Chapter 1 When Kru Was Discharged from the Hospital

It was almost Christmas when Kru was finally discharged from the hospital. He had spent nearly a month counting the ceiling tiles.

Since Kru didn't have a driver's license or a car, Zhang Jun drove him and Sophie to pick him up that day.

They completed the discharge procedures, packed his belongings, and helped Kru out of the hospital.

As Kru emerged from the hospital, reporters swarmed him, taking photos, recording videos, and asking questions. Fortunately, the hospital had arranged security, preventing the scene from descending into chaos.

Kru remained silent, his face expressionless, as microphones were practically shoved into his mouth, leaving everyone guessing what he was thinking.

Zhang Jun helped fend off the reporters' microphones and cameras, opened the car door, and let Kru get in first. Then, he turned back to the reporters and said, "Thank you for your concern for Kru, but he doesn't want to give any interviews right now, so please give him some private space." With that, he pulled Sophie into the car.

"We're going straight to your place. I don't know how these reporters found out. Sophie and I were trying to be as discreet as possible," Zhang Jun said to Kru in the back seat as he fastened his seatbelt.

"It's okay, I'm used to it," Kru said, resting his hand on the window ledge and his chin on his hand, watching the crowd of reporters outside.

Zhang Jun started the car, leaving the reporters at the hospital behind.

"Kru seems a little down. Aren't you happy to be out of the hospital?" Sophie asked, leaning over the back of her seat to look at Kru.

Kru looked at Sophie. Every time he saw this beautiful woman, he felt a strange urge—not to steal his friend's wife, of course, but a feeling that his life should have something more. "No? What makes you say that? I'm very happy, haha," Kru said with a smile.

Sophie tugged at the corners of her mouth, pulling them outward. "You're smiling like that. Kru, I think something's on your mind."

Kru shook his head. "I really don't. Maybe it's just because I haven't been able to play soccer lately. It just doesn't feel right."

Zhang Jun had wanted to ask Kru about that sentence, but seeing him like this, he figured Kru wouldn't admit anything even if he did ask, so he decided against it.

Zhang Jun parked the car on the side of the road and got out to help with the luggage. There wasn't much, just one box.

Zhang Jun helped Kru out of the car first, then handed him his crutches, and then he went to the trunk to get Kru's luggage.

Sophie suddenly cried out in surprise. Zhang Jun looked over and saw that she was squatting on the ground, playing with a puppy.

"The poor little dog is so dirty. It looks like no one wants it," Sophie said, reaching out to tickle the puppy's chin. The puppy stuck out its tongue and licked Sophie's finger. "Hehe, it tickles! Zhang Jun, let's take it home and raise it," Sophie said, turning to ask Zhang Jun behind her.

Before Zhang Jun could answer, Kru bent down, picked up the puppy, and said to Sophie, "No need, I'll raise it."

"Ah?" Sophie looked at Kru in surprise. She hadn't expected someone as cold as Kru to be interested in a small animal like that.

The dog was small, a Chihuahua, one of the smallest dog breeds in the world. Kru opened his palm, and the puppy stood on it. Sophie thought it was so cute. She wanted it too, but Kru already had it, so she couldn't take it away. She could only watch enviously as the puppy bounced around in Kru's palm, then suddenly lost its footing. Sophie almost cried out, but the puppy cleverly grabbed Kru's thumb with its front paws and hung there in the air, swinging back and forth like it was on a swing, tilting its head from side to side, curiously looking around.

Sophie pushed the puppy back up. "Let's give it a name. What should we call it? Bobo? Boji? Jiji? Nana..."

"Let's just call it Misery," Kru said.

"Ah? That's terrible! That's a terrible name!" Sophie protested.

"A cheap name is easy to keep alive," Kru said, ignoring Sophie's protest. He was sticking to his decision.

Now that Kru was the puppy's owner, there was nothing Sophie could do. She pouted. "Whatever, but I'm going to call it Boji."

Entering Kru's room, Sophie looked around at the messy house in surprise. "Hey, Kru, even though you've been in the hospital for almost a month, your house shouldn't be this messy, right?"

"Ah, I always forget to clean. I didn't call a cleaning company while I was in the hospital. I'll call them now."

Sophie had already started cleaning, but only doing what she could. The bigger jobs would have to wait until the cleaning company arrived. She mainly just cleared out a place to sit down and rest.

"Kru, I think you should get a girlfriend," Sophie said as she cleaned.

"Why?"

"To take care of you. You can't even take care of yourself. It's too worrying," Sophie said, walking up to Kru and holding out her hands. "Give me Boji, I'm going to give it a bath."

Sophie carried Boji into the bathroom. Zhang Jun helped Kru sit down, and then he sat down across from him. Zhang Jun thought that Kru seemed down, so he decided to tell him something to cheer him up. "It's good that you're out of the hospital. Next, you just need to receive Feng Qing's treatment. His medical skills are amazing. He healed my ankle. You can't even tell that I was injured, can you?"

"How soon can I recover?" Kru was only interested in this.

Zhang Jun shrugged. "I'm not a doctor, I don't know. But I think it should be soon, right? After the winter break? Anyway, don't think about anything else. Just focus on resting and recovering. We'll be waiting for you after the winter break. This season's goal is the championship!"

