A lowest-level Spanish football team has 100,000 fans in China?
2024-08-07
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In this year's European Cup, the Spanish team was in a clear lead, winning 7 games and winning the European Cup for the fourth time.
Shortly before Spain won the championship, a new team in the lowest level professional league in Spain, which had just been registered for one year, won the league championship with an undefeated record and completed promotion.
Although the team is still a long way from reaching the Spanish Football League, where Real Madrid, Barcelona and other giants reside, the owner of the team still told China News Weekly: "Our club's goal is to make the club move forward steadily through our own efforts. What we Chinese are least afraid of is difficulties."
It is worth mentioning that this is a newly established Chinese-funded club and the first Chinese-funded club in the history of European football to be registered and established from the lowest level league.
Its name is "International Barcelona".
Inter Barcelona wins promotion with unbeaten record picture/Provided by the interviewee
Real-life version of "Football Manager"
In the FM (Football Manager) game, football fans can become the manager (head coach) of a football club, take over the work of the club, and achieve goals that their beloved team cannot achieve in reality.
In the game, players form different factions. One type of players likes to coach a wealthy team and buy a large number of excellent players to achieve a luxurious lineup and gain satisfaction from it. This type of gameplay is called "driving an aircraft carrier." Another type of players likes to hoard young athletes of different nationalities, grow them through effective training and competition, and finally achieve breakthroughs in performance. This type of gameplay is called "raising calves."
Among various gameplay modes, the most difficult and challenging one is called "LLM (Lower League Manager)". Completely opposite to "Driving an Aircraft Carrier", "LLM" is to select a team at the lowest level and lead it to achieve glory that is difficult for the club to achieve in reality.
Registering a team in the Catalan Regional League with the goal of reaching La Liga is equivalent to playing a "LLM" game in the real football world.
In response, Ren Xuandong, owner of Inter Barcelona, told China Newsweek that registering a professional football club in Barcelona was a well-considered decision and not a hasty move.
Ren Xuandong, who has loved playing football since he was a child, regrets most that he did not become a professional football player, but this does not affect him from regarding football as the goal of his life development.
Before 2016, Ren Xuandong planned competitions, organized youth training, ran football schools, and briefly served as the head of the China League One team Inner Mongolia Zhongyou. Until 2016, Ren Xuandong became the CEO of Birmingham City Football Club, a team in the English Football Championship.
Although Birmingham City Football Club, founded in 1895, has been out of the top league for many years after being relegated from the Premier League in the 2009/10 season due to operational and management issues, as a veteran football club located in Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK, it still has a strong influence and historical heritage.
It has a complete youth training system and has accumulated a wealth of football talents from surrounding areas. One of them is today's rising star in football - Jude Bellingham.
When Ren Xuandong took over as CEO of Birmingham City, Bellingham was only 13 years old. He saw the potential and resilience of the young player, and then arranged for the youth training team to focus on his training and transferred him from U15 to U18. During the year of U18, Ren Xuandong watched almost all of Bellingham's home games and daily training.
In the 2019/20 season, he believed that Bellingham had all the basic qualities and conditions to become a first-team player, so he made a decision that had never been made in British football: let the 16-year-old Bellingham start in the Championship and make 41 appearances during the season.
It was these 41 games that allowed European football to see this rising star. In the summer of 2020, after negotiations with many European clubs, Ren Xuandong finally transferred Bellingham to the Bundesliga giants Dortmund for 25 million euros. This transfer fee set a transfer record in Birmingham City's 140-year history and a transfer record for 16-year-old players in world football.
ZudeBellingham (left), Ren Xuandong (right) Photo/provided by the interviewee
Ren Xuandong recalled that it was not easy to make the decision to transfer Bellingham to the first team and start. At that time, the fans' abuse and media's questioning never stopped. As a Chinese-funded club, a major disadvantage of operating a football club overseas is cultural differences. Local fans believe that Chinese people do not understand football and do not recognize the Chinese management model.
