It was around 2003 when the whole of China was surprised by a candy commercial on TV, with a big tall guy in a yellow uniform performing football moves. That guy was none other than Ronaldo Nazario.
All European league defenders, especially in La Liga and Serie A, had met with the same faith when facing Ronaldo, getting tricked and constantly outplayed.
However, who would believe that Ronaldo, who deceived defenders all his life, would be fooled by a businesswoman so easily?
Although the consequences of this might not be so dire, for Ronaldo, it was like he got humiliated and had become a clown for the whole of China and got nothing in return.
What happened to this extraordinary footballer? Who was the one who tricked Ronaldo? Find out on Main Stand.
The world footballer's visit to China
In the early 2000s, no team was better than Real Madrid. At that time, every football fan wanted to see the Galácticos live at least once in their lifetime.
In the 2003 pre-season, Real Madrid, under the helm of Carlos Queiroz, traveled on a warm-up tour of Asia, from China, Japan and Hong Kong to Thailand, to enlarge their fan base worldwide.
Their first match on 2 August 2003 was with the Chinese Super League's all-star team.
The Workers' Stadium, often called Gongti or Gong Ti, was filled with more than fifty thousand fans who wanted to see famous footballers like Ronaldo, Zidane, Raúl, and Beckham, who ended up beating the all-star team 4-0.
The original candy woman
When you are one of Real Madrid's 'Galácticos' squad, no matter what you do, everything you touch will be gold, especially for Ronaldo. With that, there's no doubt his wage is more than seven figures.
But madam Peizhen had some tricks that lured Ronaldo to meet her so effortlessly.
The question is, who is Jiang Peizhen?
Although she is just the owner of a candy manufacturer, there is more about her than the eyes could see at first glance.
Jiang Peizhen was born in Pingnan county, Guangxi, in 1946. She was the second child of six of her siblings. Her mother passed away when she was 13, and she had to quit school to work, offloading her father's burden.
The same year she decided to quit school, she got her first job as a candy wrapper in one of the factories in Liuzhou, Guangxi.
Because she was hard-working, enthusiastic, and fast learning, Peizhen was promoted to vice director of the factory when she was only 18 years old, but there is still more to her dedication.
Only at the age of 33 did she become the factory's sole owner, and from the start of her leadership, she gave every worker a bonus to give the workers incentive to work harder.
Afterwards, the young leader traveled to France, Italy, Germany, and Japan to learn about the foreign sweet industries. After her return, she expanded her factory to produce Jam and chocolate peanut candy. But, most importantly, around the year 1990, her company was the first manufacturer ever in China that could produce stuffed candy.
Although her factory became the leading manufacturer in the industry, the increase in the cost of production and the rise of many ripped-off products resulted in a rapid decline in profits, nearly leading to bankruptcy.
Then, Peizhen decided to use her trump card.
The countermeasure that played a role
In 1993, Peizhen decided to carry 70,000 Yuan (around 370,000 baht) to Shanghai to find a new recipe to enhance her company to the next level.
Faith works in mysterious ways as she meets with Professor Wang Yaofa from the School of Life Sciences at East China Normal University. At that time, Professor Wang developed a throat tablet to cure chronic pharyngitis.
After exchanging opinions, Professor Wang was so impressed with her personality and Peizhen's vision that he gave away his recipe for free and even taught Peizhen the method of putting two recipes on a single tablet.
Then the throat tablet was launched in 1994 under the brand Guangxi Golden Throat, while her company established a new factory solely for producing this product.
As a homage, Peizhen put the Professor's face on the center of the package. However, because she decided to print his picture in black and white, many people thought that professor Wang was already dead, and the Professor himself later needed to come out to clarify.
After its initial launch in 1994, Guangxi Golden Throat was a hit and gained profits of 60 million Yuan in its first year. In 1995, Peizhen spent five million Yuan to put an advertisement on China Central Television (CCTV), instantly making it even more popular and exceeding 100 million Yuan in profits in 1996.
More than just a meal
After she became one of the country's elites, Peizhen started a football academy, the Golden Throat Football School. The school probably sparked her love of football, and when Real Madrid came to town, there was no way madam Jiang would stay put.
Peizhen hired a Spanish translator to contact Real Madrid. Rumor has it that a wealthy Chinese businesswoman wanted to invite Ronaldo to have a private meal with her. On top of that, she would also give some money to Ronaldo for free. Unbelievably, Ronaldo followed suit without hesitation because not every day would one get an invite to a free meal with huge money.
Then came 1 August 2003, Ronaldo traveled to Chang An Club near Shanghai Hotel to meet Peizhen without realizing he was walking into a trap while some of his teammates were traveling to Forbidden City.
After his arrival, Peizhen welcomed him with her employees together with fans who were waiting to see him.
Peizhen invited Ronaldo to the table, but instead of eating together, Peizhen laid out all of the Golden Throat products until the table was full.
Then someone told Ronaldo to get in their academy's uniform, which has Guangxi Golden Throat printed.
Ronaldo started to suspect this was a scam, but Peizhen told Ronaldo that it was only for internal affairs.
Peizhen handed him an Adidas football without knowing he was Nike's presenter. Ronaldo refused to touch the ball. However, coincidentally, one of Peizhen's employees brought a non-branded football for Ronaldo to sign his autograph for his son (the truth is Jiang Peizhen had already planned everything with her employees).
