Preface · Thousands of differences
An eminent monk, known as Master Kuan Lin, gave Wang Jianlin a verse when he was 92 years old: "When the madness rests, the phantom body melts, and the dust inside and outside is empty. The cave is clear and clear, and there are no obstacles, and there are thousands of differences."
That was in 1997, when Wang Jianlin, his Wanda Group, and his Wanda football team were both thriving.
At this time, Xu Jiayin had just founded Evergrande Group not long ago. Oh, at that time, it could not be called a group. At that time, Evergrande did not know whether tomorrow would be good or bad, and whether the rivers and lakes would be deep or shallow.
Wang Jianlin, who left the football circle, has finally come back. At this time, Evergrande has been the overlord of the Chinese Super League for many years.
In the past 20 years, things have changed, but the phrase "thousands of differences make sense at once" is not outdated – two people, the road they have traveled, thousands of differences, the style of two people, thousands of differences, and the two people entered the era of Chinese football. There were also thousands of differences, but now it is just: the same goal.
One Genhong Miao is starting at the bottom
In January 2018, at an internal meeting of Evergrande Group, Xu Jiayin talked about his childhood experience when he mentioned why he wanted "targeted poverty alleviation":
"When I was 1 year and 3 months old, my mother got sick and had no money or place to see a doctor. I just left like this, and I became half an orphan."
"When I was in middle school, I was far from home. I carried a basket to school every week. The basket contained a black nest made of sweet potatoes and sweet potato noodles, and a small bottle with a little salt, a few drops of sesame oil, and a little scallion in it. This is my weekly ration. Three meals a day, one sweet potato, one nest, and a bowl of salt water for each meal. In summer, it is very hot, and the black nest grows hairy in half a day. Wash it and continue to eat."
Xu Jiayin said that in today’s Wumeng Mountain District, he saw the poverty of his childhood. "There is no road, no water, no electricity," and several families live scattered in a few kilometers of ravines. Each household is a dilapidated thatched hut, relying on the little hillside in front of the house and behind the house to eat from the sky.
Wang Jianlin had never tasted such pain. Wang Jianlin joined the army at the age of 15. In 1970, at the age of 15, Wang Jianlin was the youngest soldier in the Fourth Frontier Defense Regiment of the Jilin Provincial Military Region. Before joining the army, Wang Jianlin graduated from high school and spent half a year living in a farm in Cangxi County, Sichuan Province, which is known as the hometown of Sydney.
In November 1970, the whole army carried out "camping training", icy and snowy, along the original route of Linhai Snow Plains where Yang Zirong destroyed mountain sculptures, Wang Jianlin began his first difficult journey in life.
The army gave him special care, not letting him carry a rifle, only giving him a pistol. Despite this, with 10 kilograms of equipment on his back, Wang Jianlin had to walk 40 kilometers on the snowy road every day. This was too hard for a 15-year-old child, but Wang Jianlin did not remember this hard work, but remembered a secret taught to him by the monitor.
During that march, during a meal, the squad leader told him a trick to eat more and be full: don’t pack too much when you pack a meal for the first time, and pack it again after a few bites, and you will be full the second time! With this strange move, Wang Jianlin finally persisted. At the end of the training, only more than 400 people in the team of more than 1,000 people were not left behind, and Wang Jianlin became one of the 40%.
Because of this cleverness and persistence, by the age of 28, Wang Jianlin had become the youngest regiment cadre in the army, but in 1986, in response to the country’s call for "million disarmament", 32-year-old Wang Jianlin bid farewell to his military career and 17 years of military life, leaving a deep imprint on Wang Jianlin.
Later, after Wang Jianlin became a businessperson, he mentioned this experience to his subordinates more than once, and was especially willing to proudly tell the secret that the monitor taught him to eat, "He regarded me as a brother." When Wang Jianlin became the head of the Wanda Group family, he also liked to talk about the word "brother": "My concept of happiness is very simple, and one of them is to let my brothers have food and make money."
As a metaphor, Xu Jiayin is the male version of Ashin in the Japanese drama "The Story of Ashin", while Wang Jianlin’s story is similar to "Days Related to Youth".
But they are all workaholics, and they are not young, but they have not seen any signs of that slack.