"It turns out that it's not that we don't understand, but that we don't have the space to display our abilities."
In 2021, Ren Xuandong resigned from Birmingham City. His club management work in recent years has deepened his understanding of football. "A football club is like a 'tribe', with its own beliefs, totems and rituals. One of the reasons why Chinese clubs have difficulties in operating overseas is that they are regarded as intruders by these 'tribal members'. Football itself is not just a sport, but also history and heritage."
Therefore, Ren Xuandong no longer wanted to be an "intruder" but a "founder". He believed that Chinese people had the opportunity to write their own history in European football and cultivate a pure football soil. In Ren Xuandong's vision, this soil would have no internal friction and would allow people who work hard and love football to have a platform for release. In this way, the idea of establishing a brand new football club was born in Ren Xuandong's mind.
During his time at Birmingham City, Ren Xuandong had scouted many Spanish players for the club and had communicated and cooperated with many Spanish clubs, especially those in Barcelona. Having visited Barcelona many times, he felt the charm of the city up close.
Compared to the UK, the weather in Spain is more comfortable, the food is delicious, and the locals are very warm and friendly. Children here love sports, and no matter how old they are, they have plenty of time to participate in outdoor sports, especially football. This has cultivated the city's unique football soil - countless large and small football youth training camps and football clubs.
In the entire Catalonia region, if we look at the registration numbers, there are more than 6,000 registered football clubs. Unfortunately, despite having a registered player base of 200,000, Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, only has two top clubs: FC Barcelona and Espanyol.
"This is unimaginable in the UK. Take London as an example. Last season, there were seven teams from London in the Premier League. This shows that there is still a lot of potential in Barcelona. It looks like a pyramid with a big base and a small top."
It was based on this situation that Ren Xuandong decided to register the newly established professional football club in Barcelona.
In 2021, after Ren Xuandong resigned as CEO of Birmingham City, he began planning to register the club in Barcelona. After two years of planning, a real-life version of "LLM" kicked off in 2023.
Spain's professional league system is composed of the Spanish Football Association and local football associations. If you want to register a new team, you need to register it with the local football association. Taking Barcelona as an example, the new team registration needs to be done with the Catalan Football Association.
The promotion system of the Spanish professional league is from high to low: La Liga, Segunda División, Spanish Association A, Spanish Association B, Spanish Association C (all of the above are national leagues) and regional leagues.
The level of the regional league is related to the number of people participating in regional football. If the team is registered in Mallorca, the new team only needs one championship to be promoted to the Western Association C. However, due to the choice of Catalonia, where Barcelona is located, the difficulty of this "game" has doubled again.
Ren Xuandong introduced that the Catalonia Football Association has five levels of leagues, from high to low: Elite League and Level 1, 2, 3 and 4. Newly established teams need to start from the fourth level of the Catalonia League and complete the upgrade step by step.
"Under extremely ideal circumstances, our team can be promoted every season, so it will take at least eight promotions to stand on the La Liga field. Of course, this is the most ideal situation. It is extremely difficult to achieve this goal," said Ren Xuandong.
In Ren Xuandong's view, although the football environment in Catalonia makes the team's road to upgrading full of difficulties and obstacles, it also provides the most convenient conditions for the team's creation and growth.
With geographical and language advantages, many football talents from Europe and South America have gathered in Catalonia. There are more than 210,000 registered players in the region, and a total of 190,000 football matches were held in the past 23/24 season.
"There is never a shortage of young people who can play football in Catalonia." The abundant talent pool and large base of registered players mean that if you want to continue to upgrade from the Catalonia region, you need more advanced concepts and a relatively fair and free team environment to attract more outstanding football talents to join.
"Only by constantly looking for better players, even players across league levels to play for the team, can the team always maintain a level that is ahead of the league of this level. And this is a major test for managers," said Ren Xuandong.
Recruiting players may never be a difficult task for some traditional European football clubs, but for a club that no locals have ever heard of, it is extremely difficult to convince outstanding players to join.
