[GdS] Zhang, big numbers. As owner, Suning and the Zhang family spent the total of one billion. From initial investments to financial troubles, but with Chinese ownership, Inter has grown.

2 comments

1. 400m came from a bond he put on the club.
   270m came from the oaktree loan.
   300m+ came from players selling (lukaku – hakimi – onana – gosens).

   He operated this club without putting a cent into it and by doing so he put its existence at risk (the 400m bond, oaktree choosing a new owner etc.).

   He’s a cool guy and tried his best but lets not try to spin what he did with the club: pure speculation. If he cared he would have sold to bc partners, but he’s just greedy.

2. Not only this, but he has revamped this club behind the scenes.

   – The new training grounds (seriously, go look at the pictures), the youth training grounds have all come from him.

   – We now have a new headquater (with a nice rooftop restaurant etc.; again, look at the pictures).

   – He started the Inter Media house (which has, undoubtedly, landed us newer fans).

   They fell apart at their own side of things. To give you a brief rundown of all the problems they’ve faced :-

   – Suning is a retail brand, Covid was a very serious blow to their revenue (mega stores closed, no footfall for months).

   – They had a good few bliions (“B”) invested in Evergrande. When that tanked, so did Suning.

   – Senior Zhang is super close to Xi (travelled with him to Spain when Xi went on an official visit, suggested a short detour to Milan, but was refused by Xi). Xi wanted to promote football in China (loves the sport, wanted to see a Chinese power in the game). Offered grants/ rebates etc. for companies going into football. Until yesterday, some were suggesting/ speculating that the Chinese Govt. might directly turn up with cash to save Inter (didn’t happen).

   – Zhang bought a club in China (Jiangsu Suning), proceeded to buy Inter Milan, then bought PL rights for China (roughly a billion), and created Suning Sports Division.

   – When Xi reversed his decision a few years later, Jiangsu Suning closed, PL rights were forefeited, and Inter became a stand alone club, with no direct investment from China. Still, they fought on.

   – The final death knell was when Steven was held liable for 4-500m *personally* on account of some shady deal/ fraud (This is why he couldn’t come back to Italy for the celebrations).

   P.S.- Read up on all of this yourselves. My account is not chronological, and isn’t detailed. It’s purely from memory. However, the point still stands; they started off as great oowners, but things took a massive downturn in their own fortunes.