Leo hadn't personally handled endorsement deals in a long time. These days, he left most of them to the Barnett Agency, with some of its younger agents managing things on his behalf. It was also a good test of their abilities, but this endorsement was nothing like the ones he had done before.
"Liverpool is planning to build another training facility, but it's going to cost a lot of money. The construction company said that if you're willing to endorse their facilities, they'll cut Liverpool's construction costs for this project in half!"
Leo had heard of all kinds of endorsement deals and had represented plenty of brands himself, but the idea of endorsing an entire building struck him as surprisingly interesting.
"They specialize in building training facilities like this and have worked with a lot of clubs. Atlético Madrid, Watford, Empoli, Ajax, and plenty of others all had their training facilities built by this company. Now they want to make their training facilities more recognizable, so they're hoping to work with you."
"From now on, they'll even name every training facility they build the 'Leo Lin Training Facility'!"
Leo thought about it for a moment. If these buildings were going to be named after him, were they planning to put one of those illuminated signs on the roof, with "Leo Lin Building" flashing across the top of every training facility?
Before Leo could ask, Klopp opened his laptop and showed him a rendering of the "Leo Lin Building" that the company had sent over.
Sure enough, it looked exactly the way Leo had imagined. The words "Leo Lin Building" had been specially designed for the sign, and they looked surprisingly good mounted above the training facility.
"If you agree, this endorsement will save Liverpool a considerable amount of money on the new training facility. And from now on, every time you come to Liverpool's training ground, you'll see 'Leo Lin Building' glowing above you. Every player will know that building is yours."
It sounded a little tacky, but Leo couldn't deny that the thought of seeing his own name shining above Liverpool's training facility was hard to resist.
So Leo agreed to the endorsement. The construction company soon sent representatives to Liverpool FC, and the man in charge hugged Leo the moment they met before immediately pulling out his phone for a selfie. If Klopp hadn't stopped him, he probably would have tried to record an hour-long video with Leo as well.
"I've watched every single match you've ever played. Every match, every minute, every goal. I've seen them all!"
"When I first got into building training facilities, I never even considered working with football clubs. But after watching you help Liverpool win the Premier League, I thought I should follow your example and keep pushing my own business forward. That's when I started working with football clubs!"
Leo had met plenty of his own fans, but this was definitely the first one who was this rich.
As for the endorsement fee, the man in charge of the training facility business offered an enormous amount. In fact, if Leo was willing to accept them, he even wanted to give him two newly completed training facilities outright.
"Leo, if you'll have lunch with me tomorrow, I'll give you another training facility!"
Leo immediately declined politely, but Zubizarreta seemed very interested.
"I'm not only free tomorrow at noon. I can have lunch with you every single day from now on. How about giving me the training facility you were originally going to give Leo?"
Naturally, Zubizarreta was told no.
This was Leo's first time doing an endorsement deal like this, so he had no idea what kind of effect it would have. How would players at other clubs react when they saw his name displayed above their new training facilities?
After all, plenty of players already hated seeing Leo whenever they faced him in the Premier League. Now, players at quite a few clubs might end up seeing his name every time they went to training.
Every single day.