Chapter Twenty-Nine: Transfer Rumors

The foreign media remained calm enough. After all, Bayern Munich had been poaching players for years. But in China, the reaction was earthshaking.

First of all, the 64 million yuan price tag made the whole subject explode in popularity. Even people who did not follow football knew what 64 million yuan meant.

Many parents in China began comparing Momo with their own children, and in time he slowly replaced the much-hated children next door and children from other people’s families.

It also, to a certain extent, helped promote the development of Chinese football. Of course, it also harmed some children, because a few bewildered parents began pushing their sons into football, always saying, “If only you were worth 64 million yuan.”

Second, the destination itself added to the buzz. Bayern Munich was a giant club, not some place like Manchester City, and in those days the leagues in Germany, Italy, and Spain were still generally stronger than the Premier League, which had not yet completed its rise.

Third came the moralists. There were always people who liked to step forward at moments like this. Momo’s transfer to a giant club ought to have been a simple matter, and most people thought, That’s great. China finally has a player at a top club.

But some people began attacking it instead, and many of them probably did not even watch football at all. They attacked simply for the sake of attacking.

They accused him of abandoning his old club for a rival, and even dragged in grotesque historical comparisons from the war years. Worst of all, they sounded so reasonable and persuasive that quite a few people were taken in. Some newspapers even tried to issue statements, saying that Momo had not agreed to join Bayern Munich. But who was listening?

People love a spectacle, and the bigger the commotion, the better. Some even began listing Bayern Munich’s winter transfer plans.

Recently, on Momo’s fan forum, a post had instantly become a sensation:

Bayern’s Winter Grand Strategy: Momo Expected to Join a Giant Club

Tobias Rau of Wolfsburg, Klose of Kaiserslautern, and Momo of Munich 1860 are the players most favored by Hitzfeld.

Before buying new players, however, Hitzfeld’s first task is to clear out the mediocre ones. Tarnat has already been put on the transfer list by the club and is likely to move to Fulham. Fink is also in talks with the second-division side Cologne. Another defender, Tiam, has already begun negotiations with Wolfsburg.

If nothing unexpected happens, he will move to Wolfsburg in the winter window for a fee of around one million euros.

That would make him yet another Bayern Munich player to head to Wolfsburg after Effenberg.

Because Wolfsburg wanted to assemble a forceful Bundesliga side by bringing in a batch of former Bayern players, Bayern Munich was happy to do them a favor while also seizing the opportunity to profit from the situation.

As for Momo, Bayern Munich would very likely take the tactful route of signing him first and bringing him in only after the season ended. Since Momo had been outstanding this season, Bayern might be prepared to set aside as much as eight million euros for his arrival.

But Munich 1860’s stance was firm. Even so, Momo had stated plainly at a press conference that he would not necessarily become Bayern Munich’s starting striker. Did that mean Momo favored Bayern Munich?

It was entirely foreseeable that Bayern Munich would sell off a large number of players during the winter transfer period in order to raise cash. The long-unseen Niko Kovac, along with his brother Robert Kovac, were both among the most likely to be cleared out.

With Ballack and others having joined the squad, Bayern Munich now needed above all else a player who could seize opportunities and turn them into goals.

Momo clearly fit that requirement. Perhaps the earlier version of Momo had not, because apart from his knack for arriving in the right place at the right time, his finishing was still a huge hole that would be hard to fill, and his single-minded style of dribbling seemed to shout that he would be the second Yang Chen.

But in the city derby against Bayern Munich, Momo had shown his ability to score from outside the box, along with his Marseille turn and his varied dribbling skills. More importantly, Momo was a World Cup participant, had already scored in the tournament, and was still very young.

Under such circumstances, Bayern Munich’s determination to sign him was unmistakable. Eight million euros was already a weighty show of sincerity. It was rumored that Inter Milan, Juventus, and Manchester United had all expressed interest in Momo.

Even Real Madrid was surprised that Momo had drawn so much attention after leaving, and they reportedly said that he could in fact be sent to the under-21s or the reserve team. Oh, proud Real Madrid indeed.

One must remember that the Bundesliga season has thirty-four rounds, and only five have been played so far. Momo has also missed two matches. In those three games, although he won only one, he still scored a full seven goals. So people are still saying he keeps losing? He is only seventeen. How many goals did Ronaldo score in a whole season at seventeen?

Someone even did the math and concluded that Momo could score at least 7 times 7, or forty-nine goals, this season. If so, why wait until he had scored that many before buying him? Wouldn’t that be foolish?

It is also worth mentioning that the Bundesliga’s top scorer usually does not exceed thirty goals, and is generally in the range of seventeen to twenty-eight. In that light, Bayern Munich actually made the right investment by buying Momo. At the very least, they would not be short of strikers for the next fifteen years.

As for this, I would say that Munich 1860 would not keep Momo forever. They had little ambition in any competition, and were instead facing a severe financial crisis. If the price was right, Momo would be transferred whether he wanted to leave or not.

Compared with a young, promising player, what Munich 1860 needed more was a mountain of cash.

That one post immediately set the entire forum ablaze. Sports Weekly even reprinted it. And then another piece of news made things even more exciting: there were rumors that Arsenal wanted to buy Momo. Had they already forgotten Simon Yencz?

Not at all. Rather, in this competition that had been ignited too early, every bit of funding was precious, and Momo had already been hyped to mythic proportions.

In truth, the Munich 1860 hierarchy did not want to discuss a transfer so early. There was still a long way to go, and given Momo’s current form, there was still plenty of room for his value to rise. But now so many giant clubs had begun declaring interest. They could keep waiting, but what about Momo?

Hello, Mino? A transfer? Sports Weekly wants to interview me? Fine, let them come. I just happen to have something I want to say.

Momo’s voice was calm and unruffled. And just after he hung up, Li Qing’s call came through as well. Recently, many Munich 1860 fans had branded Momo a traitor, and that was something he found very hard to accept.

Tomorrow, then. After tomorrow’s interview, perhaps all this conflict could finally be resolved.