Football: Salary System - Chapter 140: Fanboying on the Company Dime (Patreon)

“Why did they suddenly think of asking me?”

It was not that Zayn underestimated his own influence. Before his rebirth, he had stayed up late binge-watching Peaky Blinders, and as far as he remembered, the show had never brought in footballers for guest appearances. In fact, celebrity cameos of any kind were extremely rare.

The creative team behind Peaky Blinders apparently believed that celebrity cameos would break the audience’s immersion. They wanted viewers absorbed in the story of the Shelby family, not distracted by a famous face suddenly appearing on screen.

That was why a long list of international stars, including Brad Pitt, cricket legend Shane Warne, and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, had reportedly approached the production hoping to land a role, only to be turned down.

Footballers were no exception. Active or retired, none had ever appeared in the show.

The entire series had only one real connection to modern football that Zayn could remember, a blink-and-you-miss-it detail in the second episode of season four.

On a chalkboard at the racetrack was a horse named “Vardy Party,” listed at odds of 5,000-to-1 to win.

The number was a nod to the famous 5,000-to-1 odds on Leicester City winning the 2015-16 Premier League title.

Other than that, football simply had no place in the world of the Peaky Blinders.

Raiola chuckled on the other end of the phone.

“The writer, Steven Knight, really was against celebrity cameos before. But this time, he was the one who came looking for us.”

“How did that happen?” Zayn asked, intrigued.

“When he writes, he often goes through old Birmingham Mail archives looking for inspiration. After all, one of the earliest known newspaper references to the name ‘Peaky Blinders’ appeared in the Birmingham Mail on March 24, 1890.”

“Hmm.”

Raiola continued.

“And doesn’t the Birmingham Mail run that ‘Zayn Weekly’ column every week? Steven Knight read quite a few of them. The more he read, the more interested he became.”

“So he’s a fan?” Zayn asked teasingly.

“More or less.”

Raiola laughed as well.

“And season five was already going to introduce a new character, a former Irish professional footballer.

“Knight thought it would be fun if you made a brief cameo in the scene where that character first appears, so he had someone get in touch with me.”

“That actually does sound pretty fun. Haha!”

Zayn genuinely remembered the new character. His name was Billy, and the main characters used his connections in football to bribe referees and goalkeepers, fix matches, and profit from betting on the results.

A thoroughly typical gangster storyline.

Hearing the interest in Zayn’s voice, Raiola immediately pressed his advantage.

“You happen to be back in England for the next few days, and they called me just now to ask what you thought.

“But I should make one thing clear first. This is just a little Easter egg cameo, less than a minute long. The production doesn’t plan to promote it either. They want to keep it secret until the episode airs and reveal it as a surprise.

“So there isn’t much room to negotiate on the fee. They’re offering a token £10,000, and that’s already about as high as they’re willing to go.”

“So Knight is basically using the production budget to meet one of his favorite players? Sure, I’m in.”

“And forget the fee. I’ll do it for free,” Zayn replied casually. “It’s a cameo that lasts less than a minute. Besides, the creator of the show is apparently a fan of mine.”

Zayn was a fan of the series himself. Back when he watched it, he had always thought the Peaky Blinders’ accents sounded incredibly cool.

Especially the classic line, “By order of the Peaky Blinders.”

Whenever he got really into an episode, he would sometimes shout it along with them.

It was only after his rebirth that he learned the Birmingham accent actually sat at the very bottom of Britain’s unofficial accent hierarchy, somehow ranking even below the Liverpool accent.

One was dead last. The other was second from bottom.

Of course, the main reason Zayn had no intention of taking the money was much simpler.

£10,000 simply was not much to him anymore.

Raiola burst out laughing on the other end of the phone.

“Good. Very good! That’s a mature decision.” The agent clearly approved. “I was going to suggest the same thing. I was already wondering how I’d convince you to turn down the ten grand.”

“Taking that little money wouldn’t mean much anyway. But if we present it as you appearing for free as a favor, suddenly the whole thing looks completely different.”

“The show’s creator is a Birmingham local. Doing him a favor like this will be good for your image with English fans. That’s your home market.

“And Peaky Blinders has a huge audience of young men, which overlaps heavily with your own fan base. Ten thousand pounds wouldn’t normally buy even a few hours of your time, but if you treat this as brand exposure, it’s worth far more than that.”

Zayn gave a helpless laugh.

“Mino, are you obsessed with money or something? How do you manage to assign a commercial value to absolutely everything?”

On the other end, Raiola pursed his lips.

Coming from the little menace who was constantly asking for raises, advertising deals, and new sponsors, that was rich.

“All right. It’s settled, then.”

Before Raiola could argue back, Zayn changed the subject to the matter he cared about most.

“Any progress on the raise?”

Raiola rolled his eyes.

The brat had just accused him of being obsessed with money, and the very next question out of his mouth was about a pay raise.

Still, the agent answered him plainly.

“Nothing substantial. If I ask the club for a raise right now, all I’ll accomplish is annoying them. Give it a little more time. Once the winter transfer window opens, the situation will be different.”

Raiola had actually been trying.

The problem was that one of his favorite negotiating tools over the past two years, playing the Manchester United card, had become much harder to use.

Since Mourinho had taken charge more than two years earlier, the two had worked together on several major transfers, bringing Raiola clients such as Ibrahimović, Pogba, and Mkhitaryan to Manchester United.

The Portuguese manager had even publicly praised Raiola as someone with the guts to pull off the biggest deals in football.

But as Mourinho’s results at United deteriorated, their working relationship began to unravel.

There had been countless disagreements between them, large and small.

The biggest came after the World Cup in Russia, when Mourinho repeatedly encouraged Pogba to fire Raiola.

That crossed a line the Italian agent would not tolerate, and their relationship had now completely broken down.

Through Pogba, however, Raiola had already heard that the Special One’s days at Manchester United were numbered. He would probably be gone before the winter transfer window.

Raiola planned to wait until Mourinho was dismissed, then establish a good relationship with the next manager and start using Manchester United as leverage again.

Zayn had no idea how many calculations were running through Raiola’s head.

He simply replied,

“Fine. We’ll wait for the winter window.”

...

Three days later, November 18.

The final matchday of UEFA Nations League Group A4.

England hosted Croatia at Wembley Stadium.

Southgate continued with the back four he had been experimenting with recently, trying to find a more stable balance between possession and direct attacking play.

Zayn and Kane naturally started together up front.

The first half was evenly contested, with both sides creating opportunities but repeatedly falling just short with the final touch.

Then the match changed dramatically after halftime.

Kramarić gave Croatia the lead, but “Z&K” soon answered.

Zayn and Kane scored in the 58th and 77th minutes respectively, completing England’s comeback.

The final whistle blew with the score at 2-1.

England finished top of the group and advanced to the Nations League Finals, while Croatia were relegated to League B.

After the match, the squad dispersed and the players returned to their respective clubs.

Zayn, however, did not head straight back to Dortmund.

Instead, he got in his car and drove north toward Manchester.

Although Peaky Blinders was set in Birmingham, much of the series was actually filmed elsewhere.

Many of its most important exterior scenes were shot on the streets of Liverpool, while production on the fifth season was now centered more heavily around Manchester.