42 Contract Negotiations I
****Wednesday, 22nd January 2020***
Jason and Rico arrived at the Estadio do Dragao and made their way into the FC Porto's head office which was located within the sport complex itself.
On reaching the building, they were ushered by a secretary through the building and walked through brightly lit corridors on their way to the conference room which was their destination.
On their way through the corridors, Jason took note of the picture frames of the Porto team holding some trophies that had been won over the years.
There were no trophy cabinets at the head office though as they were all located at the FC Porto museum, but this had not diminished Jason's good impression of the club as a winning team.
In less than a minute they stood before finely carved mahogany doors and the secretary that had brought them here informed them that this was their destination before turning around and heading off.
Rico seemed especially self-conscious all of a sudden but straightened his suit while trying to mask his discomfort from Jason.
"While we're in there, I'll be responsible for the contract negotiations and anything else that comes up, so be at ease,"
"You're free to ask me for a private conversation, but don't openly interrupt my conversation with their representative, and try not to show your emotions on your face no matter what,"
"Are we clear?" Rico fired off a bunch of instructions to Jason, suddenly sounding very serious all of a sudden.
He had noticed that despite seeing that he was being offered 10000 euros as a weekly salary, Jason hadn't seemed overly impressed with him, so he was planning on doing his best to help Jason gain the most benefits from the club.
Hopefully, by doing so, he could impress Jason to hire him as a personal agent, otherwise, it would be a loss complete.
Little did he know that no matter what happened today, Jason's opinion of him was already set in stone and it was never going to change.
Of course, Jason did not know about all that was going on in his mind and simply responded with an "OK" as Rico rapped on the door sharply twice before pushing open the doors without waiting for a response.
In the room were four people seated at the conference table and they seemed to have been in a conversation before Rico and Jason's arrival.
The previous lineup of Sergio Conceicao, Rafael Hernandez, and Filipe Carlos now had an addition in the person of Jorge Nuno Pinto Da Costa who was the club's current and most long-standing president in the history of the club.
"Ha, here he is," Rafael stood up first among the four and held his hand out to Jason in a greeting,
"Welcome, welcome," he smiled warmly.
"Good morning, Rafa," Jason greeted as well as he grasped Rafael's outstretched hand.
Jason also shook hands with Sergio Conceicao who was his soon-to-be coach and with Filipe Carlos.
"I have high hopes for you," Pinto Da Costa said with a smile as he shook Jason's hand after being introduced by the other people in the room before they sat at the table to discuss the contract.
"Mr. Gulaz, we meet again," Filipe started speaking first, his face carrying an amiable smile that hid his usual fierceness whenever he did his job.
"Good morning, Mr. Carlos," Rico responded with a slightly hardened voice and spies seemed to fly between them just after a mere exchange of greetings.
"Well, Mr. Gulaz," Filipe began, his voice taking on a formal tone and his amiable smile disappearing as if it was never there to begin with,
"Have you and your client read and understood all the terms of the contract?"
"Do you find the terms agreeable?" he asked, staring intently at Rico who almost cowered at his strong gaze.
"We have finished reviewing the draft of the contract," Rico began and then paused for a while before continuing, "...However we believe that some clauses still need amendment,"
'This motherfu**er,' Jason had a hard time keeping a frown appearing on his face and he couldn't help cursing internally as a smile that was not a smile appeared on his face.
They had spoken about this when they met yesterday and they had agreed that all they would do at the Estadio do Dragao was to sign the contract, but what was this guy doing now?
Nevertheless, he couldn't just interrupt and decided to wait and listen to Rico's argument before he called for a private discussion.
"Please, do tell me where you believe needs adjustment in the draft," Filipe, handed Rico the initiative.
"First, I believe that there should be a form of appearance bonus for my client as it would help in motivating him during the matches,"
"Secondly, don't you think the release clause you've placed on my client be a little too high for a young player,"
"That's a whole 45 million euros! Are you trying to trap my client in your team until he can attract such an enormous fee?" Rico argued vehemently.
"Firstly, Mr. Gulaz, the reason for there being no forms of bonuses in the contract is because we believe that the amount we are paying your client as a salary is already quite voluminous for a player of his stature,"
"But we can add a clause that allows for a salary increment if he scores a set amount of goals, or gives a set amount of assists in a season," Filipe countered.
"How many goals or assists are we talking about?" Rico asked, slightly happy that he had gotten his way.
"Either 13 goals or 17 assists per season," Filipe replied, hiding the smirk that threatened to break out on his face.
"Don't you think that's a bit too much for my client," Rico shot back, surprised at the unbelievable number that Filipe had quoted.
"For a young talented player receiving 10000 euros a week as a start-up salary, I don't think it is," Filipe said, a victorious smile appearing on his face.
Only Rico himself, Rafael Hernandez, and Sergio Conceicao knew that he was getting back at Rico for calling out an absurd amount of money for Jason's salary the day before.
Jason and Pinto Da Costa were just looking on in slight confusion at this battle between both sides' legal representatives.
Rico knew he had been had.
Filipe had acted as if he was going to give him what he had asked for but had added an almost impossible condition to fulfill.
For a young player to score up to 13 goals or give 17 assists in a season was going to be very difficult in a top-tier team like FC Porto where there were cream of the crop players always fighting for spots in the starting line-up.
Even if he managed to get a lot of game time, the Primeira Liga was not going to be kind enough to allow an upstart to just score that many goals or give that many assists.
Unfortunately, he didn't have the right to point that out because he was the one who had argued that Jason was able to do that much for the team and should be paid that much more.
His mistake had come back to bite him and there was nothing he could do about it.