On September 23rd, the exquisite dal display rack Ma’el ordered from eBay arrived.
It’s a three-ter long, two-ter high rack, handmade, and looks quite exquisite from every angle.
The only blemish is its price. Due to its material and other factors, the rack costs a hefty 900 pounds.
"This thing costs nearly 1k?"
Gilbert helped Ma’el assemble it, continuously teasing, "Ma’el, you’ve changed, you’re no longer the kid from the youth team, you’ve got money now and you’ve started splurging."
"The place to display honors should naturally be a bit better."
Ma’el could be quite ticulous at tis. He had his own perspective, "This is a rented place. I’ll buy a good one to use for now. Once I have my own place in the future, wherever I settle down, I want to buy the best one."
After assembling it, he put the two ’Man of the Match’ commorative trophies he currently owned on it and stood by the side admiring them.
What would this place look like in six months, a year, or three years?
He eagerly anticipated that day.
"What are you thinking about?" Gilbert looked at him in surprise and asked jealously.
He didn’t quite understand, and was a little envious.
Thinking about what it would look like with the top filled with honorary trophies... Ma’el thought to himself but didn’t say it aloud, "I think it looks nice. You should step up too; put one up here when you get one."
"Not putting it."
Gilbert shook his head resolutely, "I’m afraid you’ll take it away."
"You think it’s a lighter that you can just swipe casually?"
Ma’el instinctively complained, though Gilbert clearly didn’t understand.
The two watched TV for a while when suddenly they heard a knock at the door. Gilbert went over to look through the peephole and opened the door.
Jorson stood outside the door, holding two large boxes in his arms, seemingly having sothing to give to the two of them.
"Long ti no see."
Gilbert greeted him stiffly, even though they had just seen each other at training, they just didn’t et privately often.
"Jorson is competing for the position of the first assistant coach; how could he care about the two kids from his scouting days."
Ma’el laughed and teased when he saw him, trying to bully this old friend who ca to Sheffield United, "We are practically strangers to him now."
Jorson waved helplessly, placing the two boxes on the table in the living room, "Transfermarkt’s update on market values is out, did you know that?"
"Haven’t looked yet."
Ma’el guessed the purpose of the boxes and answered, "It was actually you ntioning it that reminded ."
"These contain value plates I had an artisan in town make for this morning."
Jorson gestured with his hands, introducing them, "I made a commorative plaque with so information from the first ti your market values increased and I’m giving it to you."
He had long noticed Ma’el’s display rack in the living room and pointed at it, "It looks quite fitting there."
"Let see!"
Gilbert couldn’t hold back his curiosity and went up to open it, "Which one is mine?"
"This one." Jorson handed him a box.
Ma’el leaned closer; he was quite curious about what Gilbert’s market value was now.
As Gilbert slowly pulled away the box cover, a ’poster’-like plaque with a yellow background and his match photo appeared.
It looked a bit like the value panels FIFA would later send to major clubs, carrying significant commorative value.
It clearly recorded the date, birthday, market value increase, the team he played for, and of course, his market value.
"3.5 million Euro?"
Gilbert’s eyes lit up instantly at the price, which was undoubtedly a big number for him, "I actually have 3.5 million Euro?"
Jorson smiled at him, but there was a trace of indescribable sympathy in his smile, as he kept glancing towards Ma’el.
Seeing Gilbert’s 3.5 million Euro, Ma’el, already curious, began unboxing his own value plaque, while exclaiming, "A wonderful gift, Mr. Jorson. Thank you, I’ll keep it forever."
This was his first ti, and no matter how you put it, it held commorative value.
He slowly took out his value plaque and first saw a photo of his confident sliding kneel after scoring his first goal.
Well... anyway, he felt quite imposing himself.
When he eventually saw his market value, Ma’el’s heart jumped to his throat—not out of tension, but excitent, "8 million Euro?"
"Hahaha."
Gilbert laughed, leaning back and pointing at Ma’el, "Your level of joking isn’t very....."
The words abruptly stopped, the last two syllables almost muttered to himself, "...good."
Gilbert saw the striking red figure of 8 million Euro.
He thought about Ma’el’s stats and then about their ages, his eyes widened, frowning as his face turned green, "No, seriously?"
Ma’el stood up with a smile, placing the value plaque on his display rack, then looked back at him, "Put yours up here too?"
Gilbert looked at the 3.5 on his plaque and the 8 on Ma’el’s, realized he wasn’t even half of Ma’el, and instinctively felt like smashing his plaque.
He walked back to his room with the plaque in hand, leaving a lonely silhouette behind.
"Hey?"
Ma’el was confused, shrugging, "I really won’t take your plaque."
......
Night, Lisbon, Portugal.
ndes Agency, Executive Office.
Soone walked in, handed over the latest player market value update for British leagues, and then turned around and left without saying a word.
Jorge ndes placed it on the table, closed his eyes enjoying the music in his headphones. This colossal figure who has dominated the European Football transfer market since 2004 was in his pri.
After Ronaldo first won the Golden Ball Award in 2008 and transferred to Real Madrid in 2009, his na spread across the Eurasia continent.
Earlier this year, his client Mourinho won the Triple Crown with Inter Milan, carrying the afterglow of ’reigning the world’ to take over the manager position at Bernabéu.
When it cos to comrcial football, you can’t avoid this successful football businessman.
"Let’s take a look then."
After a long while, ndes put down his headphones, picked up the market value list, without looking at the highest market value column because he was familiar with it.
He focused on the fourth page, the market value increase column.
This was the most crucial point, often revealing erging prodigies.
His agency specifically has people watching matches from various countries, but human vision is limited after all, and Transfermarkt serves as an important reference for him.
He could search for players here and then send soone to keep an eye on them.
"Ma’el?"
At the age of 17, it was always particularly striking, linking with potential. Appearing here ant it was virtually destined as a star in the making, "Seems familiar."
ndes rembered soone ntioning this na to him two weeks ago, and he had already sent people to watch him, supposedly a player from Arsenal.
He picked up his phone, searching through ssages he hadn’t looked at yet, quickly seeing a report about ’Championship Sheffield United’s Ma’el’.
After spending over ten minutes thoroughly reviewing the report, he picked up his phone to send a voice ssage, "Assign a suitable person to establish contact with the player, you guys keep watching and inform of any updates imdiately."
years old, 4 goals and 4 assists in the Championship... Putting down his phone, ndes smiled. This year indeed was a tumultuous year in European Football.
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