Chicken Wings defensive midfielder Ling Fuquan lived up to all the hype, as he became the first Grilled trainee to break the S$3 million ceiling, and indeed the S$2 million one, upon turning professional. The previous all-time record of about S$1.3 million was set by centreback Cheong Qiang Yeng more than 20 seaons ago, while the biggest sum received so far for a graduate of the revamped youth academy was just S$906 000 for forward Seetoh Min Soon, who has sadly left the game.

Spanish Division Ten club Zenkiu Team wrote their way into Grilled's record books with an astounding S$3 588 000 transfer offer for Ling, finally overcoming the resolve of Woodlands club Team Remy83, whose youth side Team Remy83 Novices Ling had recently come up against in a nil-all draw.

"We always knew Ling was hot property, but never guessed just how hot." a visibly excited Han Lik-Tsun piped up. "As you know, we slapped a minimum starting bid of S$800 000 on the boy, and to put it in perspective, that's almost the previous record for a Chicken Wings trainee."

Other clubs such as A.C. MilanBP 2004, botlabRERE (both Hungarian Division Six), Waffen Proletarier (Ukrainian Division Five), FC Socky Východná (Slovakian Division Four) and local side -= Manchester United =- had shown interest, but after the price climbed to over S$1.5 million, there was just Zenkiu Team and Team Remy83 in it.

"The only other of our trainees who could have attracted this amount when they turned pro were probably Quah Han Kok and Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, and both went on to represent the nation at U-20 level." Han said. "Ling's extremely competitive and uncompromising when he's out there, and he should make it if he keeps his temper under wraps. I hear he's pretty nice to his teammates if they perform well, though."

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