Chapter 681 - 606: Very Talented, Very Unfortunate

Chapter 681: Chapter 606: Very Talented, Very Unfortunate

The entire stadium was in an uproar, with curses filling the air.

Clearly, the news of the men’s national football team’s elimination had reached the crowd.

Chen Yu’s gaze swept over the stands below. He could tell many people were stunned, completely unprepared for such an outcome.

Chen Yu himself fell silent.

To be honest, Chen Yu didn’t even know what to make of the result.

They had been eliminated by their own sheer stupidity.

It was like an open-book test where they still couldn’t manage to copy the answers correctly.

Yan Shiduo’s secretary came over and said that Chairman Yan had to deal with the aftermath and wouldn’t be coming over.

He needed to handle the fallout properly and give the fans an explanation.

But just as Chen Yu was about to get in his car and leave the parking lot, Yan Shiduo rushed over.

He looked a little disheveled.

His trip to Yuehai to oversee the match had been a complete mistake.

"Dr. Chen, I’m afraid we’ve made a fool of ourselves." Embarrassment was written all over Yan Shiduo’s face.

Yan Shiduo hadn’t wanted to come over at all. Being eliminated from the World Cup was one thing, but to be knocked out in such a dramatic, even idiotic, fashion... one could only imagine how vicious the backlash from the fans would be.

But on second thought, Yan Shiduo felt he had to make the trip.

He was afraid that after seeing the men’s team in such a state, Chen Yu would be unwilling to take over the project. That would be a huge problem.

Chen Yu, however, was still smiling. "There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You can only call this an accident."

"Right, an accident," Yan Shiduo quickly agreed, though his expression remained awkward.

In this situation, "accident" was the only explanation he could offer.

"Chairman Yan, I’ll be heading out then." Chen Yu didn’t give him a chance to say more. He gave a nod, got into his car, and left.

Watching the car drive off until it disappeared from sight, the smile on Yan Shiduo’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a grim scowl.

They were supposed to be flourishing, ushering in a golden decade. And the result? Elimination from the ’06 World Cup. It was a crushing blow.

"Xiaoli, don’t you think Dr. Chen’s reaction was a little... off?" Yan Shiduo asked his secretary after a moment of silence.

’It felt like he suddenly became distant.’

If this loss made Chen Yu feel the men’s national team was too much trouble and he backed out of the deal, the repercussions would be enormous.

Yan Shiduo also believed that handing the men’s national team over to Chen Yu was a huge opportunity.

After all, he knew the team was plagued by deep-seated problems that were nearly impossible to fix.

Entrusting it to an outsider like Chen Yu was indeed a good option.

His secretary thought for a moment before replying, "I don’t think it’s a major issue. In fact, from Dr. Chen’s perspective, the men’s team being eliminated from the World Cup might actually be a good thing."

He didn’t elaborate, but Yan Shiduo understood immediately.

"You’re right. That makes sense."

A smile returned to Yan Shiduo’s face.

From Chen Yu’s point of view, the existence of a problem was what gave his proposed solution value. If the team had qualified for the World Cup smoothly, they might not even need him.

"Remember, keep a close eye on Dr. Chen’s movements and cooperate with him fully. Understand?" Yan Shiduo instructed. He then turned away, and the thought of the public verbal assault he was about to face made his head throb.

’How could those guys be so useless!’

It was just as Chen Yu said: sometimes you have to tear everything down to the ground to build it back up properly.

Meanwhile, in the car back to the hotel, Calva was chattering nonstop to the assistant about the match.

Chen Yu ignored him.

"Boss," his assistant, Hunter, leaned over and said in a low voice, "I think the men’s national team has too many problems. If we take this on, we might not meet expectations."

The players were responsible for this loss. If they hadn’t lost to Kuwait earlier, they wouldn’t have been in a position where they had to calculate goal difference to see if they could advance.