In 2000, Wanda quit the football circle. Five years later, in 2005, Wang Jianlin, who got out of the football circle, expanded his business to 20 billion yuan. The former green boss was not satisfied: "I will not be satisfied with 50 billion yuan. Once I achieve 100 billion yuan, I can consider retiring."
But now Wanda Group’s assets exceed 700 billion, and Wang Jianlin’s retirement is still a long way off.
And what about Xu Jiayin? One year, he went to Europe for more than ten days, which he described as the only vacation in so many years. As soon as Evergrande employees joined the company, they knew that overtime was normal and inevitable in this company, because that was what the boss did.
Xu Jiayin rarely takes weekends off, working more than 90 hours a week, and still maintains the habit of working every day until the early morning. Evergrande executives work an average of more than 80 hours a week, and mid-level cadres work an average of more than 60 hours a week. Xu Jiayin, who came from a poor background, attributes his success to hard work. "Without it, I can’t do anything."
When he was in Henan Wuyang Iron and Steel Company, Xu Jiayin didn’t take a day off for ten years. In the first ten years of his business, Xu Jiayin often got off work at one o’clock in the middle of the night. For fear of affecting his family’s rest, he lay on the sofa in the living room until 4 am to go to work.
Compared with Xu Jiayin, Wang Jianlin emphasizes regularity: he must go to bed at 11 o’clock every night, he must get up at 6 o’clock in the morning, he must arrive at the company at 7:10, and then, he will go to work. After going home, he will make a few phone calls. This call is to communicate with several core key members of his team about the situation of the day, and then, after finishing these, he will read the "Evening News", wash and sleep. If the weather is good in the morning, walk, take a walk, and if the weather is bad, it will be avoided.
The work styles of the two are similar, but there are huge differences. Xu Jiayin was born in poverty and worked hard from the bottom step by step. Now he still retains the style of "who called you poor, and you are on the top". What about Wang Jianlin? Wang Jianlin’s father is an old Red Army member of the Red Fourth Front Army. Wang Jianlin joined the army for 17 years and changed his career as a cadre of the Fourth Regiment of the Frontier Defense of the Jilin Provincial Military Region; he has two years of experience as a civil servant as the director of the People’s Government Office of Xigang District, Dalian… All these things make Wang Jianlin seem "well-connected".
From the early experience, Wang Jianlin was a product within the system, while Xu Jiayin had more traces outside the system.
Second, you hate me for being born late, I hate you for being born early
Wang Anyi said that for a person, there are always two faces that are hard to forget – the face of his mother and the face of the city, which are the first memories. The era of Wanda football is the age of enlightenment for professional football in China, just as Teresa Teng is to pop and Cui Jian is to rock. Enlightenment things are very different, but one thing remains constant – the world that suddenly opened up in the era of enlightenment, the enthusiasm that was suddenly aroused, like a flood, cannot be stopped.
Therefore, for many football fans, especially those in Dalian, Wanda is a love of enlightenment.
And for many fans, especially Hengda fans, the same is true of Hengda’s role.
Dalian Wanda used to be a winning teacher, and players’ income came more from bonuses. Wang Jianlin’s famous saying was: "If you win the game, the bonus will be doubled!" Wanda sometimes won the prize as high as 800,000, and even reached 1 million in a game, which was a sky-high price at that time.
For veteran players like Xu Hong and Han Wenhai, they can also be assigned to the "welfare housing" built by Wanda Group. After 1997, the Dalian Wanda team spent more than 50 million yuan a year, which is an astonishing figure. From this point of view, it is not an exaggeration to call Wang Jianlin one of the founders of "Jinyuan Football".
Of course, the 50 million yuan spent is also worth it. The year of investing in football is also the era when Dalian Wanda has a solid foundation in Dalian, because Dalian Wanda has won numerous honors for Dalian with this business card, and Dalian Wanda has also been invincible in the Dalian real estate market with this football business card.
For example, the Changchun community where Xu Hong and others lived was once enthusiastically sought after by Dalian people. In addition to the quality of the house itself, the common thought of many people who bought a house was "We live in the same community as Xu Hong"!
Wang Jianlin is a smart businessperson, and his huge investment in football has paid off. In 1998, a well-known research company in Beijing conducted a market survey of Wanda’s popularity in eight cities across the country. The survey subjects ranged in age from 8 to 70. The results showed that Wanda Group’s popularity ranked among the top five in the country, with the same popularity as Hongta Group and Haier Group.
