Return to 2002: Freestyle Superstar

Chapter 693: Attracting Talents
After the London Olympics came to an end, Chen Ran also returned to China with the large group.

In the more popular ball games in China, Lin Dan also achieved the same achievement as Chen Ran, defending the title in the Olympics. In contrast, the table tennis team, which is already very powerful, has never had anyone defend the Olympic title in men's singles.

In this regard, tennis and badminton are ahead of table tennis.

The men's singles table tennis champion of this Olympics is Zhang Jike, who was later teased by netizens as the "King of Gambling". Even a few years ago, this guy was demoted from the national team back to the provincial team because of his gambling addiction.

At this moment, Malone, known as the "Empire Destroying Dragon" and the "Hexagonal Warrior", is still just a follower.

After all, there are so many talented table tennis players in China, and they are promoted based on seniority. Ma Long has to wait patiently and slowly come to the fore.

Chen Ran felt that the young man was looking at him with envy.

After all, he is only two years older than Ma Long, but his current achievements are outstanding not only in the field of tennis, but also in the entire sports world.

The young men in Anshan are so envious.

Chen Ran looked at the national tennis player of his previous life, GOAT, who now had a somewhat reserved look in his eyes. He walked over with a smile, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a very low voice: "I believe you will become the best table tennis player in history."

Ma Long was a little reserved, but also a little flattered.

In fact, he and Zhang Jike are of the same age, but he does not have the latter's glory at all nowadays. It can be said that he is completely crushed by the latter.

To be precise, Chinese table tennis has never lacked world champions, so winning a team championship or a World Cup singles championship is nothing. Only by winning the men's singles championship at the Olympics can you enter Mount Rushmore.

"Ah? Really?" Ma Long was a little surprised. He was very surprised that Chen Ran would think highly of him.

By the next Olympics, I will be 28 years old.

This is definitely not a young age for a table tennis player.

Especially in China, which is so inward-looking, because there are too many good players, many people at this age are almost considering retiring.

"There's no way I can beat Zhang Jike." Ma Long glanced at Zhang Jike from a distance and said somewhat unwillingly.

He is also a person who refuses to admit defeat, but he has to admit that the other party's talent is truly terrifying.

At least at the moment, I am at a disadvantage compared to my opponent.

What's more, in the past few years, their national table tennis coach Liang Zi has been running a fan club, allowing Zhang Jike to accumulate a large number of female fans.

If we only consider the number of female fans, Chen Ran is not as good as the other. Although Chen Ran is more handsome than the other, he hardly appears in any variety shows now, because Chen Ran feels that he has never relied on the fan circle to survive.

It is precisely because of such marketing in table tennis that Zhang Jike feels very good and can be said to be in high spirits.

His fans even said that if they only compared the number of magazines sold, their brother was definitely number one in the sports world, and even a world-class superstar like Chen Ran couldn't compare to him.

Of course, Chen Ran himself doesn’t care about the sales of any magazine at all.

"I think that for many things, we should not only focus on the present, but also look at the long term."

Chen Ran said meaningfully: "The success or failure of a moment is nothing. The key is who can make it to the end."

"Then...how old do you plan to keep playing?" Ma Long asked, with an idea in his mind.

"I... must be at least 35 years old." Chen Ran said jokingly, "If there is still no one to take over by then, I might even be able to fight for a few more years."

Upon hearing this, Ma Long also fell into deep thought.

In fact, he also dreams of becoming an evergreen in the table tennis world.

Although this is very difficult for table tennis, he doesn't want to be like his predecessors and say goodbye to the court at a young age. At this time, the two of them had almost finished chatting, and he finally revealed his true colors.

At the beginning of the year, Chen Ran established a sports agency.

At this stage, he has already begun to try to slowly separate himself from IMG.

After all, this company's commission is quite impressive, thanks to its outstanding strength in the industry.

But in the past, many tennis superstars would eventually choose to leave IMG after achieving success.

Because they found that if they continued to stay here, there was very little room for advancement, and the commercial commission was high, so they had no choice but to go their separate ways.

Like Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Federer, Nadal and others in their previous lives, they all chose to turn around and leave after their careers reached the peak.

Of course, there are also people like Li Na who chose to cooperate with IMG until her retirement.

But Chen Ran has his own considerations. He now has abundant resources in his hands, and he has a giant like Penguin as his backer and a business tycoon like Pony Ma as his big brother, so he has a wide range of choices.

Separating from IMG step by step is obviously an inevitable choice.

Similarly, when Chen Ran chooses to leave IMG, the latter will be more serious in looking for young talents in Chinese tennis and investing in them.

IMG has abundant tennis resources, and after Chen Ran leaves, more young Chinese tennis players will get opportunities.

So the decision is mutually beneficial.

However, up to this moment, Chen Ran's newly established agency has set its sights on Anshan Xiaoma.

In fact, in today's China, the agency business of many athletes within the system is handed over to the Sports Bureau.

However, due to the lack of professionals, it is unclear how to build the image of athletes, let alone maximize the commercial value of athletes.

In addition, their public relations experience is amateurish, even disastrous.

Penguin also strongly supported Chen Ran's establishment of an agency this time. His huge personal reputation and influence in Chinese sports also made the Sports Bureau willing to hand over the agency business of athletes within the system to Chen Ran's company.

As for the Sports Bureau, they just have to wait for their share of the money.

As a result, Chen Ran naturally obtained agency contracts with many athletes within the system.

In fact, throughout China, except for football, basketball, and tennis, most athletes play sports within the system.

Even the athletes of these three ball sports, although already professional, have close ties with the Sports Bureau.

Of course, so far, the Chinese national football team has not caught Chen Ran’s eye and has been simply ignored.

As for the men's basketball team, they lost badly in this Olympics and were treated coldly by Chen Ran.

As for the top player of the men's basketball team, Yi Jianlian, he already had his own agent. Moreover, this guy was often mysterious and not good at speaking. Chen Ran felt that he was not a suitable candidate and simply passed him over.

This time, he made great plans and first locked in the signing candidates as Sun Yang and Ma Long. At the same time, he also signed several young tennis players with potential and attracted a lot of talents.

Chen Ran also believes that their business value will be able to be further explored than in the previous life, and that they can avoid future crises in advance.

……

(End of this chapter)