Chapter 1 Chen Yingxiong Has Been Quite Busy Lately...

He had a game against Manchester City on January 3rd, an FA Cup match on January 7th, and the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on January 12th. And on January 9th, he had to go to Zurich to attend the FIFA Ballon d'Or award ceremony.

It was still unknown whether he would be selected, he was just on the final shortlist of three. But the media were very optimistic about him, and they all felt that with his performance in the past year, it would not be difficult for him to win the FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Especially the Chinese media were particularly excited. Chen Yingxiong had already lifted the first UEFA Ballon d'Or trophy in history half a year ago, creating Chinese football history. If he could also lift the FIFA Ballon d'Or, it would be a grand slam.

For a Chinese player to receive such an honor, it would be comparable to surpassing the United States to become the first in the gold and medal standings at the Olympic Games.

After all, football has always been a weak sport in China, and Chen Yingxiong's award can be described as a historical breakthrough, which is to be recorded in history.

The Chinese media were particularly excited when they thought that Chen Yingxiong might win the award. In recent days, the domestic media have been promoting the FIFA awards ceremony, and China Central Television has also decided to broadcast it live. Many fans have left messages saying that they will stay up late to watch and witness this historic moment.

The FIFA Ballon d'Or and the UEFA Ballon d'Or are selected differently. There is no live voting session. Instead, the final winner is determined by combining votes from three parties. In fact, it is simply a merger of the previous World Footballer of the Year selection and the "France Football" magazine's Ballon d'Or selection. The Ballon d'Or selection method is added to the previous FIFA World Footballer of the Year selection method.

The first part is the votes from football journalists from 208 media outlets around the world, with "France Football" counting the votes.

The second part is the votes from the head coaches of the national teams of the 208 associations under FIFA, with FIFA counting the votes.

The third part is the votes from the captains of the national teams of the 208 associations under FIFA, with FIFA counting the votes.

These three parts of the votes each account for one-third of the total number of votes, and no single part can play a decisive role.

A media outlet representing the Chinese media has announced that they will vote for Chen Yingxiong: "Of course, we have to support our own people. Yingxiong is our first choice. We also sincerely hope that Chen Yingxiong can bring back a historic FIFA Ballon d'Or for Chinese football!"

Even Chen Yingxiong himself felt that his chances of winning were very high. Because his performance in the past year was radiant, he felt that there was no reason why he couldn't get this award.

It should be known that the selection criteria for the FIFA Ballon d'Or are the player's performance within the year, mainly based on the following four points:

First, the personal and team honors won this year. Chen Yingxiong has an absolute advantage in this point. He himself is the Serie A top scorer, the Champions League top scorer, and in terms of team honors, he and Naples won the Serie A title and the Champions League title together. Isn't such a performance convincing enough?

Second, the player's qualities (talent and fair play spirit). In terms of talent, Chen Yingxiong is no worse than Messi. What may be controversial is the fair play spirit. Chen Yingxiong feels that he has a particularly fair play spirit, because he never dives. But this may not be the case for others, because he once beat his opponent after being sent off, and maliciously retaliated on the field by shoveling the other party and injuring him for two months... This kind of behavior probably cannot be regarded as having a fair play spirit.

Third, career resume. Chen Yingxiong is slightly inferior in this aspect. After all, his career has only started for five years, but he has won five league top scorers and three European top scorers in these five years, which may make up for it.

Fourth, personality and particularly outstanding performance. Chen Yingxiong has no problem with this point. Whether it is personality or outstanding performance, he has shown it vividly in the past year.

Chen Yingxiong thought about it, and after comprehensive consideration, he can still overwhelm Messi. Messi is his biggest competitor, he knows this very well.

In this way, Chen Yingxiong went to Zurich with the general manager of Liverpool, Niang. Lufei, with anticipation and hope.

※※※

When walking the red carpet, Chen Yingxiong was the focus of the media.

