"You can dislike Britain, or even hate it, but you can't deny that it is the center of Europe!" —Victor Hugo (a famous French writer)
After getting the "okay" from the big soccer bosses (UEFA) to make Goal! The Dream Begins, Zane's company turned its attention to the soccer clubs themselves.
You see, in the 21st century, a lot of super-rich people from all over the world wanted to buy European soccer teams.
Why? The reason was simple.
In Europe, soccer is the most popular sport. If you own a big soccer team, it's a great way to get your name out there. It makes your company more famous and helps all your other businesses, too.
So, Zane's team locked on to a target: a team in the English Premier League!
His chief assistant, Alexander, led a big team of 12 people to England. They went to the city of Southampton. (You might know that name—it's the port city where the Titanic set sail from!)
Their goal was to buy the Southampton Football Club.
"What?!" the club's owner, Lewis Kühl, was shocked. "You want to buy my team? What a joke!"
"Yes, sir," Alexander said, his voice calm and serious. "Our boss is Mr. Zane Blackwood. I don't know if you've heard of him?"
"I know who he is," Mr. Kühl snapped. "He's America's new super-rich kid. The youngest billionaire."
Alexander smiled. "As you know, our boss is very young and he loves football. That's why he wants to buy the team."
"Hmph!" Mr. Kühl snorted. "He can like it all he wants, but that doesn't mean I have to sell! You tell your boss he's dreaming. I will never sell this team."
Alexander wasn't annoyed at all. He just kept his calm, friendly smile.
"As I understand it, sir," Alexander said, "your club's performance in recent years hasn't been very... satisfactory, has it? You're always at the bottom of the list, and you almost got kicked out of the league last season. Plus, all your star players keep leaving to join other teams."
It was all true. The Southampton team was not doing well. (Zane knew from his secret "future knowledge" that the team would get worse and worse, until a new owner finally saved them years later.)
But Mr. Kühl was very stubborn.
"Mr. Alexander, I was born here," he said angrily. "I will never sell this team. I will not lose the honor of being a citizen of the British Empire. You Yankees are all the same!"
His words were very mean and disrespectful to Zane.
Alexander just stood up and kept his polite smile. "I will be sure to tell my boss what you said."
After he said that, Alexander and his whole team quickly left the club.
That night, in a hotel...
"Boss, everything happened just as we expected," Alexander said on the phone to Zane. "Mr. Kühl completely rejected our offer to buy the team. He was... also very rude about you and about Americans in general."
Zane, who was back in America, just laughed. "Isn't this exactly what we wanted?" he said.
After they chatted for a while, the two hung up.
"Zane, what's going on?" his girlfriend, Adriana, asked. She was confused. "The deal didn't work?"
"Nope," he said.
"Then... why are you so calm?" she asked. "You keep saying it's 'what you expected.'"
Zane just gave her a mysterious, charming smile. "Lima, my target was never the Southampton team."
Before she could even ask what he meant, he stopped her. "You don't need to worry about these things. You just need to know that I'm putting on a big show. And this show is going to be extremely exciting."
The next day...
The local newspapers in England exploded.
The Hampshire Morning Post: "ANOTHER INVASION OF U.S. MONEY!" The article went on: "Southampton is our pride! Our football club has a 100-year history! And now, this American tycoon wants to buy our pride?! Can we agree to this? No! This is a capital war! We are the empire on which the sun never sets! We will not submit!"
The Southampton City News (the biggest local paper) was even meaner. Their headline was just: "WISHFUL THINKING."
"Darn Yankee, go to hell!" the article said. "Our club is called 'The Saints'! We can't let money ruin it! That entertainment boss Zane Blackwood? Does he even know football? He knows nothing! Our sacred club will not be defeated by the Yankees!"
The local people who read this got very angry.
And the local "football hooligans" got so angry that they all gathered in a big, scary crowd and surrounded the hotel where Alexander and his team were staying!
"Mr. Alexander," one of his team members said, "these British guys are too hateful! We're just trying to do normal business, and they're acting like we... like we burned their houses down!"
"Yeah!" another one said. "No wonder no one likes these hooligans. They should be banned from all the games!"
But Alexander just smiled, calm as ever.
"Calm down, everyone," he said. "Isn't this exactly what we expected? Nixon, call the local police and ask them to come and rescue us. After that... we have to go back to the Southampton club and have another good chat with them."
"Yes!" everyone on the team said, a new spark in their eyes.
"Come on," Alexander laughed. "This drama has only just begun."
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