Chapter 364: Chapter 82: Smash the Bayern Myth! New Contract Renewal Plan! A Historical Record Sealed for 50 Years! Wang Shuo, I’m Waiting for You

"In the Bundesliga, we rarely include such clauses in contracts. They’re much more common in La Liga."

The so-called release clause means that a player can buy out their own contract by paying a certain sum of money.

Of course, while we say the player buys out their own contract, in reality, the money comes from the club the player wants to join.

This practice is indeed very common in La Liga.

For example, there was the recent sensational news.

Barça superstar Messi’s release clause was only 150 million euros.

Real Madrid wanted to activate the release clause to bring Messi to the Bernabéu Stadium.

Also, Florentino used a release clause when he signed Figo from Barça in 2000.

Ultimately, it’s just setting a maximum transfer fee for a player.

The advantages of this are obvious.

The club can no longer use it as a bargaining chip to demand an exorbitant price, and the player gains maximum control over their future transfers.

For example, if Wang Shuo’s release clause was 50 million euros, as long as a team was willing to pay that amount, Dortmund would completely lose its ability to block his transfer.

Furthermore, if Wang Shuo’s future market value exceeded 50 million euros, Dortmund would just have to accept it.

At that point, the amount exceeding 50 million euros would usually be converted into the player’s signing bonus and annual salary.

After all, the players aren’t pushovers.

Are there any benefits?

Of course, there are.

For the club, the release clause is usually set at a relatively reasonable amount at the time of signing and is used as leverage to get the player to make concessions on salary and compensation.

Coming from a finance background, Watzke understood better than anyone that this would give the club a relatively stable financial outlook.

The transfer market is notoriously unpredictable, with fees fluctuating wildly.

Having such an expectation offers many advantages for financial planning.

More importantly, after signing this type of contract, players often work even harder.

Because the portion exceeding the release clause often belongs to the player.

To put it bluntly, fighting for an extra 2 million euros in annual salary is less beneficial for Wang Shuo than negotiating the release clause down by 10 million euros.

Simply put, there are pros and cons for both sides.

And this type of release clause usually appears when young players are renewing their contracts.

The club, unwilling to offer a higher salary, uses the release clause as compensation.

The player gives up some compensation in exchange for more autonomy.

It’s a kind of gentleman’s agreement between the club and the player, where both parties get what they want.

...

Wang Shuo discovered that having been born and raised in China, his concept of geography and distance was different from that of players from other countries.

A distance of 200 kilometers, for example.

For Wang Shuo, that was roughly the distance from Lingshan State to the Quanjiang City District and then to the provincial capital.

And that was only if you took the highway.

If you took the national roads, it would definitely be more than 200 kilometers.

So, he considered that distance quite short—he wouldn’t have even left the province.

But in Europe, a distance of 200 kilometers seemed quite far.

They had traveled from Dortmund, Germany, heading west, crossed the entire country of the Netherlands, and arrived in Amsterdam on the country’s west coast—a journey of just over two hundred kilometers.

This made it hard for Wang Shuo to get used to this concept of distance and travel.

There was nothing to be done about it; his motherland was just too vast!

The UEFA Europa League matches were always scheduled for Thursday nights.

The first leg of the Round of 32 knockout stage, Dortmund’s away match against Ajax, was on the evening of February 18th.

Although Dortmund had assembled and checked into a hotel the day before, the team didn’t depart until the morning of the match, when the entire squad boarded the team bus for the journey to Amsterdam.

At noon, the team checked into their hotel and had lunch. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

In the afternoon, they arrived early at the Amsterdam Arena for their pre-match warm-up and to familiarize themselves with the pitch.

Weidenfeller had started participating in team training again, but to be on the safe side, Klopp still had Ziegler starting for this match. Therefore, Wang Shuo was still the team captain.

As night fell, while Wang Shuo was leading his teammates through their warm-up at the Amsterdam Arena, he noticed a familiar figure in the stands.

During a break in training, he made a point of jogging over to the stands at the edge of the pitch.

The Amsterdam Arena was surrounded by advertising boards, and between the boards and the stands, there was a strip of grass.

On match days, the bottom of the stands was separated from the grassy area by a metal fence.

But people could talk to each other and even pass things through from either side of the fence.

"What are you doing here?"

Wang Shuo asked, pleasantly surprised, looking at Shen Qinghe, who was holding a camera on the other side of the fence.

Seeing that she was about to take a picture, Wang Shuo even flashed his usual peace sign.

"London is so close to Amsterdam, of course I had to come," Shen Qinghe explained with a smile.

"If you draw a Premier League team in the next round, I’ll be able to get here even earlier."

The implication was that she hoped Wang Shuo and Dortmund would beat Ajax and advance smoothly to the next knockout round.

"You should be careful later. The Dutch fans aren’t exactly friendly," Wang Shuo reminded her.

He was mainly worried about her being there by herself.

"It’s fine. I’m used to it. I know how to take care of myself," Shen Qinghe said with a laugh.