Football Genius Midfielder System

"Look carefully, Mike. I wrote £700,000 a week. Not a month, and not £70,000. Seven hundred thousand pounds every single week!"

"Even if you count a month as exactly four weeks, you'd still be paying me £2.8 million a month!"

"There are twelve months in a year. Do you realize how much Liverpool would be spending on me every year?"

"That money alone would be enough to sign another squad player and strengthen Liverpool's bench!"

Mike kept nodding as Leo spoke, as though confirming that he had heard every word correctly.

Then he replied.

"We'll use the rest of our money to sign squad players. And we won't stop there. We'll also bring in more and more young players who are ready to contribute immediately. We'll keep bringing in stars to support you."

"We've won so many trophies over the past few years, and trophies bring revenue. Liverpool's finances are extremely healthy right now. We have plenty of club funds available."

"And since a large portion of that money came because of you, we're willing to invest it right back into you."

"By the way, Rodri is also finalizing his new contract right now. It won't be as generous as yours, but we'll make sure he's satisfied too. We want him to stay at Liverpool and keep playing alongside you."

As Mike was speaking, Rodri, who was staying in the room next door, finished signing his own contract and came into Leo's room.

He had already heard a few things about Leo's contract from the staff handling his own negotiations.

Normally, players weren't allowed to ask about a teammate's salary, bonuses, or other contract details. But Liverpool already intended to make Leo's contract public, so Rodri was allowed to see it.

"Rodri, you're not going to believe this. They want to pay me £700,000 a week!"

Rodri's newly signed contract paid him £300,000 per week.

He had already thought that figure was absurdly high.

Yet the salary he considered outrageous wasn't even half of Leo's.

There was no way he wasn't a little envious, but Rodri also knew Leo deserved it.

At Liverpool, Leo was the only player worthy of a contract like this.

Leo needed to hurry, though. He and Mike had already spent a long time discussing the weekly salary alone.

Hierro had made an exception for Leo and allowed Liverpool's staff into the team hotel, and Leo didn't want the negotiations disturbing the rest of his Spanish teammates.

In fact, quite a few Spain players had already gathered outside his door.

They desperately wanted to come in and watch, but Hierro wouldn't allow it.

"You can stay in the hallway and listen, talk among yourselves, or do whatever else you want. But until Liverpool's staff leaves, none of you is allowed to set foot inside Lin's room. This is private club business."

Inside the room, Leo moved on to the next item.

The signing bonus.

This was the amount Liverpool would pay him immediately once he signed the contract.

Signing bonuses for star players were usually substantial. More than £1 million was hardly unusual, and some had even exceeded £10 million.

Leo thought for a moment.

Rodri happened to be standing right beside him, giving him the perfect comparison.

"Rodri, how much is your signing bonus?"

Rodri hesitated and glanced at Mike.

Mike nodded, signaling that he could answer.

"This is Lin. You can tell him anything. He's going to know everything about Liverpool sooner or later anyway."

"My signing bonus on the new contract is £2 million."

Leo immediately wrote £2 million into his own contract.

Mike reached over as if he were about to erase it, but Leo stopped him.

As far as Leo was concerned, a £2 million signing bonus was already more than enough.

"Mike, if I remember correctly, your daughter's birthday is coming up. I'll use part of that signing bonus to buy her a present."

Mike immediately broke into a huge grin.

"I guarantee that when I tell her that, she's going to lose her mind!"

Next came all the different bonuses.

There were so many of them that Leo couldn't be bothered working out every single amount in painstaking detail.

For the major bonuses, such as winning a trophy, Leo entered £5 million.

For the smaller ones, such as appearance-related bonuses, he filled them in using increments of £500,000.

Without anyone realizing it, the night grew late.

The Spain players who had been waiting outside Leo's room gradually returned to their own rooms to rest.

They were all dying to know just how outrageous Leo's new contract would turn out to be, but Liverpool's staff showed no sign of leaving, and they still weren't allowed inside.

It wasn't until late that night that Leo finally finished filling out the entire contract and handed it back to Mike.

Mike immediately signed at the bottom, formally confirming the new deal on Liverpool's behalf.

Liverpool's finance director, who was also present, immediately began calculating exactly how much the contract could ultimately be worth.

Liverpool intended to announce the deal right away.

And once they did, it was going to send shockwaves through world football.

Even Leo himself had no idea how much money he had actually written into the contract.

The finance director kept entering figure after figure, calculating both the minimum and maximum value of the deal.

He needed to determine how much Leo was guaranteed to earn in a single year, as well as the absolute maximum he could earn if every possible bonus was triggered.

There were simply too many bonus clauses, and the potential payouts were enormous.

Liverpool's finance director spent a long time working through the numbers.

More than half an hour later, with the help of a computer, he finally finished the calculation and double-checked that there were no mistakes.

At last, two figures appeared before everyone.

The first was £36.5 million.

The finance director had calculated it based on a full 365-day year, and that was the minimum amount Leo could earn.

But once every bonus clause and every potential payment Leo could receive had been included, the total became so enormous that Rodri was left speechless.

Leo himself froze.

Even he hadn't expected all the figures he had casually filled in to add up to something this outrageous.

Based on all publicly known player contracts, it seemed that no club had ever offered a player a deal quite this astonishing.

"So, we've finished the calculations."

"In the absolute best-case scenario, Liverpool win every trophy available. You're named the best player in every competition, score plenty of goals, provide plenty of assists, make every Best XI, and win every individual award."

"Of course, that would be the perfect scenario."

"But if you actually achieve all of that, then under this contract, Liverpool would have to pay you £80 million."

...

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