Chapter 275: Peking University Chinese Department: I've Made It

Arsenal, translated into Chinese as Arsenal Football Club, is the only football team in England that has never been relegated from the top division; the club's address is located in London, United Kingdom.

Since the start of the Premier League era, Arsenal has also been the only team so far capable of continuously threatening the dominance of the Red Devils, Manchester United.

Under the leadership of head coach Arsène Wenger, who currently lacks no funds, the twin guns led by Henry and Bergkamp continue to exert force; this English giant has been built into a top-tier powerhouse by his own hand, and this year there is hope of winning the Double of the Premier League title and the FA Cup title once again.

While countless Arsenal fans were eagerly awaiting a good harvest for the team this year, on April 28, the official website of Arsenal Football Club suddenly released a "joining" photo of Zhou Yi holding up an Arsenal number 22 jersey, stunning countless fans following the club.

"Who is this? A new signing for the team? An Asian?"

"It's not transfer window time now; how can they sign a new player?"

"Wait a minute, this person seems to be a singer, the one who sang 'The Lazy Song'!"

"Is it really him?!"

"..."

Thanks to the outstanding performance of 'The Lazy Song', which once surged to the top of the UK Singles Chart and held the throne firmly for four weeks, many local London Arsenal fans quickly recognized who Zhou Yi was.

There was no choice; whether it was the melody or the music video, that song was too catchy, making it hard not to leave a deep impression.

Moreover, this song is still on the charts; although it has currently slipped from first place to fourth, it can obviously still make its presence felt in the eyes of the British from time to time.

"What is Spike doing at Arsenal?"

"The official website introduction seems to say... he has become the Arsenal China Image Ambassador???"

"Is he an Arsenal fan?"

"He really is an Arsenal fan; Arsenal released a video of Spike playing football wearing an Arsenal jersey at school back when Spike hadn't debuted yet."

"..."

When the announcement that Zhou Yi would become the Arsenal China Image Ambassador for the next three years, coordinated by the Arsenal club official website at the scheduled time with the official announcement from Warner (China), was confirmed, the entire football world was somewhat stunned.

Immediately following this was a sudden explosion in search volume and popularity for this Premier League club, Arsenal, within the country!

According to Baidu's own search volume statistics, on April 29, the three characters "Arsenal" leaped to become the tenth most popular search term on Baidu that day.

In this era where Serie A is still basking in the afterglow of the "Little World Cup," the fake fans domestically would relatively likely have heard of Serie A teams like Milan, Inter, Juventus, Napoli, and Roma.

At most, add Real Madrid and Barcelona from La Liga; Bayern from the Bundesliga, and Manchester United from the Premier League.

Who is Arsenal? Really not familiar.

But now, simply because of the operation of officially announcing Zhou Yi as the China Image Ambassador, the popularity of Arsenal Football Club in China has made substantial progress; Zhou Yi's massive fan base directly began searching for related information.

For Arsenal, which has always been eyeing Manchester United's commercial development achievements and progress in the Asian market, this is undoubtedly sheer joy.

"In fact, this endorsement deal owes a lot to Chen Qiwei."

Singapore, inside a hotel suite.

Qian Jiang, feeling quite that the world is wonderful, handed the various quantified search data in his hand to Zhou Yi, whose face was strange, and said cheerfully: "Zhou Jianhui and Chen Qiwei have been busy everywhere for your affairs, and then Chen Qiwei thought of helping you find some top stars to build good relationships, just in case they might be useful later.

"Coincidentally, among the top popular stars currently signed by Coca-Cola, one of the leading ones is Arsenal's ace striker, Henry, who bears the reputation of the Highbury Gun King.

"Chen Qiwei met Henry through Coca-Cola's connections while Henry was recovering from injury with no match duties; this matter was learned by Arsenal, and then Arsenal people discovered the fact that you often played football wearing an Arsenal jersey and scored big margins before you debuted."

When speaking to this point, the smile on Qian Jiang's face was simply more brilliant than a chrysanthemum: "You might not know that currently, all Premier League clubs are actively promoting commercially, among which the best performer is Manchester United, followed by Arsenal.

"So, in order to catch up with Manchester United's commercial development in the Asian market, Arsenal immediately met Zhou Jianhui through Chen Qiwei and negotiated this three-year contract with an endorsement fee of six million euros."

This price is considered high even when looking across the entire European football club landscape.

After all, Zhou Yi is not some club legend; being able to secure this price is more due to last year's outstanding results and high popularity, plus the fame bonus from conquering the US Billboard charts.

Zhou Yi immediately found the current real-time exchange rate to compare; roughly 800 RMB is about equivalent to 100 euros...

Earning euros is also damn sweet!

After simply calculating the exchange rate, Zhou Yi exclaimed in wonder.

Truly, as expected of Arsenal, still at Highbury Stadium, lacking no money, wealthy and generous.

"If only you had worn a Manchester United jersey back at school; Manchester United's commercial development is stronger, they could offer a higher price, and your contract might have been negotiated to seven or eight million euros."

