"Long time no see!"
"Long time no see!"
At the exit of Milan Airport, Leon and Su Jing looked at each other and smiled.
"Season's over then!"
"It is! Are you heading back to the East for the break? Want to come together?"
"Sure! Let me wait until the contract business is sorted."
"No problem! Wow, you've signed with Fatty Raiola! Respect!"
In the taxi on the way to Milanello, Leon and Su Jing chatted idly back and forth.
Off the pitch, Leon had not shed his introverted nature.
Most of the time, it was still Su Jing who got the conversation going.
'The East.'
'How long has it been since I've been back.'
Leon drifted into his thoughts without quite realising it.
At Milanello at that moment, the players had all gone on holiday, but management was a different story.
Galliani was hard at work with his team.
This transfer window, he had a substantial war chest in hand again and a hundred million euros to spend.
First, though, Galliani had to deal with a man he knew all too well but had no great desire to deal with.
Raiola.
"Hey! Old friend!"
Raiola walked straight up and gave Galliani a hug, without the slightest trace of awkwardness.
When there was money to be made, how could there be any awkwardness?
"Stop right there, stop right there."
"I can't afford that hug of yours."
A bad feeling settled over Galliani immediately, the sense that he was about to be played by this heavyset man in front of him yet again.
"Leon's contract. Let's talk."
Raiola settled comfortably into the sofa and crossed his legs.
How to handle club directors was territory Raiola had long since mastered.
"Leon's contract does need to be renegotiated."
Galliani had no objection to that.
Leon was still on a youth contract. Even if Leon had remained without an agent, Galliani would still have gone to him for a significant pay rise.
"What's your figure?"
Galliani said directly to Raiola.
"Do you know what the first thing I said to Leon when we met was?"
Raiola tapped the ash from his cigar.
"A new contract. Six million euros a year."
"That's the starting point, and it's the floor. We can work out the other terms after."
Raiola said it calmly.
"What the hell!"
"You might as well just rob the place!"
"Do you have any idea what six million euros a year means?"
"That's top three in Serie A! Only Higuaín and De Rossi are ahead of him!"
"Does Leon deserve that?"
"I'm done here."
Galliani was not young any more, but he leapt to his feet like a startled rabbit.
He grabbed his briefcase and turned to walk out.
This was a joke.
A six million euro annual salary for an eighteen-year-old goalkeeper?
He would not pay that even if he had taken a knock to the head.
Did Raiola know what Buffon was earning?
Four and a half million euros.
"Holder of the longest unbeaten clean sheet record in Serie A."
"Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year."
"Milan's captain."
"Most importantly, if Milan doesn't have a star to call its own, how does the club command a high price in two years' time?"
Watching Galliani move to leave, Raiola did not stir in the slightest, and after a slow draw on his cigar, said it all with quiet ease.
He exhaled the smoke unhurriedly.
Galliani's right hand, already around the door handle, slowly let go.
"Let's talk some more."
"Six million euros is out of the question."
Galliani sat back down on the sofa opposite Raiola.
He felt that he was genuinely getting old.
In just a few exchanges, Raiola had already taken control of the conversation.
"Six million euros. That's my final offer."
"The bonus for clean sheets, appearance fees, all those details we can work through separately."
"How about I bring Ibrahimovic back next season?"
"And I'll throw in Balotelli as well. Free loan, AC Milan only needs to cover fifty percent of his wages. Is that not generous enough?"
Raiola landed one punch after another, leaving a completely unprepared Galliani completely disoriented.
'Ibrahimovic? Balotelli?'
Anyone who had worked with Ibrahimovic knew exactly what he was worth.
The nickname the Great Warrior was not given lightly.
If Ibrahimovic came back, AC Milan's league title next season was as good as guaranteed.
Add Balotelli on top of that, and Milan's attacking line would finally have some real quality to it.
Balotelli had been let go by Liverpool after one too many brainless incidents, but compared to a Torres well past his peak and Pazzini, he was still a far more credible option.
'Six million euros... isn't entirely impossible.'
'Milan genuinely does need a star of its own.'
Galliani had already come around to accepting Raiola's demand.
Leon had come through at Leoia.
But Leoia was AC Milan's satellite club.
When you looked at it properly, Leon could be considered largely a product of Milan's own system.
If Leon could stay at Milan long-term, like Baresi, Maldini, and Ambrosini had done, then Milan might genuinely find their way back to the top.
Galliani drifted into his memories.
Soon enough, though, Galliani came back to the realisation that he was thinking far too far ahead.
Berlusconi's decision to sell AC Milan was settled.
Berlusconi would not change his mind.
And once AC Milan changed hands, Galliani would inevitably leave as well.
Whatever became of Milan after that was no longer his concern.
A few days later, AC Milan made an official announcement.
Leon had signed a contract extension with AC Milan on a salary of six million euros a year.
A five-year deal.
The reaction was explosive.
The whole of Serie A erupted.
The entire Leon Fan Hub erupted.
Fans across the East erupted.
Leon staying at AC Milan was no surprise, but the salary figure was another matter entirely.
It was nowhere near the twenty million euros a year that Cristiano and Messi were currently earning.
But Leon was only eighteen.
What were Cristiano and Messi earning at eighteen?
Cristiano's annual salary at eighteen was one and a half million euros.
Messi's annual salary at eighteen was one million euros.
Leon had them both beat.
"From this moment, the East will have a true star of its own."
"A star who can compete on the same level and the same stage as Cristiano and Messi."
"He is the greatest goalkeeper in the history of Eastern football: Leon!"
The football programme opened a dedicated feature on Leon.
Dandy delivered those words in his most passionate voice, moving countless fans across the East.
From this moment on, Eastern football would have a superstar to call its own.
In an instant, Leon dominated every page of the sports media back home.
The buzz surrounding a certain club's championship haul and their Asian trophy wins was completely swept aside.
At a café in Milanello at that moment, a lean man was waiting for a young goalkeeper to sign an agent contract.
Mendes and Donnarumma.
Having lost the chance to sign Leon, Mendes had no intention of leaving empty-handed.
Donnarumma, three years younger than Leon, had become Mendes's new target.
"Can you get me six million euros a year?"
Donnarumma looked at Mendes with eager anticipation.
Leon had got it, and he wanted the same.
Donnarumma had never once thought he was any worse than Leon.
Mendes was genuinely amused.
"You have to take it one step at a time."
"First, work on establishing yourself in AC Milan's first team."
"Go and take Leon's starting goalkeeper spot."
Mendes gave Donnarumma a pat on the shoulder and walked away.
Were all kids this unrealistic these days?
Donnarumma furrowed his brow, feeling vaguely as though he had just missed out on a fortune.
In Leon's previous life, it had been Raiola who signed Donnarumma, and in 2017, he had secured a salary of six million euros a year for an eighteen-year-old Donnarumma.