What Zhou Yi and Shurtze may not know is that the contract they signed with ck-jeans has extraordinary significance for the history of Chinese football.

Because this is the first endorsement contract signed by Chinese players since 2007 from well-known foreign brands and non-sports.

In many countries, sports stars are endorsement stars that are highly favored by advertisers and recognized by the market.

Because sports events have a high level of attention in society, so are sports stars.

In China, there is a very obvious phenomenon, that is, the obvious appeal of sports is not proportional to its achievements in professional fields. They are very outstanding in their respective fields, and even world-class sports stars are not as good as those entertainment stars in terms of commercial appeal.

But this is not necessarily the case in other countries. In Japan, golfers and baseball stars can rank among the top in the advertising remuneration rankings, surpassing entertainment stars.

Stars in Chinese sports, basketball, tennis, swimming, badminton and other sports can still obtain personal endorsement contracts other than sports brands.

But football stars don't even think about it.

In fact, before 2003, Chinese football stars also had a wonderful time to earn millions or tens of millions of advertising revenue a year.

In 2001, after the Chinese team successfully entered the World Cup finals in the top ten matches, the national team coach Milutinovic received a large number of sponsorship contracts from brands that are unrelated to football, including brands such as DVDs, liquors, and air conditioners.

At that time, most of the national team players had advertising endorsements.

At that time, Hao Dong, who was also the number one striker of the national team, was China's number one star. Media reports that his advertising revenue exceeded 7 million in 1998.

In 2001, Dalian team star Li Ming became the spokesperson for a local luxury property.

Sun Hai advertises motorcycles.

Central defender Li Weifeng endorsed a graphics card, and Guomen Jiangjing endorsed a medicine.

Yang Chen, who played in Frankfurt at the time, was the player who received the most advertisements in the national team due to his outstanding performance and handsome appearance in the Bundesliga. He is also international big names, such as Coca-Cola, Puma and Golden Battery.

At that time, Pepsi was eager to promote it in the Chinese market, and also found several international players to shoot a classic TV commercial.

Anyway, at that time, you could always see advertisements from international players on TV.

But in the following years, the craze for player advertising endorsements cooled down sharply. Several players who played in Europe were able to get some commercial endorsement contracts. Sun Hai, who played for Manchester City, had the most brilliant experience in studying abroad. So he always had advertising contracts before leaving Manchester City, including large mobile phone chains, online games, seafood, and even family cars.

In 2007, the women's football forward Ma Xiaoxu was able to endorse the Jimny off-road vehicle of Japan's Suzuki.

But that was the last endorsement contract for Chinese players from foreign non-sports brands.

After missing the top ten in the World Cup qualifiers for three consecutive times, only the former national team captain Zheng Zhi can still get an independent Adidas sponsorship contract. But despite this, his advertising endorsement is not very valuable, only between two million and five million yuan.

And what about Zhou Yi?

With just one endorsement contract of ck-jeans, he will receive an income of 8 million yuan in a year!

Even if you don’t look at the brand of this contract, you also look at the value of the contract. Zhou Yi is now the number one person in Chinese football.

The main reason why Chinese players have low advertising value for a long time is naturally related to their own football level and the overall environment of Chinese football is related to the poor performance of the national football team.

In the eyes of the general public, there is no good image for Chinese male football players. Therefore, domestic Chinese businesses cannot find these players to endorse their brands. The risk is too great. You should know that in the darkest years of Chinese football, there were even jokes that were more embarrassing to watch national team games than Japanese AVs. This shows how miserable the image of Chinese football is in the minds of the general public.

Some people have made up jokes suitable for endorsement of the national football team. For example, condom companies can find national football forwards to endorse the national football team. The slogan is: "Who can not shoot for 90 minutes? I can!"

It was really dirty and owed, but it reflected the society's view of Chinese players at that time.

Therefore, on TV, newspapers, magazines, and outdoor advertisements, you can see that many second- and third-tier entertainments can obviously show bright smiles next to a certain trademark. However, you cannot see any Chinese football player appearing there.

The endorsement contract signed by Zhou Yi now shows everyone that as long as you play well and have a reliable agent, the commercial endorsement contract will still be found in Chinese football players.

After all, football has an extremely powerful appeal.

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In addition to the endorsement contract of ck_jeans, Shurtze told Zhou Yi that the other contracts were still being negotiated and not agreed.

Because there are too many companies coming to Zhou Yi at the same time, he is really unable to make arrangements and can only push the schedule backwards.

