Chapter 23 Signing an Apprenticeship Contract

"Li, don't practice extra today. Come with me to Mr. Alex's office."

Li Qing looked at head coach Neil Critchley in confusion.

Neil Critchley smiled and explained to Li Qing: "U18 is different from the age group you have been in before. Being selected for U18 means that you have passed the first stage of professional player selection and have been recognized by the great Liverpool. It is time to sign a contract with the club."

Li Qing then showed an expression of "I see, from U6-U9 to U15-U16, unless you are particularly talented and get free or reduced tuition, you need to pay a lot of tuition to Kirkby College, but it is different when you reach U18, which means that the player has reached the most basic requirements of a professional player.

For this reason, the club to which the youth training academy belongs must sign an initial professional contract with the player, that is, an apprenticeship contract, and the youth training academy will sign the contract with the player.

The real professional contract can only be signed when you are 17 years old at the earliest.

Of course, it does not mean that all players who sign apprenticeship contracts can sign professional contracts after the age of 17. As I said before, professional football requires strength. If the strength is not enough, the apprenticeship contract can be renewed or another job can be found.

According to what Li Qing learned, the weekly salary of apprentices is generally not too high, basically between a few hundred pounds, but despite this, it is not a small amount when converted into RMB. For example, a weekly salary of 100 pounds is converted into RMB, which is close to 1,000. Multiply it by four weeks, which is already more than most working-class people.

Moreover, with the talent shown by Li Qing, he would naturally not be at the bottom of the weekly salary of 100 pounds.

So how much weekly salary is worth according to the talent shown now?

Five hundred? Eight hundred? One thousand? Or higher?

While he was thinking, he had unknowingly followed Neil Critchley to the door of the office of Inglethorpe, the director of youth training.

"Knock, knock, knock~"

Neil Critchley just knocked on the door, and Inglethorpe's voice came from inside: "Come in."

Li Qing and Neil Critchley entered the office of the youth training director together. In addition to Inglethorpe, there was also an unknown middle-aged man.

Inglethorpe saw that it was Li Qing and Neil Critchley who came in. He put down his things, shook hands with the two of them, and then introduced another person in the office to Li Qing: "This is the director of football affairs, Nick Marshall, who is responsible for your apprenticeship contract."

"Hello, Li."

"Hello, Mr. Nick."

The two shook hands politely. Marshall got straight to the point and handed the prepared apprenticeship contract directly to Li Qing, saying solemnly: "Take a look first, and sign it directly if there is no problem."

Li Qing took the contract and thought to himself: "System, can you help me check if there is any problem with this contract?"

"Ten gold coins."

The system prompt sounded.

Li Qing couldn't help but roll his eyes: "System, are you a money-grubber? You need gold coins to read a contract?"

"Of course."

Li Qing was speechless about the system's reply, but he didn't spend gold coins. After all, he didn't have many gold coins left, and this apprenticeship contract was only two pages, simple and clear, and it was not as likely to be calculated by the club as a professional contract.

Besides, you haven't eaten pork, but you haven't seen pigs run?

Before crossing, Li Qing was also a fan, and he still understood the key points.

The apprenticeship contract is very simple, without the complicated goal bonus, assist bonus, honor bonus and appearance fee of the professional contract, there is only the basic weekly salary.

As a player, in addition to salary, the contract period is also very important.

The weekly salary given was completely unexpected by Li Qing, a full 1,200 pounds!

If converted into RMB, it would be more than 10,000...

This is a week's salary!

Although Li Qing didn't know what the maximum salary of the U18 youth team was, he knew that a weekly salary above 1,200 pounds would definitely not be much, and it might even be considered an intermediate income in the U23.

There is nothing wrong with the contract term, but... he feels a little bit, only signed for two years.

Is this... not valued?

Inglethorpe saw Li Qing frowning, thinking that Li Qing was dissatisfied with the top apprentice contract of the U18 youth team, and said unhappily: "Li, are you not satisfied with this contract?"

Li Qing did not hear the unhappiness in Inglethorpe's words, he scratched the back of his head and said: "This... contract term?"

Marshall thought that Li Qing thought the contract term was too long, and smiled: "Li, two years is the maximum term of the apprentice contract, it can't be shorter, and you will be seventeen years old in two years, you can sign a professional contract with the club."

Li Qing originally thought that two years was too short and thought he was not valued, but now it seems that signing the maximum term of two years is a kind of respect for himself, and it is easy to understand that there is no buyout clause.

The maximum term of the apprentice contract is two years. In England, you can sign a professional contract when you are seventeen years old. According to Li Qing's understanding, if his strength does not meet the requirements of the first team, the club will not sign a professional contract with him, at most it will renew the apprentice contract.

What Li Qing didn't know was that under the same treatment, the original club has priority to renew the contract, unless other clubs offer higher treatment after the contract expires. In addition, according to relevant UEFA regulations, the club that signs a player whose apprentice contract expires needs to financially compensate the original club, which means that the buyout clause is dispensable.

Of course, any club will spend a high price to keep the promising star it has cultivated before the contract expires, unless the other party asks for too much.

Li Qing is very satisfied with the weekly salary of 1,200 pounds and the two-year contract in principle, but after a brief thought, he decided to add something, and carefully said to Marshall: "Mr. Nick, can you add a clause at the end of the contract that 'if Party B continues to perform well, the contract treatment can be modified during the contract period'?"

Inglethorpe, Marshall and Neil Critchley looked at each other, and they could see the surprise in each other's eyes, but they were not disgusted at all, because Li Qing's request was logical and pursued.

What is the purpose of modifying the contract treatment?

Isn't it just for a pay raise?

Under normal circumstances, a pay raise may be excessive, but what he said is that after continued outstanding performance, a pay raise becomes difficult to refuse.

In the end, this apprenticeship contract added a clause to the weekly salary of 1,200 pounds as mentioned by Li Qing - if Party B continues to perform well, the contract treatment can be modified during the contract period.

However, as a representative of the club, Marshall naturally would not let the owner suffer too much, and he also added a clause later.

The cycle is at most once every six months.