Therefore, Ren Xuandong set a goal before recruiting players: since we cannot compete with other large and deeply rooted clubs, we will focus on those "hidden pearls in the ocean" players.
These players have excellent football skills and have undergone systematic football training, but due to family or personal reasons, they cannot get effective playing time and have no chance to receive proper physical training guidance. In order to find such players, it is necessary to have a coaching team with unique vision, integrity, and full understanding of local conditions.
At this time, the old capital accumulated in Birmingham City came in handy again. When Ren Xuandong was in Birmingham City, one of the head coaches was Aitor Karanka. Aitor had won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid Club when he was a player, and after retiring, he became an assistant coach to assist Portuguese coach Mourinho in winning the La Liga championship.
Although Aitor was eventually forced to resign at Birmingham City due to various reasons and pressures, Ren Xuandong still recognized Aitor's ability. After he decided to "practice trumpet" in Spain, he called Aitor.
But Ren Xuandong’s real target is not Ato, but his younger brother and assistant coach, David Karanka.
David Karanka is different from his brother. He did not prove himself too much in the top clubs. He played for Athletic Bilbao and Murcia Club. After retiring, he followed his brother's footsteps and became a professional football coach. Because he and his brother worked together in Birmingham City, he knew Ren Xuandong before.
Ren Xuandong called Aitor to ask for his opinion, because David Karanka was currently the head coach of Panama City Club in the Panama local league. After all, this was a brand new club at the lowest level. Giving up everything and joining such an unknown club was like crossing a river by feeling the stones. No one could be sure of the success rate. After getting a positive answer from Aitor, Ren Xuandong called David.
"David, I have something interesting and challenging. I have set up a team in Barcelona, but the level is a bit low, so it will be difficult to upgrade in the future."
"Don't rush to talk about it. Tell me in detail first. How low is the level you mentioned?"
After a protracted phone call, David Karanka handed in his resignation in Panama City and boarded a flight to Barcelona.
After determining the team's head coach, Ren Xuandong quickly locked in the assistant coach, former Barcelona player Dani Tortolero, through the introduction of his agent friend.
When they met for the first time, Ren Xuandong discovered Tortolero's uniqueness. "He is different from the Barcelona players with strong personalities in people's impression. Dani seems a little taciturn. He never brags about his time at Barcelona. Instead, he is more focused on current training."
DaniTortolero (left) and David Karanka (right) in training. Photo/provided by the interviewee
In fact, David Karanka and Dani Tortolero are UEFA-registered Pro and A-level coaches respectively, which is already the highest of the highest for a Catalan team.
"This configuration is similar to a rocking horse for a child, equipped with a 2.0T engine," said Ren Xuandong.
In fact, the team had just gotten its name when David and Dani decided to join.
Regarding the team's name "Internazionale Barcelona", Ren Xuandong said he did not give it much thought. According to the relevant regulations of the Catalan Football Association, newly registered teams need to submit their three desired names in order before June 30 of that year.
After submission, the system will review it according to standards such as duplicate checking, and will approve it after passing the review. At that time, Ren Xuandong filled in three names "International Barcelona", "Barcelona International" and "Barcelona United". As a result, after the system review, the name "International Barcelona" was not registered, and it naturally became the name of the club.
As for the reason for choosing this name, Ren Xuandong said that he had not considered copying the Serie A team Inter Milan and the Spanish local giants Barcelona. It was just that as a Chinese, he saw the inclusiveness of the city of Barcelona.
In recent years, the number of overseas immigrants in Barcelona has continued to rise. In the past three to four years, the number of overseas immigrants in Barcelona has increased by 300,000 to 400,000. "From the perspective of cultivating fans, we can't shake the fan base of Barcelona and Espanyol, and we can't compare with the local teams that have been operating for many years, so our target group is actually the overseas population who have recently immigrated to this city in recent years. This is also the reason why the name of International Barcelona became our first choice." Ren Xuandong said.
After having a name and a coaching staff, Inter Barcelona still lacked the core element to start - players. At first, Ren Xuandong and his colleagues posted a recruitment notice on social media for a few days but did not receive any response.
