I changed football.

Li Yuan did indeed think so, after all, the €1.8 million loan-to-buy transfer fee for Mbappe in his previous life was driven by multiple factors.

Firstly, Mbappe's sudden emergence and outstanding performance in the Champions League knockout stage shocked the world, causing his transfer fee to become exceptionally high.

Secondly, Mbappé is French, and a Parisian at that. Therefore, Paris Saint-Germain was willing to pay a high price for him, wanting someone with a local flavor. Furthermore, Parisian oil capital wants to do business in France, so this expresses a willingness to establish a Frenchman, especially a Parisian, as the club's representative. This is beneficial for the club's operations and the oil capital's strategic layout in France.

Li Yuan believes that Mbappe's €1.8 million transfer fee was more significantly influenced by the second factor.

According to Li Yuan's plan, once he has his presence next year, Monaco's performance will not only be better than in the original timeline, but it will definitely be even better. When Mbappe goes to Paris, the price may still be the same, or it may be slightly lower because his presence will affect his performance.

However, he didn't want to go to Paris. If he wanted to join a Premier League team, those teams couldn't afford such a high price.

After all, Monaco dared to ask Paris for 1.8 million euros. Although there were multiple reasons for the increased bid, they still asked for that price.

However, even if Monaco asks for 1.5 million euros, it's likely that only Real Madrid and Barcelona could afford that price.

But Li Yuan really didn't want to go to Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Li Yuan really wanted to go to the English Premier League.

The Premier League has a huge audience and is very entertaining and exciting, at least from a fan's perspective.

As someone who's been through it all, Li Yuan knows very well that after Messi and Ronaldo left, La Liga's economy declined sharply, and its competitiveness dropped significantly compared to the Premier League. Meanwhile, the Premier League wasn't doing well in international competitions. In such a situation, no league's top star emerged. Even though Haaland won the Champions League in his previous life, Messi still easily took the Ballon d'Or, which shows just how bad things were.

Li Yuan's goal is to become the number one star in the Premier League.

"I understand what you mean. You want to add a release clause so it will be easier for you to choose the club you want to join in the future. But unfortunately, Ligue 1 doesn't officially allow release clauses, and any verbal agreement between teams can be easily overturned. Hmm—this is a bit difficult."

Li Yuan was well aware that this was a difficult matter. In other leagues, it would be simple; they could just add a buyout clause. La Liga mandates that every player must have a buyout clause, and many leagues don't prohibit it. However, Ligue 1 explicitly forbids adding buyout clauses to player contracts. Therefore, some players only negotiate gentleman's terms with their clubs, which are all verbal agreements.

In his previous life, Li Yuan had seen many news reports about players of all ages arguing with Ligue 1 clubs over gentleman's clauses.

Li Yuan in this life is not one to make a fuss over these kinds of things.

In Li Yuan's view, the window of opportunity for leaving Monaco was only the summer of 17. After a brilliant season, Mbappe left, and many players would leave as well. Leaving that summer was the best choice for him.

However, if we calculate according to the contract at that time, he would have only signed a contract for a little over a year. If Monaco wanted to use the contract to hold him back, he really wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

"This is indeed a difficult situation. It's really impossible to include any penalty clauses in the contracts of Ligue 1 teams."

"Even foreign clubs aren't allowed?"

"It really won't work."

Li Yuan was taken aback. He remembered playing Football Manager before, so could it be that his memory was wrong?

"However, we can impose restrictions on the contract length. For example, if you sign a 3-year contract this year, I can negotiate for the contract to expire in July 2018. In this way, by 2017 you will only have one year left on the contract, and the initiative will be in your hands."

"But aren't contracts usually for five years? Will Monaco agree to that?"

"Of course, we'll have to compromise on other things, like salaries. But we'll definitely have to talk about it. Actually, I think you're right. Monaco is a team that can play in the Champions League anytime, and player prices are skyrocketing. You can see that from Martial's transfer to Manchester United. A relatively unknown player, with all sorts of clauses, ended up costing 80 million euros. It's not impossible for players to easily cost over 100 million euros in transfer fees. If you perform well in the Champions League, Monaco's asking price might increase dramatically, and then it'll be troublesome if you want to go to the clubs you want to join."

"However—" Raiola added, "There's something that's actually good news for us. According to my sources, Mbappe's family wants to sign a three-year professional contract with Monaco."

Upon hearing Raiola's words, Li Yuan raised an eyebrow.

As expected of a top agent, he can now analyze so many things about the future transfer market.

Furthermore, Li Yuan seemed to remember something about Mbappe signing a 3-year contract in his previous life, but he couldn't recall the details.

「3年合同的话，你刚才说的能到2018年7月份就到期，这是怎幺算的，现在已经是2015年的12月份了，如果算3年的话不是2018年12月才到期吗？」

"Haha, this is an unwritten rule in the football world. Most transfer signings happen between January/February and June/September, so many players' contracts expire in January or July. But what about young players or youth academy players signing professional contracts? The contract start dates become incredibly varied! For example, if someone signs a three-year contract in 2015, the contract will start from July 2015 and run until July 2018. This makes future transfers easier. As for salary calculations, they'll start from the beginning. For instance, if you sign in December, you'll receive your salary from July to December all at once—essentially a signing bonus. Many clubs do this. Of course, some clubs choose to base the contract on the actual signing year."

"Oh, I see. There's quite a bit of intricacies involved," Li Yuan exclaimed.

这个时候他又想起了前世姆巴佩的情况，姆巴佩前世是2016年好像是3月还是4月签的约，说是3年，其实合同到期已经要到2019年的6月了。这也是按照实际签约时间来算的。

Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Paris to spend €180 million to buy him in July 2017. Otherwise, if they had followed the signing method Raiola suggested, wouldn't Paris have spent nearly €200 million to sign a player whose contract had only one year left?

Therefore, it can be concluded from this that Mbappe's previous signings were based on the actual signing time.

Li Yuan and Raiola had such an in-depth conversation that both of them knew the cooperation had definitely been finalized.

"Because you are not yet a minor, I need to sign a contract with your guardian."

"That's no problem. My father can fly over then."

Although it's a bit of a burden on my father, there's no other way.

The two then discussed a few more things, exchanged contact information, and finally parted ways.

Li Yuan checked the time; it was already past 10 o'clock.

He and Raiola have been talking here for almost two and a half hours.

Li Yuan finished his coffee, which had already been refilled twice, before leaving the coffee shop.

Walking down the street, Li Yuan planned to go to the Chinese Super League to buy some things.

There are Chinese supermarkets in Monaco, but not many; there's one not far from the training base.

The boss is from Fujian; this is already a standard practice.

After arriving in the Chinese Super League, Li Yuan bought some domestically produced goods and paid for them before heading to his dormitory.

He called his father while walking and explained the whole story.

"I'll pay for the plane tickets."

"How can I let you pay? I have money."

"It all happened so suddenly, and you had to take time off work to make this trip. I'll pay for your plane ticket."

"Airfare is so expensive, where would you get the money?"

"Have you forgotten that my youth contract was increased once? My weekly salary is 160 euros, which is 8300 euros a year, almost 6 RMB."

"Hey, just keep this money. You're spending a lot over there; I know from the news that the cost of living in Monaco is incredibly high!"

"It's alright, I usually eat and stay at the club, there's not much to spend money on, this money—"

"Don't worry, son. How could your old man not be able to afford a plane ticket? Your situation is a big deal for our family. You just need to focus on playing football, and we'll figure out the rest."

"Okay, fine."