Many media believe that Chen Yingxiong should be able to win the award, because in the past year, he completely suppressed Messi, especially in the direct dialogue between the Champions League and Messi. He surpassed Messi and won the top scorer in six fewer games than Messi. He completed a hat-trick in the final to help the team defeat Barcelona and lift the first Champions League trophy in history. Isn't such a performance enough for him to win the award?

Although Messi is also very good, he should have no chance of winning in front of the crazy Chen Yingxiong.

Even Messi himself thinks so.

When walking the red carpet, there was no smile on his face, and he passed by in a hurry. Perhaps it was because he felt it was boring to come and be a foil for Chen Yingxiong.

When Chen Yingxiong walked the red carpet, he was full of smiles and frequently waved to the media and fans on both sides. The spotlights were always on him and almost never stopped.

It was completely a winner's posture.

Many media were curious about what amazing words Chen Yingxiong would say at the awards ceremony this time - every time he participated in this kind of awards ceremony, he would always say something amazing when he received the award. Of course, everyone had mixed opinions on his speeches. Some people think he is humorous and witty, while others think he is aggressive and has no demeanor. But no matter what, his speech will never be a formality, it will never be perfunctory, and it will never be mediocre.

Even Chen Yingxiong's acceptance speech has become an important and indispensable part of the awards ceremony itself...

When a reporter interviewed Chen Yingxiong, he asked him: "If you win the award, what will you say?"

His attitude was still relatively conservative. He added "if" before winning the award. In fact, he felt from the bottom of his heart that there was no difference whether to add "if" or not.

Chen Yingxiong smiled: "I haven't thought about it yet!"

Every one of his speeches is an impromptu speech.

When he was in a good mood, he was rarely humble: "Maybe I won't get it, hahaha!"

The reporter laughed with him. Are you kidding me! You can't get it with that kind of performance? Then who else can get it?!

But an hour later, Chen Yingxiong's words came true!

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FIFA President Blatter stood on the stage, holding a list of winners in his hand. This list had just been taken out of a sealed envelope. To show fairness and justice, no one had tampered with it in advance... Of course, this was just a formality. Even a fool knows that the result has already come out, and the FIFA bigwigs must have known the result long ago, and may even have revised the result that they were not satisfied with - this has not happened once or twice, and everyone is numb to it. Everyone says that UEFA has a lot of inside stories, and FIFA is no exception, with various scandals emerging one after another.

These days, people who believe in FIFA's fairness and integrity are even rarer than giant pandas.

Blatter smiled and looked at the camera. He had known the answer for a long time, and he didn't even glance at the list in his hand before announcing the result directly.

"The player elected as the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or..." He paused for a moment, just a small trick to whet people's appetite.

Then he pointed to Messi, who was standing next to Xavi!

"Congratulations, Leo Messi!! He has won this honor for the third consecutive time!!"

After a brief silence, thunderous applause rang out.

And the expressions of the three people on the stage were very exciting.

Chen Yingxiong, who was originally smiling and looked confident, was stunned. The surprise on his face was very obvious, and he didn't mean to hide it at all.

Messi had been expressionless before, looking expressionless. He knew that he had a high chance of not getting it, and he was just here to be a supporting role, so he didn't want to look too happy. What's more, the person who won the award was Chen Yingxiong, a person he didn't like very much. Why should he be happy for the victory of his mortal enemy?

But he didn't expect that he would be the one to win the award in the end!

He was stunned for a moment, then an incredible expression appeared on his face, but this expression only lasted for a very short second or two before being covered by a happy smile - he was very happy to defeat his mortal enemy in such a dramatic way!

Xavi was completely just making soy sauce. Whether Messi won the award or Chen Yingxiong won the award, it was not him anyway. He had been a supporting role for others since last year, and he was already used to it and had become a professional extra. But it's better for Messi to win the award than for Chen Yingxiong to win the award, right? So when Blatter announced that Messi had won the award, a smile appeared on his face, and he was the first to go over and hug Messi to congratulate him on winning the award.

