In Milan's sweltering summer, the air is even more stifling and viscous than in Badalona.
When Lin Qi pushed open the door to the Olimpia Club office, Gherardini had already spread out a yellowed map of Europe on his large desk. On the map, seven or eight coordinates circled in red pencil were scattered about, some nestled in remote towns in northern Italy, and others scattered in unknown provinces of France.
None of their names are well-known.
"What are these?" Lin Qi asked casually, taking off his suit jacket.
"It's a place where money can't buy attention," Gherardini pushed up his glasses. "Or to be more precise, a place where nobody will even give a second glance."
He was referring to those small teams that have been mired in the quagmire of the Italy Serie B and France Serie B for years.
These teams don't even have a few decent TV broadcasts throughout the year. Their dilapidated stadiums can only hold two or three thousand people at most, and their club budgets are as thin as a sheet of paper. The entire annual expenses of an Italian Basketball Second Division Serie B team are less than the monthly salary of a fringe substitute on the Boston Celtics. Most of them are registered under the name of a local small business owner, or simply surviving on a meager grant from the city hall.
"What's the point of buying them?" Lin Qi knew the Answer, of course, but he needed to confirm the Europe bigwig's strategy.
"Three things." Gherardini held up three fingers, his explanation clear and concise. "First, a legal player registration pool. Every registered club is a legal pool of players. We can quietly slip those promising young talents into these teams, letting them hone their skills in the real adult leagues, instead of letting their talent rot on the bench of big clubs."
"Like Chris Anderson," Lin Qi said, leaning back in his chair.
"That's right, it's that United States kid you've been following." Gherardini nodded in agreement. "Although he has amazing athletic talent and is a tireless defensive specialist on the field, his technique is too rough, and he doesn't have an European Union passport. Placing him directly in Milan would not only waste an extremely valuable non-EU player slot, but he also wouldn't get any playing time at all."
Gherardini tapped his finger heavily on the map twice. "But if we put him in Italian Basketball Second Division team we secretly control, the situation will be completely different. We can use frequent short-term loan terms to let him start in Italian Basketball Second Division and accumulate practical experience. At the same time, we can send him directly back to Milan every week to train intensively with Olimpia's first team. Before long, this piece of raw iron will be tempered into sharp steel."
Lin Qi smiled with satisfaction, "That's the greatest value of these small teams. So, what's the second?"
"Secondly, the extensive scouting network. These remote towns are the capillaries of Europe basketball talent. Top talents from the Balkan Peninsula and the Baltic Sea coast often first appear in these remote corners before being poached by big clubs at high prices. What we need to do is cut off the source directly."
"Third," Gherardini gave him a deep look, "Is the ultimate cover."
Olympia Milan, secretly controlled by a major United States corporation, will inevitably attract the attention of its Europe counterparts sooner or later. But if this same capital is also entangled in unclear and complicated relationships with seven or eight obscure Italian Basketball Second Division and Ligue 2 teams that no one else cares about... complex player loans, secret sponsorship contracts, frequent personnel changes... then anyone trying to trace the clues to uncover the truth will no longer be facing a clear vine, but a hopelessly tangled mess.
The most crucial rule is: these acquisitions of secondary leagues must never be made by Lin Qi, and cannot even be accounted for through Olympia Milan.
The negotiations had to be handled by Gherardini, a veteran who had spent half his life in Europe basketball, either personally or through some inconspicuous "overseas sports consulting company." The funds had to be laundered and shelled through layers of offshore accounts. To outsiders, it was just an Italy coach nearing retirement using his remaining influence to run a small private business.
" Milan is our main battle machine," Lin Qi said slowly, staring at the map. "And these smaller teams are the thick, impenetrable fog of war surrounding that machine."
"But deep within the fog, we still need a true central command." Gherardini pulled another thick document from his drawer. " Paris."
On the surface, Paris's strategy seems to have completely deviated from the realm of basketball.
What Lin Qi had his eye on was a piece of wasteland in the northern suburbs of Paris. In late 1990s France, basketball was completely overshadowed by football; Zidane and the World Cup were the main themes of the country. But what Lin Qi wanted was never the current hype.
He wants to build a groundbreaking mega-sports and commercial complex there. Not only will it have a closed training facility built to the highest NBA standards, high-standard player apartments, and a sports rehabilitation center that rivals the best in the United States, but it will also be surrounded by a ring of high-end commercial real estate to keep the real estate hidden from view. The business will support the sports, and the continuous cash flow from the external environment will be used to support this money-guzzling training camp.
"But this top-notch infrastructure can't just be an empty shell; it needs a legitimate 'owner.'" Lin Qi tapped heavily on the coordinates of Paris on the map. "Go and contact the local clubs in Paris, buy them. After the acquisition, simply rename it ' Paris Celtics.'"