It wasn’t until an article titled “Barcelona Internacional: A revolutionary billionaire club is about to be born in Catalonia” was published in Mundo Deportivo that a reporter who was familiar with Ren Xuandong cleverly used the story of Ren Xuandong and Bellingham to make the club known to more people in the city. Subsequently, many media and TV stations reprinted and reported on it.
After the article was published, the club began to receive a large number of players' resumes. The one who impressed him the most was Jordi, the first player to be confirmed to stay. He is a midfielder, and his father encouraged him to try after seeing the report. He used to play for Barcelona's U18 team, but after turning 18, he was not selected for the adult team, and he could not get a chance to play in the club he played for. After being discouraged, he gave up football and started his college career.
The team's first signing player Jordi picture/Provided by the interviewee
This brand new team made him regain his desire for football, so he decided to give it a try. During the trial, when the player touched the ball for the first time, David and Dani's eyes lit up. It was obvious that he had received professional football training and his passing, running and control were very professional.
"We were all very surprised that a player of this level had no football to play in the city of Barcelona. This was exactly the 'hidden gem' we were looking for." Just like that, the child became the first signed player of Inter Barcelona.
"There are players of all levels who come for trials. Some of them can't run as fast as me, but they have the desire, so we are willing to give them the opportunity to show themselves."
During the tryouts, there was a Chinese kid who came for the tryout. His ability and age were recognized by the coaching team, but in the end, they failed to reach an agreement on salary and benefits, so they unfortunately missed this player.
One season later, Ren Xuandong still felt a little regretful when talking about the Chinese kid again. "From a personal point of view, I certainly hope there are more Chinese players in the team, but from the perspective of team development, I can't satisfy the Chinese players' demands for much higher treatment than other players just because I am Chinese. If this bowl of water is not balanced, it will cause chain problems."
Inter Barcelona provides players with two types of contracts, A and B. The two contracts are different in form, but the difference in the amount of salary the players receive is not obvious. A-type contracts have a fixed salary, but they must meet appearance indicators; B-type contracts have no fixed salary, but have a higher winning bonus.
"Players in Spain's lower leagues cannot make a living simply through wages. It can be said that all players are semi-professionals. In addition to daily training and competitions, some of them have to continue their studies, and some have to go out to work to make a living."
Because it is a newly established team, the management is quite flat, and everything can be done with a nod from Ren Xuandong. The club is small, and there are no so-called chairman and CEO positions. Everyone does as much as they can. Therefore, the equipment trucks owned by the club are also lent to the players for free during non-game time. The club has set up a special project for them, called "IB SPEED". This project allows players to drive the team's trucks to deliver goods or help people move by taking on some moving, purchasing, and intra-city express delivery jobs, and earn another salary.
Soon, through the trial training, Ren Xuandong and the coaching team successfully found players who could participate in the competition. Then the team finalized the sponsorship agreement, competition venue and training venue. Although there were some twists and turns in the process, the goal was achieved in stages, and the team could truly face the test of the competition.
Finally, at the end of the 23/24 season, Inter Barcelona achieved 25 wins and 1 draw in 26 league games, scored 119 goals, conceded 19 goals, won the championship and achieved promotion with an unbeaten record.
Although this was not in Ren Xuandong's imagination, it was actually in his plan. "Our goal is to keep winning, keep upgrading, and get as close as possible to the final ending of the fairy tale, which is La Liga."
But reality is not a game after all. The development of a professional club is not just about winning and promotion. The real charm of European football is that no matter which team it is, it may never stand at the top of Europe, or even fail to get involved in the top league of its own country, but it still has the most loyal fans. They choose to stand with the club, celebrate together when they win, and bear together when they lose.
Cultivating fans is the most difficult thing for Ren Xuandong to do in this game difficulty. In the Catalonia regional league, there are no tickets for the games, and fans can go on their own.