But the brief silence in the venue was enough to explain the problem - everyone was surprised.

CCTV does not have time to produce subtitles for live broadcasts of this kind of program, so they arrange for someone to do simultaneous interpretation.

But Blatter's sentence of announcing who won the award did not need simultaneous interpretation. People who do not understand English can guess what he said. Therefore, the host took over the task of explanation at this time, and he finished saying: "The person who won the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or is..."

He also paused with Blatter, but Chen Yingxiong's name was already in his throat and ready to come out.

When Blatter pointed to Xavi, the host Liu Jianhong almost blurted out the name "Chen Yingxiong" in advance. Fortunately, his many years of experience as a host told him that it was best to be safe, and he was lucky to be safe, otherwise he would have made a fool of himself.

Then he heard the name "Leo Messi".

He couldn't help but say "Eh" in surprise.

Not only was he surprised, but the Chinese fans who stayed up late waiting in front of the TV were also surprised. They all felt that Chen Yingxiong was sure to win the award. Even the fans of Barcelona and Messi did not think that Messi had the ability to compete with Chen Yingxiong for this award. Chen Yingxiong was really too successful in the past year...

Many people thought they had heard wrong, and some people excitedly posted posts online announcing that Chen Yingxiong had won the award, but they made a big mistake.

But at this time, no one was in the mood to laugh at the people who made the mistake.

Chen Yingxiong didn't win the award?

What is FIFA doing?

This must be another inside story!

"Damn it! Blatter, that old thief!"

"FIFA is so fucking dark!"

"Sure enough, all the crows in the world are black! Everything is the same at home and abroad!"

"Damn it! Messi has won the award twice in a row with controversy! If I were him, I would be embarrassed to receive this award!"

"Inside story! Inside story! Inside story!!"

"This is a shame! It is a shame for football! FIFA has disgraced football!"

The excited Chinese fans were scolding in front of the TV and on the Internet.

In fact, Liu Jianhong was also very excited and wanted to swear, but he held back... But the questioning of FIFA's result still poured out of his mouth: "Messi won the award? Did Messi really win the award? Of course, Messi's performance in the past year was very good. We don't have any prejudice against Messi, but because there are people whose performance is even better than his... 2011 is not a year for major competitions. There is no World Cup or European Cup. There is a Copa America, but Messi's performance is very average, and Argentina did not win the championship at their home ground... It can be said that his performance at the national team level is not convincing. Why can he win the award? On the other hand, what about Yingxiong? He has won the two most important championships that the club can win, and he also has two top scorers. He transferred to Liverpool for 70 million pounds in the summer, which is also the second highest transfer fee in world football. Isn't such a performance worthy of a FIFA Ballon d'Or!"

※※※

When Xavi and Messi embraced, and when the audience applauded thunderously to congratulate Messi.

Chen Yingxiong was standing two meters away from him - the two of them stood so far away as soon as they came on stage. It wasn't that anyone took the initiative to stand further away, they were both very conscious.

Chen Yingxiong, who was standing two meters away from Messi, did not applaud with the others. The beautiful hostess next to him was clapping with a smile at first. This was a courtesy. When she found that Chen Yingxiong was expressionless and had his hands hanging down on both sides of his body, a look of surprise appeared on her face.

Looking over again, she found that Chen Yingxiong's hands were constantly clenched and released, clenched and released... again and again.

She could clearly feel the aura of anger... from the person next to Chen Yingxiong.

She was frightened. This big boy had always had a smile on his face since he appeared in front of her. He looked pretty good when he smiled, although he was a bit rascally, but the hostess liked this feeling. Messi was too shy, like a good boy. Chen Yingxiong's wild aura fascinated her instead...

She didn't expect that this boy who smiled a bit rascally would be so terrifying when he suddenly got angry, even beyond the range she could accept - yes, she liked a man who was like a beast, but only "like" a beast, not a real beast...

The current Chen Yingxiong gave her the feeling of a real beast, a bear about to explode!