Zhou Yi and Schulze probably didn't know that the contract they signed with CK-jeans had extraordinary significance for the history of Chinese football.
Because this was the first endorsement contract signed by a Chinese player with a well-known foreign brand (and a non-sports one at that) since 2007.
In many countries, sports stars are popular endorsement choices for advertisers and are recognized by the market.
This is because sports attract a great deal of attention in society, and so do sports stars.
In China, there is a very obvious phenomenon: the appeal of sports stars is not proportional to their achievements in their professional fields. Sports stars who are outstanding or even world-class in their respective fields do not have the same commercial appeal as entertainment stars.
But this is not necessarily the case in other countries. In Japan, golfers and baseball stars rank among the top in advertising revenue, surpassing entertainment stars.
In Chinese sports, stars in sports such as basketball, tennis, swimming, and badminton can still get some personal endorsement contracts outside of sports brands.
But football stars shouldn't even think about it.
In fact, before 2003, Chinese football stars also had a good time earning millions or even tens of millions of yuan in advertising revenue every year.
In 2001, after the Chinese team successfully entered the World Cup finals in the Top Ten matches, the national team coach, Milutinovic, obtained a large number of sponsorship contracts with brands that had nothing to do with football, including brands such as DVDs, liquor, and air conditioners.
And most of the national team players at that time also had advertising endorsements.
Hao Dong, who was then the national team's number one striker, was China's top football star. Media reports said that his advertising revenue had exceeded seven million yuan in 1998.
In 2001, Dalian team star Li Ming became the spokesperson for a local luxury residential project.
Sun Hai advertised motorcycles.
Central defender Li Weifeng endorsed a graphics card. Goalkeeper Jiang Jing endorsed medicine.
Yang Chen, a striker who played for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga at the time, relied on his outstanding performance in the Bundesliga and his handsome appearance to become the player in the national team with the most commercials, and they were all major international brands, such as Coca-Cola, Puma, and Energizer batteries.
At that time, PepsiCo was eager to promote itself in the Chinese market, so it also found several national team players to shoot a classic TV commercial.
In short, at that time, you could always see commercials of national team players on TV.
But in the following years, the craze for player advertising endorsements cooled sharply. Several players who played in Europe were able to get some commercial endorsement contracts. Sun Hai, who played for Manchester City, had the most brilliant overseas experience, so he always had advertising contracts before leaving Manchester City. Including large mobile phone chain companies, online games, seafood products, and even family cars.
In 2007, Ma Xiaoxu, the leading striker of the women's football team, was still able to endorse the Suzuki Jimny off-road vehicle from Japan.
But that was the last endorsement contract from a foreign non-sports brand for a Chinese player.
After failing to qualify for the World Cup qualifiers for three consecutive times, only Zheng Zhi, the former captain of the Chinese men's football team, can still get an independent Adidas sponsorship contract. But despite this, his advertising endorsement value is not very high, only between two million and five million RMB.
And Zhou Yi?
The CK-jeans endorsement contract alone will bring him an income of eight million RMB a year!
Even if you don't look at the brand of this contract, but look at the value of the contract, Zhou Yi is already the number one person in Chinese football.
The main reason for the long-term low advertising value of Chinese players is naturally related to their own football level, the general environment of Chinese football, and the poor performance of the national team.
In the eyes of the general public, Chinese male football players don't have a good image. Therefore, it is impossible for domestic Chinese businesses to find these players to endorse their brands, the risk is too great. You must know that in the darkest years of Chinese football, there was even a joke that watching the national team play was more embarrassing than watching Japanese AVs, which shows how terrible the image of Chinese football is in the hearts of the broad masses of people.
Some people have also made up jokes suitable for the national football team to endorse. For example, condom companies can find national football strikers to endorse, and the advertising slogan is: "Who can last ninety minutes without shooting? I can!"
It's really dirty and owed, but it very well reflects the public's view of Chinese players at that time.
Therefore, on TV, in newspapers and magazines, and on outdoor advertisements, you can see many second- and third-tier entertainment stars showing bright smiles next to a certain trademark, but you can't see any Chinese football players appearing on it.
And the endorsement contract that Zhou Yi has now signed with the American fashion brand shows one thing to everyone—as long as you play well, plus you have a reliable agent, then commercial endorsement contracts will still find Chinese football players.
After all, football has extremely strong appeal.
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In addition to the CK-jeans endorsement contract, Schulze told Zhou Yi that other contracts were still being negotiated and had not been finalized.
Because there were so many companies coming to Zhou Yi at the same time, he was really overwhelmed and couldn't arrange it all, so he could only postpone the schedule.
