Chapter Eighteen: A Brush Past

  No. 24 Via Durini, Milan headquarters of Inter, a middle-aged man declined all interview requests from journalists crowded at the entrance and walked quickly through the gate.

  Marco Branca is a key figure in Inter Milan, controlling the pulse of the Italian giant in the transfer market. In Inter Milan, which player can join as wished and which player will leave quietly are all decided by him. Free introduction of Cambiasso, cheap purchase of Maicon, sudden signing of Ibrahimovic... These are his masterpieces in the transfer market. It is precisely because of his excellent and effective work that the Nerazzurri have stepped out of the shadow of many years without a championship and embarked on the road to continuous revival.

  It's currently the transfer period in Europe, and as Inter Milan's transfer manager, Branca is very busy. He spends his days either on flights to all corners of the world or amidst the cacophony of ringing phones, while also dealing with the constant barrage of questions from the media. The heavy workload has left his eyes filled with fatigue at this moment.

  Today, he rarely returned to Inter Milan's headquarters office and was blocked by Corso.

  She hung up the phone and poured a cup of coffee for Corsi. Although Branca was the powerful general manager, she didn't dare to neglect Corsi, who was nominally just an ordinary ball explorer. After all, Corsi was a legendary superstar in Inter Milan's history, with a high reputation in Italian football. He took on the role of club scout not out of necessity for a living, but because of his heartfelt love for the club. For such a respectable old man, Branca had no reason to neglect him.

  "Marco, I'm sorry to be taking up your valuable time at this moment. The reason I've come is specifically to recommend a young player with limitless potential to you. I believe that in the not-too-distant future, his talent will shake all of Europe. The kid is currently undergoing trials in Appiano and I hope you can spare some time to go take a look for yourself." Corsi said seriously.

  "Really?" Blanca smiled slightly. As the transfer manager of Inter Milan, he had heard such words from scouts like Colombo at least 80 times a day. Every scout always praised their discovered players with such exaggerated language. However, in reality, only a few could live up to their expectations. Therefore, Blanca didn't pay much attention to Colombo's strong recommendation.

  "Absolutely, I'm sure!" Looking at Branca's somewhat skeptical expression, Colso became a bit anxious and unconsciously emphasized his tone. "Here is my scouting report, as well as the player reports written by Coach Peia and Coach Bosaglia, you can take a look first."

  Kolchak pulled out a thick stack of files from his bag and placed them on Branka's office desk.

  Looking at the thick stack of files, Blanca couldn't help but rub her temples with her fingers. Helplessly looking at the serious expression on Kors's face, Blanka opened the file.

  "Chu Jiang, Chinese?"

  "No national team record?"

  "Door?"

  ……

  At first glance at this information, Blanca's interest in that strange Chinese goalkeeper diminished a bit.

  "Even the weak Chinese national football team has never been selected, how strong can this person be? The Youth World Cup, Asian Cup, and World Cup qualifiers have not participated in these competitions, and it is impossible to examine his performance and technical characteristics in the game. Relying solely on the training performance between children to determine future development potential, isn't this a joke?"

  "Moreover, he is a goalkeeper. In the goalkeeper position, we have the world's best goalkeeper Julio Cesar, Italy's national gate Viviano, and young players like Belek, Tornaghi, Bardi and others. This position, we are not short of people."

  "Besides, he is a Chinese player and needs to occupy one of the non-EU player quotas..."

  Thinking of this, Blanca's interest in the Chinese goalkeeper recommended by Colso gradually faded.

  Just then, the phone rang again. Blanca picked up the phone and apologized to Colso with a sorry look. Although she was still flipping through the documents in her hand, most of her attention had already been focused on the phone call. This year, the club had changed its head coach, and the new coach had many requirements for transfers, but the transfer negotiations for the target players were not going smoothly, which also made Blanca feel a bit overwhelmed with work pressure.

  "Alright, alright, okay. Tell Rafa, Mascherano that we're still working on it, and I've also sent someone to contact him. We'll try our best to meet his requirements, but please ask him to be patient as well. Until the transfer market is closed, it's hard to say anything is 100% certain, I'll do my best. Alright, goodbye."