Ren Xuandong remembers that during one match, a Spanish man appeared in the stands. He was obviously not a family member of any of the players, so Ren Xuandong decided to have a chat with him. When he opened his mouth, he found that the man had drunk a lot of wine. He was forced to watch the game because he could not move his body.
"In fact, these fans are also our potential fans. We have no reason to drive them away, and we welcome any fans to come to the stadium to watch the game." Ren Xuandong recalled that in the past season, some people living near the stadium gradually began to discover this team, and there were more and more familiar faces in the stands.
"We are a small team, and everyone who comes is a guest. I welcome everyone who wants to come over and have a drink with us after the game. Across the street from our home stadium, there is a small bar run by a compatriot. The bar owner's surname is Du, and we all call him Brother Du. After every home game, the whole team will go to Brother Du's place to have a few drinks. We always joke that this small bar is the director's box of Inter Barcelona. Now the coaching staff has learned to shout in Chinese to Brother Du, 'Give me a beer!'"
Not only that, Inter Barcelona decided to find its own "cyber shareholders" in faraway China. By broadcasting every game on Bilibili, domestic audiences can not only watch all Inter Barcelona games, but also comment on players in the post-match comments and get autographed jerseys of players. Since the first video was released at the end of June, Inter Barcelona has nearly 100,000 fans. From another perspective, they have 100,000 "fans" in China.
On Bilibili, the official account of FC Barcelona has 201,000 followers, while Wu Lei's Espanyol football club has 8,317 followers. From this perspective, Inter's operation is extremely successful.
PreviouslyQue Ran, who has been working with Ren Xuandong, and another senior new media person Yang Zhe are responsible for the promotion of Inter Barcelona in China. Que Ran told China News Weekly that the reason he registered an account on domestic social media was that he wanted to tell the story of his team to more people.
As it turned out, a large number of domestic fans did pay attention to the team and gave great encouragement to the club. This made all the staff of Inter Barcelona feel very pleased and believed that their efforts were not in vain.
Screenshot of a video of a B-station user encouraging the team
On the Bilibili platform, Que Ran carefully read every message from the audience and did not see any insults. Inter Barcelona was also nicknamed "Potato Ba" by the fans.
A fan left a message saying: "A few strangers supported each other, kept getting along, and engraved each other's names in each other's lives. Football is so great. Don't forget that there is a young man on the other side of the ocean who has been supporting you." Queran read this message several times and the screenshot is still saved in his computer.
In Queran's opinion, the team is not in China, which is a natural contradiction, and fans cannot watch the game in person. But because of the existence of the Internet, more things can be done.
"Compared to the top teams, our fans can be closer to the team. We can be the first to see what the fans discuss in the fan group about the club's development and even the technical and tactical arrangements. If the fans like a certain player, the player can even send the fan his autographed jersey. These are the levels of cooperation that the top teams cannot do, but because of our size and operating model, we can do this." Que Ran said.
"As Chinese people, have we never thought about setting up a football team in Spain and ultimately helping Chinese football? It's impossible that we haven't thought about it, but we can't say it now because we haven't done anything yet. In the general thinking of Chinese people, they want a result, and with a result there are more possibilities."
"People are used to talking about the beauty and ugliness of the results, but rarely pay attention to the right and wrong of the process. But we care that the development and progress of football must conform to its characteristics and development laws. Any model that breaks the development laws has been proven to be invalid. That's why we are determined to try to take this step. This may also be the reason why domestic fans see us and recognize us." Que Ran said.
Talking about the domestic fan base, Ren Xuandong said that at this stage he does not expect to bring considerable economic returns by cultivating the fan base in China. He just wants domestic football fans to know that far away in Barcelona, there is a team that has formed a team.
"We have had a base in Barcelona over the past few years. Fans who come to Barcelona, whether they support us or not, can come to the team to sit and have a meal and a drink. Inter Barcelona is our bridgehead overseas," said Ren Xuandong.
In any case, Inter Barcelona is still an unknown little club for Spanish football and even European football, but who knows what the future will be like?