Although he explained the reason for this arrangement to the other party, the other party thought that he was a bargaining method. Some people were worried that they would be ranked behind and would have no chance at all, so they tried their best to raise the quotation. They hoped to impress Shurce and Zhou Yi.

If Shurtze hadn’t been a principled agent, he would have really kneeled down when he saw the endorsement fee that was as crazy as an auction!

Yes, all those who do this are from Chinese brands and companies. They are probably better aware of the value of Zhou Yi in the Chinese market than Shurtze.

It is not only because of Zhou Yi's outstanding performance in the Bundesliga and his positive image in the media, but more because he is a beacon for Chinese football in the darkest time. The shock and economic benefits he can bring to the market far exceed his own value.

Think about it. When Chinese football was at its worst, he suddenly emerged and immediately attracted the eyes of all the people who were dissatisfied with Chinese football and loved him. What a terrifying appeal?

Only in the long night of Chinese football, when there is no sunshine, can people understand the value of Zhou Yi so well.

No matter how much they spend, they are willing to spend.

But Schultze was unwilling.

He has a general plan for Zhou Yi's personal image. It is not that anyone who wants to sign can sign it. Any brand company can do whatever it wants to make a fuss about Zhou Yi's image, and some things don't change how much money they are given.

He sticks to his bottom line and principles and refuses many companies with very high bids.

For this reason, he also told Zhou Yi about the reasons why he did this, and also received Zhou Yi's understanding and support.

As long as you have a long-term vision and scientific planning, you can't make any money.

And now there is something more important than making money in China. That is to sign a contract with sports brand sponsors.

In the football world, there are many brands, but not many brands that can be called world-class.

The most famous are Adidas and Nike.

These two families are mortal enemies in the football world, and they can’t tell them the grudges and hatreds between them for three days and three nights.

But this time, they are not the protagonists.

The one who first paid attention to Zhou Yi was not Adidas or Nike, but Dortmund's jersey sponsor Puma.

After all, it has the advantage of being close to the water.

Therefore, Puma is the most actively seeking to sign a contract with Zhouyi.

As Zhou Yi's performance became more and more popular, he attracted more attention, and giant crocodiles like Adidas and Nike were naturally attracted.

At the beginning, Shurtze hoped that these three families would compete for the best, and then he and Zhou Yi would benefit from the left-handed fisherman.

But the three companies are not stupid either, and they are not so easy to be led by the broker.

When a new talented player appears, every company will make a relatively comprehensive assessment of the player, assess his current abilities and predict his future abilities.

This detailed evaluation report determines how much business value the new genius can bring to the company and how much money the company is worth betting on him.

Yes. Unlike the cases of digging famous stars from competitors, for young geniuses who are constantly pouring in every year, giants like Nike and Adidas are also gambling.

If you win a bet, you make a profit, if you lose a bet... it's not a big deal. Anyway, such a large company can still afford to lose, but it will definitely feel a little frustrated.

They all made an assessment of Zhou Yi.

This assessment report determines how much confidence they have in Zhou Yi and how much money and resources they are willing to pay for Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi's performance in the first season was very outstanding, and the data shows everything. This is also the reason why Nike and Adidas came to him.

The media and fans cheer for Zhou Yi every week. However, Nike and Adidas' professional team cannot be led by the media. They must keep a calm mind amid the cheers and analyze this person carefully.

While Zhou Yi performed outstandingly, his shortcomings were also very obvious.

For example, his technical characteristics are relatively single, which is very obvious from his game. Short passes are his best. But there are no more methods. In addition, his body is thin and his physical fitness is not up to standard. A player who is already nineteen years old will be replaced in advance in most games, which means that his physical fitness problems are indeed very serious.

So what will be his future for such a young man with extremely outstanding advantages and extremely outstanding shortcomings?

Both Nike and Adidas believe that Zhou Yi has the possibility of success, but the greater possibility is that he is not that successful. That is to say, his characteristics are very distinct and he can gain a place in football, but if he wants to become a particularly successful player, it is far from being a player.

Because there is something very important here.

Nowadays, football has more and more comprehensive requirements for players. One distinctive feature but also many shortcomings is difficult to become a great player. However, those players with distinctive characteristics and no shortcomings will succeed, and even those players with no distinctive characteristics but no weaknesses may achieve greater achievements than Zhou Yi.

Physical quality is particularly important. A player with poor physical fitness can achieve some results by relying on the unfamiliarity of him when he first debuted, but once his opponent understands him, it may be difficult for him to perform as dazzling as his first season.

I have seen such an example in the world football world for countless times.
Chapter completed!