the perennial glass man, was about to enter his prime.

Even he wasn't sure about his future—after all, spending your whole career as a fragile player, even the most defiant person has to accept defeat!

So when he learned about Li Yufei's contract salary, aside from feeling a bit sour inside, he didn't say much.

Wilshere, on the other hand—Li Yufei's good buddy from their Youth Training days—hugged him and went full lemon:

"Frey, your salary is seriously making me jealous. I've been playing in the first team for two full seasons, and my weekly wage is only 30,000 pounds. You come in at 40,000 right off the bat—I'm so sour!"

"Haha, if you cut down on injuries, you'd definitely be worth more than that. Take care of yourself, watch your playing style on the field, don't go for unnecessary tackles—staying healthy is the most important thing."

Li Yufei laughed heartily while offering Wilshere some advice.

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