"Karin, come and try a piece of hairtail. Madeira is the only place in Europe where hairtail is produced."

Just as Zhuang Mingge and Karin were enjoying the fresh hairtail from Madeira in the Palace Hotel, Rui Costa took his agent into the hotel lobby and walked towards Zhuang Mingge's table.

The two sides exchanged greetings and sat back again and started negotiations on Costa's treatment in Florence.

The progress of the negotiations was as smooth as Zhuang Mingge expected. With a weekly salary of $10,000, and five years of signing, Costa agreed to the contract without bargaining with Zhuang Mingge or making any additional conditions, and then signaled his agent to check the specific details of the contract. If the contract is not a problem, then the Portuguese can sign his name on the contract in a short while.

"Ruy, why did you agree to our Florence offer so quickly?" After Costa signed his name on the contract, Zhuang Mingge finally raised his doubts.

"Mr. Corleon, no, you should call you boss now." Costa smiled bitterly and said, "As the chairman of the Serie A championship team, you can personally run to Madeira to introduce a young player like me who is not very famous. Chairman Azerado didn't call me until he sold me and told me 'You were sold to Fiorentina'. He hadn't even sent anyone to call me before!"

Zhuang Mingge nodded, saying that he understood Rui Costa's mood. Although the players' status was very low before the Boseman Act and had no say in the transfer, the club also had to notify the parties when conducting transfer operations. This is the minimum respect for the players. Otherwise, even the stars Benfica trained by himself would be difficult to remember the goodness of the parent team after becoming famous.

No wonder after the Boseman Act, Benfica's traditional three giants fell the fastest, and the root of the disaster was buried at this time...

...

The Madeira Islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Portugal, 869 kilometers away from the European continent. The Portuguese have settled on the island since 1420. To this day, it has become a very famous tourist city in Europe.

Therefore, Rui Costa, as a Portuguese, naturally wanted to serve as the host and invited his boss to visit Madeira Island.

"Ha, cheers! It's a wonderful thing to be able to drink such refreshing wine in the country of grapes..." Zhuang Mingsong said with a glass of wine in his hand.

On the beach at night, Zhuang Mingge, Karin, Costa and others gathered together to enjoy the local Portuguese food - the wine is brewed in Porto and then transported directly from air. Although Madeira also produces fine wine, according to Costa himself, Madeira wine has been stored in wooden barrels for at least 20 years and in bottles for two years before it can be considered a true fine wine. Many of the wines sold on the market are non-ageing blended wines, which are better than drinking freshly brewed Porto wine.

"Boss, we in Portugal not only have fine wine, but also have special meat skewers from Madeira, which are stringed with laurel branches. Boss, please try it."

"It's so long, it must be at least one meter?" Zhuang Mingge was startled at the barbecue skewers in Costa's hand.

"Haha, boss, you haven't tried it before? Porto's sweet wine paired with this kind of meat skewers is simply the best in the world!"

"Is that so? Then I must try it."

The moon was already hanging high in the middle of the night sky without realizing it. Costa, Zhuang Mingge and others were drinking happily, and their words were no longer as restricted as they were at the beginning. The topic gradually turned to their common hobby - football.

"Antonio, although we Portugal cannot catch up with other EU countries in economic terms, in football, the Portuguese are definitely not inferior to any European power!" said Costa, who was half drunk.

"Yes, yes, Rui, the Portuguese golden generation is indeed good, with first-class skills and tacit cooperation... But your national team now has a very big disadvantage."

"Uh... can there be any shortcomings?" Costa burped, a little dissatisfied.

"Portugal, there is no striker," Zhuang Mingge said vaguely, and fell asleep in the bottle. However, his words made Costa on the side fall into deep thought.

No striker...?

Among the top players of Portugal's golden generation, the midfield includes Figo, Costa, and Paul Sousa; Joe Costa and Fernando Couto are on the back line; even the goalkeeper position is top goalkeeper, but there is never a top scorer on the front line who can turn the wonderful passes sent by Figo into goals!

Although two strikers, Sa Pinto and Joje Pinto, have emerged in the Golden Generation, but both of them have scored more than 10 goals in the Portuguese League in a single season, let alone international competitions?

Who would have thought that the country where the "Black Panther" Eusebio was born would now worry about the lack of a top shooter?

Boss, you really hit the nail on the head. Costa shook his head and smiled bitterly. It seemed that his dream of the national team was still far away...

"Then, that, are you Mr. Rui Costa?" Just as Costa was saddened by Zhuang Mingge's words, a woman's voice came from beside him.

"Yes, I am." Although Costa drank a lot, he was still awake. Even if he was drunk, there was a Miss Carin next to him who claimed to be the boss's secretary who could take them back to the hotel.

"I have a son who likes football very much. Children who are much older than him cannot play him, but we don't have the money to get him to receive better professional training..." The woman who spoke turned out to be the chef who had been in charge of barbecue cooking for them just now.

Costa understood the purpose of this woman when he heard this. After all, the economy of Portugal can only be at the bottom in the EU, not to mention this small island that is a remote area in Portugal.

Although Madeira is famous in Europe for its tourism industry, there are actually not many locals who have become rich, and most of the profits are earned by foreign big businessmen. Locals basically rely on working for these hotels to make ends meet (the per capita income of Portugal in the Madeira region is less than US$4,000).

Costa, who was sympathetic, readily agreed to the female chef's request and made an appointment with her to go to her place the next day to see the child who, according to the mother's claim, "absolutely talented in stardom."

Anyway, I am also on vacation. If I find a good seedling, I can just bring a meeting gift to my new boss; if not, I will not lose anything, right?

"By the way, what's your child's name?" Costa remembered that he hadn't asked the child's name before leaving.
Chapter completed!