Therefore, Wang Jianlin’s annual investment of more than 50 million yuan may be a "bubble" for football, but it is a perfect investment for his own business.
For Evergrande, investing in football has brought them a similar brand effect, which goes without saying.
If we want to summarize, there are too many similarities between Wanda and Hengda in the glory of football. When Wanda entered football, it was the beginning of Chinese professional football, which was a golden age; after Hengda bottom fishing entered Chinese football, it also ushered in a "new era" of Chinese football.
However, when Wanda was about to enter the lowest point of Chinese football, it took the lead in smelling the smell and decisively withdrew, and now Evergrande is also in the period of adjustment and consolidation after their high speed.
One branch alone is not spring
In 2011, Wanda Group announced its return to Chinese football in the "great situation" of Chinese football.
Looking back now, from that day on, the "confrontation" between Wanda and Evergrande began.
On July 2nd, this day, Hengda announced a news, they signed the MVP Conca of the Bundesliga League with a transfer fee of 10 million US dollars, Conca’s annual salary 7 million US dollars, after signing Conca, Hengda high-profile claims, Hengda finally brought world-class stars to Chinese football.
Naturally, the next day in the media, the news of Conca’s joining was overwhelming, and that day, July 3, another major event took place in Chinese football, that is, Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group returned to Chinese football.
One south and one north, two major events in Chinese football, but what many people don’t know is that the process of signing Kong Card was arduous and tortuous, and the timing of announcing Kong Card’s joining was carefully arranged by Evergrande, because the date they chose was to get ahead of Wanda, no more, no less, just one day.
Evergrande is difficult to tolerate themselves in a lonely period, Hengda will always be in the trend of the wave, if there are competitors, then we must weaken the influence of the opponent, sure enough, if not for the joining of Kong Ka, in those days, football news will become Wanda’s world.
After the end of the Chinese Super League in 2011, the awards ceremony of the Chinese Super League was held in Guangzhou. Guangzhou Evergrande won 5 of the 10 awards including the league championship, the Golden Boot Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Best Division and the Most Social responsibility Club Award, becoming the biggest winner of the night.
However, after the award ceremony, the big winner said with disappointment: "We came out so much for the award ceremony, but we sold Wanda advertising." Because the award ceremony left Wanda enough time, and Wanda sent a spokesperson Shi Xueqing to speak on stage, while Guangzhou Evergrande, the league champion, did not have such treatment.
And that award ceremony was finally broadcast live on the CCTV comprehensive channel!
After returning to Chinese football in 2011 and taking over Dalian Football in 2018, Wanda’s package of plans to support Chinese football includes the following things:
First, Wanda became the title dealer of the Chinese Super League and raised the title fee to a record high; second, Wanda formed the overseas team of Hope Stars and sent a large number of post-95s to Europe; third, this is also the most controversial point, that is, a month before the start of the World Cup 20 in Brazil, Gao Hongbo was forcibly replaced with Camacho.
In retrospect, Wanda did indeed give a lot of support during the trough period after the anti-gambling and anti-crime crackdown in Chinese football, which made the gradually impoverished Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Super League go through the most difficult period. When Wanda ended the sponsorship period in 2014, Chinese football has obviously recovered, and various commercial sponsorships have come in one after another, and they have all improved on the basis of Wanda’s period. These are all irreducible historical contributions.
But the overall weakness of the national brand team makes Wanda’s plans time-consuming and thankless, and in the past seven years, Evergrande has established its own Evergrande dynasty by virtue of its achievements in the Chinese Super League and the AFC Champions League – the Chinese Super League has won seven consecutive championships, and the AFC Champions League has won twice.
Wanda finally understood a truth, only in the local base, Wanda’s every step in Chinese football is not a castle in the air, it will not be pointless, and Hengda arm-wrestling, why not? Why not? After all, the current Dalian side is already an upright Chinese Super League vassal.
It is foreseeable that after Wanda re-enters the foreground, it will bring great shocks to the Chinese Super League, and at this time, Evergrande is precisely in the moment of shrinking the front and adjusting and consolidating.
Xu Jiayin finally met Wang Jianlin in the field of professional football in China. This kind of excitement has been awaited by many fans for a long time.