While quickly jotting down notes in his memo, Gherardini frowned slightly. "Buy a France team? Forgive my bluntness, but the level of competition in their league is far inferior to that of Italy and Spain. Betting such a significant amount on France is unlikely to yield a high return on investment."
"It's certainly not as good now, but in the future... that might not be the case." Lin Qi raised his eyelids, his gaze revealing a certainty that Gherardini couldn't refute.
Lin Qi stood up and walked to the window. "Look at the northern suburbs of Paris. There's a large population of immigrant descendants there. Those young people possess top-tier dynamic and static talents. When football club youth academies can't hold all these geniuses, basketball is their only way to transcend social classes."
Gherardini paused writing, seemingly lost in thought.
As someone who knows the future, Lin Qi is all too aware of the terrifying "talent explosion" that France basketball will experience in the next twenty years.
In Lin Qi's mind, the future of France basketball, however, was a remarkably clear upward trajectory.
In just a few years, this place will produce top-tier point guards like Tony Parker and playmakers with exceptional basketball IQs like Boris Diaw. Further down the line, it will produce versatile playmaking forwards like Russ Batum and defensive pillars with top-tier rim protection like Rudy Gobert.
Even in the more distant future, this land will continue to produce full-size forwards like Zachary Risashe and Alex Sarr, as well as cornerstones with groundbreaking talent like Victor Wembanyama.
This is Lin Qi's real motivation for building the base in the northern suburbs of Paris.
He wants to make the " Paris Celtics " training facility the preferred springboard for these France talents. Once a promising young player shows promise in the lower leagues, his scouting network can bring them to the facility immediately, using a pure NBA-level training, nutrition, and rehabilitation system to imprint the Boston mark on them in advance.
But Lin Qi's ambitions go far beyond that.
He turned around, his gaze returning to the Europe map on the large desk. His eyes slowly swept across the coordinates of Paris, past Badalona, and then moved to several key points further away on the map... Madrid, Berlin, Athens.
He did not reveal his grand plans to Gherardini.
This Italy old man is a pure basketball fanatic; all he cares about is the whiteboard, the rookie roster, and the desire to win. Talking to him about asset-heavy multinational real estate operations is like casting pearls before swine.
Lin Qi was calculating in his mind: he wanted to perfectly replicate this model not only in Paris, but also around all the major cities in Europe. He would avoid the expensive and crowded city centers, directly select sites in the suburbs, acquire large tracts of land, and build sports complexes that combined training camps, commercial streets, and high-end medical facilities.
As someone with a deep understanding of future economic trends, Lin Qi was all too aware of the energy that Europe's urbanization process would unleash. As central urban areas became increasingly saturated, population and commercial resources would inevitably spill over to the outskirts of cities.
These suburban wastelands and abandoned factories, which seem worthless to outsiders now, will see their land value double or even double again in ten or twenty years.
By then, the terrifying appreciation and exorbitant rents generated by the surrounding commercial real estate will not only enable his vast Europe basketball network to achieve financial self-sufficiency and perpetual operation, but will also become his most stable and profitable cash cow.
Lin Qi closed his eyes and quickly went through the accounts in his mind.
The total expenditure for this series of moves—buying up clubs of all sizes across Europe, acquiring land in the suburbs of major cities, and constructing high-standard venues and commercial facilities in the early stages—was approximately just over two hundred million US dollars.
In addition, he will keep about $100 million in cash in offshore accounts in Europe as working capital reserves to ensure that this newly assembled giant machine can operate smoothly and respond to sudden acquisition opportunities or financial fluctuations at any time.
Two hundred million US dollars in fixed asset investment, plus one hundred million US dollars in working capital.
A total of three hundred million US dollars. For his current enormous wealth, this amount of money is entirely within his reach. But what he has built with these three hundred million US dollars is a basketball empire that the league has no right to interfere with, that the country has no way to track, and that is capable of overturning the entire world basketball landscape for the next twenty years.
Lin Qi opened his eyes, picked up the water glass on the table that had gone a little cold, and drank it all in one gulp.
"Let's proceed along this line of thought, Maurizio." Lin Qi put down his water glass, calmly concluding the conversation. "Use all your resources and connections, and proceed step by step."
Gherardini nodded solemnly.
Lin Qi suddenly remembered something.
"But before that, you'll need to free up your hands and prepare another ticket for me."
Where to go?
Athens.
Upon hearing the name of the place, Gherardini's eye twitched violently, unable to contain himself.
Panathinaikos, Olympiacos... those are two basketball temples protected by the money and fanaticism of Greece's top wealthy families. They are fanatics who regard basketball as their family honor and faith, and they are the two most unyielding forces in Europe basketball that are least likely to be swayed by foreign capital.
"They will never sell the team to an United States owner," Gherardini's voice tightened slightly. "We might not even get to the negotiating table."
"We'll have to talk to them to know." Lin Qi straightened his suit sleeves, his tone casual yet carrying an undeniable air of authority. "Go make the arrangements. I want to personally meet with those Greece tycoons."