But to put it another way, they just weren’t as skilled. They were genuinely bad, and there was nothing more to say about it.

When you looked at it that way, the coaching staff and the Football Association were the bigger problem. Their intelligence gathering was poor, and they hadn’t even figured out the basic rules for qualification.

All you could say was that the Football Association was dysfunctional.

And over the past few days, Chen Yu’s company had conducted extensive investigations and research, uncovering a host of issues.

Hunter was genuinely afraid that collaborating with such a problematic Football Association would lead to failure and financial loss.

Chen Yu was also pondering these issues. Hearing Hunter’s concerns, he smiled and said, "What are the expectations you’re talking about? Profitability, I assume."

Hunter nodded.

As a sports consulting firm, the expected outcome was naturally profit.

"If that’s the case, then what problem do you see?" Chen Yu asked in return. He continued, "Our business model is simple. They provide the money, we provide the people and the technology to help them train a national team. All expenses are calculated in advance. There’s no way we can lose money."

"Even if we don’t succeed in the end, if we don’t meet their expectations or the goals we promised, we just end the contract. It won’t have any impact on us."

Chen Yu was using his personal connections, resources, and advanced training techniques to make money.

They pay, and he helps develop their athletes. It was as simple as that.

How stupid their Football Association was didn’t really affect Chen Yu, who was just getting paid to do a job.

Besides, they weren’t the only idiotic football association out there.

The Dream Team failed to win the gold medal this time. Did that mean the United States Basketball Association was without its own problems?

They also made a pile of idiotic moves and were constantly getting chewed out by American fans and media.

You could only say that sports organizations all over the world are the same; it’s just a matter of who’s worse.

"Besides, them losing this game is actually a good thing for us. The loss proves their men’s team has problems, which makes our services more valuable. So, Hunter, when we get back, I want you to draw up a new proposal. Raise the profit margin to thirty percent."

In the original plan, Chen Yu was to select a group of players in China and take them to the United States for training.

The Sports Bureau would pay for all expenses annually.

Of course, Chen Yu had to make a profit.

Initially, because the Sports Bureau’s budget was limited, the negotiated profit margin wasn’t very high—only ten percent.

Their reasoning was that they had also opened up league access, which would allow Chen Yu to profit from the league itself.

But now... Chen Yu felt it was time to raise the price. Without a thirty percent profit margin, this deal wasn’t worth doing.

"Hunter, the business in China is still very important. If we do this well, we can promote it in the future and take on more similar contracts."

China wasn’t the only country demanding results.

Choosing China was a matter of timely opportunity; he had unexpectedly gained the right connections. The goal was to do a good job with the China contract, like the Pioneer project, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about finding new business in the future.

While revising the plan and the price quote, Chen Yu’s player scouting work didn’t stop.

「Three days after the match ended.」

Chen Yu took a flight to He Gang City in Hei Province.

"Coach Tan, are you sure this is the place?"

Inside the minivan, Chen Yu asked the question while leaning his head out to look through the window.

He Gang was a resource-based city. The vehicle was currently stopped on a bumpy, potholed road.

The road was covered in coal dust, and trucks hauling coal passed by from time to time.

The sides of the road were lined with numerous restaurants and inns for resting drivers, all of them low, one-story buildings. In this freezing cold month, the white smoke rising straight up from the restaurant chimneys was particularly conspicuous.

Inside the car, a large, middle-aged man in a blue and white tracksuit sat nervously beside Chen Yu.

He was a coach from the municipal sports school in charge of recruitment, named Tan Yi.

Hearing Chen Yu’s question, Tan Yi nodded and pointed ahead. "This is it. After that kid left the sports school, he got a gang together and started robbing passing trucks right in this area. If you want to find him, this is the place."

Chen Yu nodded.

He had come to He Gang this time for a player named Song Jun.

His name was in the notebook Gong Luming had given him. In Gong Luming’s words, he was "extremely talented, and a great pity."