Then the Brazilian footballer started posing for the cameras while holding a football and Guangxi Golden Throat in another hand.
Then he had to stand in front of the screen and show his skills like dribbling, passing, heading, and volleying the ball while holding the throat tablet in one hand throughout the shoot.
After they finished shooting, Peizhen and Ronaldo then discussed and exchanged opinions about football together, and he was very impressed with Peizhen's vision to develop Chinese football with her academy. He even called her the mother of football.
Before Ronaldo departed, he, Peizhen, and youths from Guangxi Golden Throat took some photos together. He then received his pay from the company for a total of USD$300,000. This was all done in 45 minutes.
After that day, everything went back to its course, Ronaldo went back to play for Real Madrid, and Peizhen returned to her company.
However, in September 2003, a month after Madrid visited China, Ronaldo's face appeared on every TV in China in a Guangxi Golden Throat commercial aired on China Central Television (CCTV).
However, many from the advertising industry questioned why Ronaldo was in a domestic candy commercial. The commercial was also criticized as very bad and unenthusiastic. Some people even thought it was just Ronaldo's lookalike because the real Ronaldo probably wouldn't star in this.
However, when reporters asked Peizhen whether this was the real Ronaldo, she confirmed it. However, Peizhen wouldn't reveal how she got Ronaldo to shoot the commercial for her. The commercial was also voted as the third worst commercial of 2003.
Golden Throat also used photos of Ronaldo on several media, such as Poster and their website. Ronaldo realized everything in 2005 when another Chinese product contacted him to be their presenter. They asked why he accepted to be in Guangxi Golden Throat's commercial.
It took him by surprise after he explained the truth about that day in 2003 and that they intended to use everything for advertisement from the start. It made Ronaldo so angry he decided to sue the company.
But his manager suggested that he shouldn't sue the company because most foreign cases in China usually have a meager percentage of winning. Moreover, even though they win, they would be compensated very poorly.
Then came the breaking point in 2007 when Ronaldo was to appear in another Chinese commercial in which the contract stated that he would need to cut his tie with Guangxi Golden Throat.
Ronaldo then went on to press charges against the company without hesitation.
Ronaldo started to gather evidence against Guangxi Golden Throat by stating his actual pay rate, which is around three million euros for being a presenter.
Guangxi Golden Throat used his photos and videos for four years without any payment, so it had to pay him €12 million.
After it became viral, many reporters traveled to Guangxi Golden Throat's headquarters, but Peizhen had already vanished. Moreover, they bluffed that they still have a mutual contract with Ronaldo.
To add to the feud, in the same year, they hired Ricardo Kaká, Ronaldo's compatriot, as their official presenter.
Ronaldo quickly came to Kaká and told him not to make the same mistake he did. However, the agreement between Kaká and Guangxi Golden Throat was binding in legal documents.
Kaká flew to China to shoot the new commercial, which got paid 14.3 million Yuan, disheartening Ronaldo.
Never forgetting this trauma
After the company got Kaká as their presenter, its business grew so much that it expanded to Hong Kong. But, in contrast to Ronaldo, Chinese media reported that he and the company had privately settled the dispute, and the company agreed to pay for his request to end the scandal.
In 2015, Guangxi Golden Throat had thrived so much in China, Hong Kong, and Macau that it exceeded the sales of 129 million packs, the highest in the company's history, and made over 707 million Yuan in profits. After it reached its peak, the company replaced Professor Wang's photo, which they had used since 1994, with Peizhen.
As the saying goes, what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, since 2016, the company's share has declined.
Furthermore, in 2017, Peizhen was sued by an advertising company for not paying them 50 million Yuan as they agreed beforehand and got blacklisted by the Shanghai court as an unreliable debtor, banning her from traveling outside of China indefinitely.
Additionally, Guangxi Golden Throat has met with a constant crisis in the stock market, profit, and sales which has made the company decline since 2016.
Compared to their 29.2% profits in 2015, their profit in 2020 was at 13%, and they could only sell 91 million packages throughout 2020.
For Peizhen, clutching the game is her specialty. So in 2020, they launched a new beverage product with the same anti-inflammation formula with the slogan "clear your throat to the world". They also stepped in to become a sponsor for many TV varieties across the country.
But then they placed the last nail in their coffin when they upped the price of their flagship product from five yuan/pack to six point four yuan/pack in 2020 while having the same amount of tablets in the package. That move consequently lowered their sales to an all-time low of only 91 million packages.
At present, Guangxi Golden Throat has already ceased production in Hong Kong and Macau because of huge losses in capital. However, they still sell their products in China as usual, but there has been no report about the company since 2021.
Even though Ronaldo got fooled by Peizhen, if he heard about the current state of Guangxi Golden Throat, he would probably smile.
Sources:
https://min.news/en/sport/bae80b852b3231ab8e89a79858f4d8c8.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2007-01/26/content_793372.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/26/advertising.football
https://daydaynews.cc/en/entertainment/1543703.html
https://lujuba.cc/en/602345.html
https://inf.news/en/economy/4eb489980056767c6f50f37cb9d894ef.html
https://inf.news/en/economy/f09abd9f844c8f18bec0623e2d9d9867.html
