While as of yet unreported, I recently received e-mails from various people to addresses "@mito-hollyhock.com" instead of the .net domain, which is the official site. It's apparent that Mito is under negotiations to bring in Brazilian striker Hulk, who was the MVP of J2 last year and probably the biggest, if not only, reason that Tokyo Verdy returned to J1.
Recently leaving Kawasaki, Hulk was looking at options as he was unhappy with not being a franchise player. As in Tokyo, he wanted to be the big name and to have a team mold around him for a common purpose. The latest mail I received stated that he was very impressed with Mito in its 5 - 1 win over Tokyo last year (which he had to sit out) and wanted to be a part of that team that had so much heart... He thought it would never happen.
Once I had these mails, I called the club president for information.
Faced with little money, main team sponsor K's Electronics is going to voluntarily increase its payments to cover 80% of the signing fee from Kawasaki, and enter an agreement similar to Beckham at LA Galaxy... He'll be paid the same salary as other strikers on the team, but will have an exclusive endorsement deal with K's, appearing in store displays, TV ads, and as the main figure in their SkyPerfecTV sales promotions, which will bring substantially more money.
Mito hasn't had such a big name player since Tulio left after the 2003 season. While I've been very happy with the team's flow in the new season, I'm ecstatic that this deal has been worked out. It's clear that Mito is fully dedicated to opening up the new stadium next year as a J1 team, and this move could only bring more money and attendance and everything else needed to make the smallest pro club in Japan into a major player.
Official announcement should come after the next round of games, and it's likely that he'll not start play until round 7, skipping the Roasso Kumamoto match.
3 comments:
Well, if it wasn't apparent to anyone who found this, this post was an attempt at an April Fool's Joke. The legitimate news is reporting on Hulk's return to Tokyo next week. If only that had been announced tomorrow. :)
haha i fell a bit for it, but is the news about the Mito president quiting due to drink driving a joke?
That is true. I'll make a post on it once I know who the new president is.
That's one reason why I mentioned him in this post; anybody trying to look him up would see that and know he hasn't been thinking about Hulk lately and it was a joke.
Post a Comment