Although he explained the reason for this arrangement to the other party, the other party thought that this was his means of bargaining, and some people were worried that they would be ranked behind and would have no chance at all, so they desperately raised their bids, hoping to impress Schulze and Zhou Yi.
If Schulze wasn't an agent with principles, seeing the skyrocketing endorsement fees like an auction, I'm afraid he would have really kneeled down—the Chinese are really too rich!
Yes, all those who did this were brands and companies from China. They probably knew Zhou Yi's value in the Chinese market better than Schulze.
Not only because of Zhou Yi's outstanding performance in the Bundesliga and his positive image in the media, but also because he is a beacon of Chinese football in its darkest hour, and the shock and economic benefits he can bring to the market far exceed his inherent value.
Just think about it, when Chinese football was at its most sluggish, he suddenly rose up, and immediately attracted the attention of all those who were dissatisfied with and loved Chinese football to him. How terrifying is this appeal?
Only those who are in the long and dark night of Chinese football may understand Zhou Yi's value so well.
For this, they are probably willing to spend more money.
But Schulze didn't want to.
He has an overall plan for Zhou Yi's personal image. It's not like anyone can sign if they want to, and any brand company can use Zhou Yi's image to make a fuss. Some things can't be exchanged for any amount of money.
He sticks to his bottom line and principles, and rejects many companies whose bids are actually very high.
For this reason, he also told Zhou Yi why he did this, and he also received Zhou Yi's understanding and support.
As long as you have a long-term vision and scientific planning, you will never be able to earn all the money.
And now there is something more important than making money in China, and that is signing a contract with a sports brand sponsor.
In the football world, there are many brands, but there are not many that can be called world-class brands.
The most famous are Adidas and Nike.
These two are mortal enemies in the football world, and their grievances cannot be explained in three days and three nights.
But this time, they are not the main characters.
The first to pay attention to Zhou Yi was not Adidas or Nike, but Dortmund's jersey sponsor, Puma.
After all, there is the advantage of being close to the water.
So Puma is the most active company that wants to sign with Zhou Yi.
As Zhou Yi's performance became more and more outstanding, he attracted more attention, and giants like Adidas and Nike were naturally attracted as well.
At first, Schulze hoped that the three companies would fight, and it would be best to fight to the death, so that he and Zhou Yi could reap the benefits.
But the three companies are not stupid either, and they are not so easily led by the nose by the agent.
When a new talented player appears, each company will make a relatively comprehensive assessment of the player, assessing his current ability and predicting his future ability.
This detailed assessment report determines how much commercial value this new talent can bring to the company, and how much money the company is willing to bet on him.
Yes, unlike those cases of poaching famous players from competitors, for the young talents who are constantly pouring in every year, giants like Nike and Adidas are also gambling when they sign them.
If they win the bet, they will earn money. If they lose the bet... it's not a big deal anyway. Such a big company can still afford to lose, but they will definitely feel a little frustrated.
They all made assessments of Zhou Yi.
This assessment report determines how much confidence they will have in Zhou Yi, and how much money and resources they are willing to pay for Zhou Yi.
Zhou Yi's performance in his first season was very outstanding, and the data explained everything. This is also why Nike and Adidas came to him.
The media and fans are cheering for Zhou Yi every week. However, the professional teams of Nike and Adidas cannot be led by the nose by the media. They must maintain a calm mind in the cheers and carefully analyze this person.
While Zhou Yi's performance is outstanding, his shortcomings are also very obvious.
For example, his technical characteristics are relatively simple. This is very obvious in his games. Short passes are his best skill, but there are no more means besides that. In addition, his body is thin and his physical fitness is not up to standard. A player who is already nineteen years old still has to be substituted early in most games, which shows that his physical fitness problem is indeed very serious.
So, what will happen to such a young man with extremely outstanding advantages and extremely outstanding shortcomings in the future?
Both Nike and Adidas believe that Zhou Yi has the possibility of success, but the greater possibility is that he will not be so successful. That is to say, his characteristics are very distinct, and he can gain a place in the football world, but he is far from being the kind of particularly successful player.
Because there is one important point in this.
Today's football has increasingly comprehensive requirements for players. It is difficult for a player with distinct characteristics but also many shortcomings to achieve great things. On the other hand, those players with distinct characteristics and no shortcomings will be successful, and even those players with no distinct characteristics but no weaknesses may achieve more than Zhou Yi.
Physical fitness is especially important. A player with poor physical fitness can achieve some results when he first debuts because everyone is unfamiliar with him, but once his opponents figure him out, he may find it difficult to produce the same dazzling performance as in his first season.
Such examples have been seen countless times in the world of football.
Will it be repeated in Zhou Yi?