Chapter Five: The Thirty-Two-Million Substitute

Thirty-two million hit Northport's account. Seamount received not one euro. Northport paid the nine-million debt and retained enough to strengthen three positions. Bought for six hundred thousand and sold six months later for thirty-two million, Costaro became what the financial press called the Harbor Printing Press. Then Northport lost 2–0. Without him, the right side looked amputated. “Is this your seventy-eight-percent replaceability?” a reporter asked. Lin displayed a photograph of Amir Sadiq, twenty years old, at the bottom club in the second division. He had started twice in seventeen matches. “We aren't buying another Costaro. We're buying someone who makes the whole system faster.”