Football Genius Midfielder System

In every country where people knew what football was, every country that had ever broadcast the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA Champions League, and every country where fans were currently following football, the same topic suddenly appeared on the trending charts at almost exactly the same time.

It was a worldwide football sensation.

[Liverpool FC has just publicly revealed the open-ended contract they offered Leo Lin. The deal guarantees Leo an annual income of at least £36.5 million for every year until he retires, with a maximum annual income of £80 million. His actual earnings will fall somewhere between those two figures!]

[According to a comparative study based on data from a professional football salary statistics website, even the minimum earnings under Leo Lin's contract exceed those of almost every player in world football. At present, no more than five players have the potential to earn more than Leo.

And if Leo Lin's contract is calculated using the midpoint between its minimum and maximum value, excluding endorsements and all other sources of income, no player can surpass his contractual earnings.]

This became the first truly worldwide football trending topic.

In every country with any connection to football, on each country's most popular social media platform, the number one spot on the trending list was unquestionably occupied by news of Leo's contract.

The moment Gullit saw the news, he immediately drove to the studio. He knew Scholes would be calling him soon.

Sure enough, by the time Scholes called, Gullit had already parked his car in the studio garage.

"Ashley, get over to the studio as quickly as you can. You're back on the job. This time, we have to show all the fans Lin's contract and give them a proper breakdown!"

Ashley Cole had missed the UEFA European Championship commentary because of family matters, but for an analysis of this contract, there was no way he could be absent.

Ten minutes after Scholes ended the call, Stam, Ashley Cole, Gullit, Scholes, and Tony Adams were all gathered in the studio.

The fans had already been waiting far too long. As soon as Gullit confirmed that everything in the studio was ready and the livestream began, the explosive response immediately made Scholes burst out laughing.

Ashley Cole put Leo's contract up on the screen. Every clause left him stunned. He could hardly believe a Premier League club had offered a contract like this.

"Even now, I still can't believe this is the kind of contract a Premier League club would offer. In the past, you only heard about La Liga clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona giving contracts of this level to legendary players or especially important stars."

"For example, as far as I know, Real Madrid are offering, or may already have offered, Bale a deal worth more than £600,000 a week. But look at how many years Bale has spent at Real Madrid. He's accomplished a great deal for the club."

"Cristiano Ronaldo's contract at Real Madrid is also enormous, and Messi's at Barcelona is the same. But neither of them has anywhere near as many bonus clauses as Leo."

"The bonuses in this contract are broken down into incredible detail, and there are so many of them that Leo could potentially earn more from bonuses than from his basic salary."

"At this point, the £700,000 weekly wage almost doesn't feel like the most shocking part of the contract anymore. The bonuses are even more staggering than the £700,000-a-week salary!"

Gullit knew that this was a contract directly tied to Leo's performances.

But judging from what Leo had done over the past several years, he was likely to collect the vast majority of those bonuses.

"Take this year, for example. Leo is already extremely close to winning the Ballon d'Or. He practically has no real competition at the moment. That would make it his third Ballon d'Or."

"And the contract states it very clearly. The moment Leo wins the Ballon d'Or, he receives £18 million!"

"Then there's another £5 million in bonuses tied to winning various trophies in English football. On top of that, when he reaches 200 and 300 Premier League appearances, he gets an additional £10 million each time!"

"The appearance bonuses alone would have been enough to motivate me for years back when I was playing. Is this really a contract meant for a footballer? It's unbelievable!"

Stam suddenly found an interesting angle.

"What I'm about to say might hurt a little, but I'm still going to say it."

"Think about it carefully. If you added together the contracts all of us old guys had when we were at our absolute peaks, they might only just be enough to compare with Leo's contract."

"And our contracts all had expiration dates. Three years, five years. Once those years were over, if we had already declined from our peak, the club could simply get rid of us or offer us a much worse deal."

"But Leo's contract has no fixed end date. It lasts until he retires."

"Even if he gets older one day, even if he's no longer as brilliant as he was at his peak and can't put up those terrifying numbers anymore, he'll still receive the same level of treatment he enjoyed in his prime."

"What exactly do you have to do to get a contract this ridiculous? I seriously want to interview Leo as soon as possible and make him tell me the secret. Then maybe I can come out of retirement and get back on the pitch for a contract like this!"

Scholes knew exactly what to do.

"You want to know what it takes to get a mega-contract on Lin's level? I'll tell you. I know."

Scholes then opened the document he had prepared.

It contained a detailed record of everything Leo had accomplished over the years, both on the pitch and off it.

"First, you need to win three Ballon d'Or awards before turning twenty-three."

"Second, you need to win the FIFA World Cup at eighteen, then help your club win the UEFA Champions League at eighteen, while also winning the first league title in the club's history."

"Then, as a midfielder, you need to create at least forty goals for your team every single season. If you're a forward, I'd say you need to add another twenty to that."

"Then, starting from the age of eighteen, your shirt needs to sell out every single year, and every year your shirt sales need to rank first among every club in the world."

"After that, you need to make sure that whenever you play, no matter how low-profile the competition is, even if it's only the third round of the EFL Cup, attendance still reaches at least ninety-eight percent."

"Because every single match Leo has started in the past has reached that figure."

"Finally, you also need to make sure that the small souvenirs associated with you, the kind of player merchandise many clubs barely consider important, sell almost as well as the shirts themselves."

"Every year, the revenue Liverpool earns from those little merchandise items alone is even higher than the total profit some lower and mid-table Premier League clubs make from shirt sales."

"If you can do all of that, then you can get a contract like this."

After Scholes finished speaking, nobody said a word.

All he could hear was the deafening sound of everyone mentally turning to stone.