Qian Jiang was somewhat like a greedy snake trying to swallow an elephant.

These Premier League clubs that have tasted the sweetness of commercial development buy stars for one or twenty million pounds without treating money as money; they are too wealthy.

Although Arsenal is now referred to as one of the twin giants of the Premier League alongside Manchester United, it is obviously still inferior to Manchester United in commercial development.

"I should have worn a Real Madrid jersey back then!" Zhou Yi wished he could slap his thigh, filled with regret for the past.

In these days, when it comes to commercial value, Real Madrid stands alone in a class of its own, with commercial exposure maxed out. Real Madrid's helmsman Florentino is a master of playing with traffic; he has already started assembling the football field's Galaxy Fleet, and Ronaldo and Zidane have both been bought over.

"Arsenal has invited you to go to Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester on May 8 as the Image Ambassador to watch the Manchester United vs. Arsenal match.

"If Arsenal wins this match, they will win the Premier League title for this season one round in advance; consider it a good omen."

Speaking thus, Qian Jiang handed an invitation letter into Zhou Yi's hand: "Photo opportunities will also be arranged for you then; do you have any favorite stars?"

"No."

Zhou Yi shook his head: "What I like is head coach Arsène Wenger's philosophy of beautiful football."

In his past life when he watched football, Henry was long gone from Arsenal; Wenger, constrained by the team's finances, had become the mocked "Four-Place Maniac," playing beautiful football that was mocked for having no titles.

Securing qualification from the Champions League group stage was as steady as a dog; qualifying every year to fight the universe.

"Head coach?"

Qian Jiang glanced at Zhou Yi in surprise.

Rare indeed; in the football world, there are actually fans of a head coach?

"Oh right, there is one more thing."

Qian Jiang, who doesn't know much about football, slapped his forehead: "Arsenal attaches great importance to you, this Image Ambassador with extremely high influence in the Asian region; to celebrate your joining, they have specially edited clips of you playing matches in the past, using your new song.

"You can take a look; is there anything that needs modification?"

After finishing speaking, Qian Jiang took a CD out of his bag and put it into the living room's DVD player—

Zhou Yi glanced curiously, and the first thing he saw, the "Peking University Chinese Department" jersey, made him unable to hold back...

Could it be...?

…………………………………………

On May 1, 2002, as China and indeed the whole world plunged into the joyful atmosphere of the World Cup, spokespeople from major brands rolled out their own World Cup promotional videos.

Among them, Pepsi assembled a bunch of football superstars to go to Japan and film an ad with sumo wrestlers. But Coca-Cola, Pepsi's old rival, today joined forces with Arsenal FC to release a "big production"—

Zhou Yi, wearing Arsenal's number 22 jersey, was practically a Superman delivering a dimensional strike in the promotional video: on the pitch, he stylishly executed a Marseille turn, then seamlessly followed with a nutmeg and a rabona, beating five players in a row before finally blasting the ball through the opponent's goal.

The stirring background music of "Waving Flag," the blood-pumping editing, and the slow-motion close-ups constantly highlighting Zhou Yi's physique and handsome looks all ensured that this promotional MV, upon release, became wildly popular among the massive Arsenal fanbase in London—

and then radiated from the Arsenal fanbase to the entire London region!

Coupled with Warner Music's large-scale promotion, "Waving Flag" first built an extremely high reputation in the British fan community just five days after its release!

"I love this MV!"

"No wonder it's Arsenal!"

"This song is sung by Spike; it seems the radio stations have opened up requests too."

"I noticed something: the players whose goals Spike keeps breaking through and who he keeps beating, though their faces are unseen, why is the same text written on their backs?"

"..."

On May 2, when this promotional gift from Arsenal and Warner to the fans aired on television as an advertisement, many of the people featured in the video fell silent upon seeing it.

And on the Peking University BBS, the news instantly exploded!

"Chinese Department! You've made it! Global release!"

"Although they respected your portrait rights and didn't cut in your faces, just by looking at the silhouettes, I could guess who was who!"

"Awesome, Chinese Department!"

"Who would have thought that Zhou Yi, who once scored 13-0 against the Chinese Department, would now be famous internationally..."

"..."

"Correction: Zhou Yi only scored three! The rest were scored by his teammates!"

On this day, the members of the Peking University Chinese Department football team, who had made a big name for themselves in the alumni circle, were both pained and happy, still constantly defending themselves—

"The Hong Kong Celebrity Team was the real disaster; Zhou Yi scored five goals on them in nine minutes! They literally earned the title 'Nine-Five Supreme'! At least we're better than Xie Tingfeng!"

No matter how terrible we Peking University Chinese Department members were, we only let Zhou Yi score three. Comparing the two—we win! A huge win!

Xie Tingfeng, who was stuck at home due to the controversy and couldn't show his face, nearly fainted when he saw the news.

How can he still get caught in the crossfire even after all this?!

Besides, was I even playing goalkeeper?! I was playing striker back then!!!

(End of this chapter)