Chapter 460: New pattern
Compared to the turmoil and lavish spending in the transfer market by Barcelona, Real Madrid appeared relatively calm. However, the world's attention still focused on this club, wondering what destiny awaited the Galacticos after reaching the pinnacle of history.
Soon, a major announcement followed. Firstly, the three-time consecutive champion coach, Schuster, departed, and the current manager of Liverpool, Benitez, took over. Real Madrid held farewell and welcome ceremonies respectively.
"It's a difficult decision to leave a great club, leaving behind the bits and pieces of our shared efforts," Schuster said. "But it's time to embark on a new journey. Next, I will take some time off and spend more time with my family."
People understood the German coach's decision. After all, winning three consecutive championships was a remarkable achievement, and retiring at this moment was a wise choice. However, they were surprised that Benitez dared to take on the job.
"It's not surprising," the Spaniard responded to reporters expressionlessly. "I want to coach Real Madrid, to work with the greatest players in history. I believe we can create different sparks and add new honors to this legendary team."
Represented by Wang Feng, the Real Madrid players expressed their gratitude to Schuster and welcomed the new coach, Benitez. Sharp-eyed media soon noticed something unusual. Although Wang Feng had represented the team in recent years, who was the most important captain at this moment?
They soon got the answer. The current captain, Ra��l, was about to leave the club to join Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga, and Real Madrid would hold a grand farewell ceremony for him.
Ra��l was highly respected among the fans. Although he had somewhat faded out of the absolute main lineup in the past two years, whenever he wore the Real Madrid jersey, many people felt satisfied.
For a while, there was a lot of commotion and disrespectful comments about the club's attitude towards the veteran players, but both sides claimed it was an amicable parting. "Thank you for everything, Real Madrid. I have fought for her for 15 years, and there are new adventures ahead," said Prince Bernab��u, shedding tears at the farewell ceremony.
All Real Madrid players and club executives attended the ceremony. Florentino personally delivered a speech and hugged the Spanish forward at the end. "Welcome to return to the Bernab��u in the future," he said. The past conflicts disappeared at this moment.
After Ra��l left, the media quickly revealed that, according to an internal vote, Wang Feng would take over his captaincy, with Casillas as vice-captain. The Galacticos welcomed their first non-European captain in club history!
This news excited domestic media and fans. "The best way to defeat prejudice is through strength!" one netizen commented.
In addition to the aforementioned changes, Real Madrid soon made a slew of player transfers. Cassano went to Sampdoria, Savio and Garc��a to Benfica, Heinze to Marseille, Cannavaro to Juventus, and so on.
The club executives did not rush to renew contracts with Sneijder and Robben. Instead, they followed Benitez's suggestion to bring in Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa from Liverpool for �35 million and �4 million respectively.
At the same time, they brought in Albelda from Valencia for �15 million and Granero from Getafe for �4 million. The infusion of this fresh blood was bound to bring about new changes.
The two giants of La Liga were vigorously rebuilding their teams, while the top four of the Premier League seemed relatively low-key. Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea made no big moves, while Manchester United spent ��30 million to bring back their star striker, Benzema, from Lyon.
It was rumored that originally Ferguson didn't think it was a good time to invest in players in the summer, but under Cristiano Ronaldo's strong recommendation, he still decided to sign the Frenchman, who had scored 20+ goals in Ligue 1 for two consecutive years, making him a good helper.
The most high-profile club in the Premier League was undoubtedly Manchester City. After failing to sign Wang Feng last year, they brought in Robinho, but the Brazilian did not perform as expected. This summer, they originally targeted Kak�� but were intercepted by Barcelona. After that, the club adjusted its strategy and set its sights on better-operating quasi-superstars.
Adebayor, Tevez, Tour��, and others successively joined. In a sense, this move by the Sky Blues posed a greater challenge to mid-to-low-ranking teams in the Premier League. In the face of unreachable giants, Manchester City's rise in strength would further squeeze the survival space of other teams.
In Serie A, Inter Milan continued to invest to maintain their position as league champions. They had achieved an unprecedented eight consecutive titles and naturally wanted to further rewrite history.
However, Juventus' strong rise also required attention. After experiencing a low point in "Calciopoli," the Bianconeri never gave up on regaining glory and spared no effort in introducing star players.
Although Czech legendary defender Nedv��d retired, the Bianconeri successively introduced Diego, Melo, and Almir��n as midfield reinforcements, as well as C��ceres from Barcelona, Grosso from Lyon, and others.
Bayern Munich had a poor overall performance last season, ultimately narrowly losing the league title to Wolfsburg by two points. Dong Fangzhuo failed to personally lift the championship trophy, but they quickly regrouped and planned to continue their assault on this honor.
For this purpose, they spent �30 million to bring back the German forward G��mez from Stuttgart and �11 million to bring in Timo??uk from Zenit Saint Petersburg, becoming the Bundesliga's undisputed "big spender."
In Ligue 1, there was ample funding injected. Starting from last season, their broadcasting contracts increased to �668 million.
Even the last-ranked club, Le Havre, had �13.14 million in broadcasting revenue, let alone traditional powerhouses like Lyon and Marseille. Therefore, each team was stepping up efforts to scout for star players.
Regardless of the changing tides of European football, Wang Feng seized a rare rest period and flew back to China with his family on a private plane for vacation.
It was Xiao Siyao's first time traveling by plane, and she was excitedly exclaiming and peering out the window at the scenery, which couldn't help but bring a smile to people's faces.
While the Chinese superstar enjoyed his vacation with his family in China, the national team played their last two matches of the World Cup qualifiers against Australia and Japan at home.
Since they had already qualified in advance, most overseas players were not called up. Relying on domestic players, the team achieved one draw and one loss in the two rounds of matches.
The teams directly qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup from Asia were China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea. Australia, as the third-placed team in Group A, needed to compete with Saudi Arabia, the third-placed team in Group B, for an intercontinental playoff spot.
In the end, Australia successfully won, and Saudi Arabia and their West Asian friends Iran failed to qualify for the World Cup, which undoubtedly surprised most Asian media.
"The World Cup Asian qualifiers are gradually becoming more intense," commented the Arab Network Television. "As we invest heavily in football clubs around the world, should we pay more attention to the cultivation of our own players?"
A few months later, Australia faced their intercontinental playoff opponent, New Zealand from Oceania, which was a significant advantage for them. The players did not let the opportunity slip away and successfully secured a spot in the World Cup finals. Once again, Asian teams secured five spots.
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