  Hanging up the phone, the file had basically been flipped to the last page. From the content, Colso, Peia and Bosaglia all gave Chu Jiang a very high evaluation, suggesting that the team sign him. Generally speaking, when a young player receives unanimous recognition from the youth team coaching staff, he can contact the head of youth training Oriollo to sign him, without Branca having to worry about it. However, this particular player was a non-EU player, which made things a bit tricky.

  As for the report mentioned, Chu Jiang is extremely skilled at direct free kicks, but Blanc chose to ignore it. Even a free kick master like Chilavert has never played for a top-tier team in his career. All top teams, without exception, choose to ignore the goalkeeper's scoring ability. In their eyes, as long as the goalkeeper can defend well, whether they can score or not is irrelevant.

  "Corso, you know that this year we have already signed Cudiniho, a Brazilian talent with great prospects. At the moment, we don't have any remaining non-EU quotas to bring in this player from China." Branca hesitated for a moment before expressing a tactful refusal to Corso's suggestion.

  "I know. But can't we bring him in through Chievo's co-operation? In the past, we've brought in Cesar and Maxwell through this way. And this year, Chievo's non-EU quota hasn't been used up yet, which would make it convenient for us to bring in Zhu Jiang. The reason you mentioned isn't an insurmountable problem!"

  It's clear that Korsakoff had already given some thought to this question before he came.

  "Hmm, that's indeed a way to do it. But, the cost of this method isn't low, Colso! The players we introduce through this method are basically all well-known stars. Using this method to bring in that unknown Chinese player is a bit too risky."

  "But Chou is absolutely worth it, Marko. He's unknown now, but I'm convinced he'll be a big name someday soon. This is an opportunity, not a risk!"

  "It seems you really think highly of him. So, who do you think is better between him and our Cesar?"

  "This, Cesar is now definitely stronger than him, but..."

  "This is it. Even someone like Cesar, when he moved to Chievo that year, also spent a season on the bench at Chievo. You know, for players introduced in this way, Chievo will not give them the opportunity to play, because they are destined to be just a passerby for Chievo. If we introduce that Chinese player in this way, it will definitely make him have no chance of playing on the field for a year. For a young player, wasting a year is harming him or helping him?"

  Seeing Kolsou still stubborn, Blanca changed her way of persuading him.

  “...” Hearing this, Korsou couldn't help but hesitate. It was undeniable that Branca had a point. Young players were different from established adult players after all; wasting a year could indeed render them useless forever.

  "Besides, even if he wasted a year at Chievo. After a year, he returned to Inter Milan, it's impossible for him to replace Cesar as the main player, nor can he replace Viviano as a substitute. Staying here, he still has no chance of playing. This means that he still can't find opportunities to train. Even the strongest players can't make progress without training opportunities for several years. For him, this may not be a good thing." Branca continued to talk.

  Korsos nodded bitterly. What Blanca said was all true and Korsos had no choice but to admit it.

  "But Marco, you know? Pagano has already been scouting him out. I reckon that if we let this opportunity slip away, he'll really be gone for good!"

  "That's perfect! Sign with them, and the Chinese kid can get more training opportunities. If he's really excellent and outstanding, we can sign him again later. With the friendly relationship between our two clubs, signing any player is not a difficult thing." Branca said with a casual smile.

  "If that day really comes, I'm afraid the price to be paid will be even greater, much more than now. Marko, when that day arrives, you might regret not having made up your mind to sign him today." Korsa said with a bitter smile. He had already understood that Branca had no intention of signing Chu Jiang at all. No matter how hard he tried to persuade him, it would be futile.

  "Really? Haha!" Blanca burst out laughing.

  In his opinion, Kors was just joking with him. Blanca didn't think that he would really regret this decision today, and regret it so much that his intestines turned green. Moreover, that day wouldn't be long in coming either.

  As he walked out of the headquarters' gate, Korsuo helplessly shook his head. He took out a mobile phone and dialed a number.

  "Pagano, you're right, you win..."