The sound of water in the bathroom gradually stopped. Sophie came out with the puppy wrapped in a towel and handed it to Kru. "Here, Boji is very well-behaved. It didn't move around when I gave it a bath. It cooperated very well. Seriously... you're so lucky. If Boji suffers, I won't let you off!"

Zhang Jun laughed beside them. Kru looked up at Sophie. "Don't worry, it won't starve."

"Okay, Sophie, let's not disturb Kru's rest," Zhang Jun said, standing up.

"Okay. Goodbye, Boji," Sophie said, waving to the little Chihuahua in Kru's arms. The puppy looked at Sophie, tilting its head as if wondering what the gesture meant.

Seeing that expression, Sophie almost didn't want to leave.

As a result, once they got in the car, Sophie was still regretting not snatching Boji back. "Zhang Jun, do you think Kru will stew Boji?"

Zhang Jun burst out laughing. "Why would you ask that?"

"The way he looked at Boji was weird. Besides, Kru can't even take care of himself, and he doesn't have anyone at home. How will he take care of the puppy? Why did he take Boji in anyway? I don't think Kru is the type of person to be overflowing with love..."

"Well... it's because Kru saw himself in the puppy."

"Saw himself?"

"The puppy and Kru are both orphans."

"Ah?" Sophie finally understood. What Zhang Jun said was right. No wonder Kru insisted on taking it in.

"So, you don't have to worry. As long as Kru is okay, Boji will be okay."

※※※

Kru teased the puppy in his hands. "You really are a little wretch, aren't you? No one wants you, huh?"

The puppy whimpered.

Kru smiled. "You'll follow me from now on. You'll come with me to training, but I can't take you to matches. You have to be a good boy at home by yourself."

The puppy tilted its head and rubbed against the back of Kru's hand, tickling him. Kru laughed. If Sophie saw this expression, she would be shocked.

※※※

Christmas arrived, and the first half of the season ended. Fiorentina's performance was worse compared to the same period last year. They were only in sixth place in the league, but considering what had happened in the first half of the season, this result was hard-earned.

Because the World Cup qualifiers in various regions had already begun, Fiorentina was severely affected. With players injured, the main players also had to be called back to their countries to participate in the World Cup qualifiers. Sabato was very dissatisfied with this, but it was a FIFA A-level event, and he had no reason to stop it.

Fortunately, the Chinese team's qualifying group stage went very smoothly. From the beginning, Qiu Suhui sent all his main players to fight, quickly winning and qualifying for the final eight-team stage two rounds in advance. In the remaining matches, he only arranged for players playing in the domestic league to participate. On the one hand, he let the foreign players rest, and on the other hand, he trained the domestic players, finding suitable substitutes.

A major change in the Chinese team this time was in their uniform design. After the contract between the Chinese Football Association and Adidas expired, they did not renew it. This was because Chen Wei was very dissatisfied with Adidas' practice of using the same style of uniform design worldwide. He found a sports company that was not as famous as Adidas—Puma.

Puma's uniform design for the Cameroon national team still left a deep impression on people.

This time, Chen Wei entrusted Puma to design a jersey for the Chinese team that could reflect Chinese characteristics and be different from others.

Puma came up with several proposals and submitted them to the Chinese side for review. Chen Wei finally decided on a design and returned it to Puma for redesign and modification.

The whole process was carried out in extreme secrecy. The Football Association only revealed to the media that the Chinese team would use a brand-new jersey in the South Africa World Cup qualifiers, but they did not say what it would look like. It was not until before the start of the qualifiers that Puma and the Chinese Football Association jointly unveiled the new jersey.

The new Chinese team jersey used red as the home color and white as the away color. On the red main color, there was a geometric dragon, golden yellow, on the right side from the arm to the chest. This dragon was very abstract but full of modernity and dynamism, especially the golden-yellow tone which had a very strong visual impact. The dragon extended from the sleeve all the way down to the shorts, forming a dynamic golden line on the red jersey.

The away jersey had a white background with a red dragon pattern.

Moreover, according to Puma's habit, the jersey was designed as a tight-fitting garment, making the players look more upright and fit. However, the jerseys sold in stores were divided into tight-fitting player versions and loose-fitting fan versions.

Zhang Jun, Yang Pan, Li Yongle, and An Ke were called to participate in the new jersey launch. Zhang Jun liked the jersey very much because he felt that there was finally a jersey that could separate his national team from other national teams, such as Turkey and Tunisia.

During the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, he had several times mistaken Turkey, which was in the same group as the Chinese team, for the Chinese team in the TV highlights, which caused some jokes.

What Li Yongle was most satisfied with was the tight-fitting design, which allowed his figure to be perfectly displayed.

The Chinese team wore this new jersey and swept their opponents in the qualifying group stage, easily entering the quarter-finals in advance.

Then, at the draw ceremony during Christmas, the Chinese team, as a second-tier team, was assigned to Group A. Their group included top seed Korea, as well as third-tier Australia and fourth-tier Kuwait.

When Vilappan took out the paper marked "China" and placed it under the name of Korea, all the cameras and cameras were aimed at the head coach of the Chinese team, Qiu Suhui, and the head coach of the Korean team, Cha Bum-kun. The Chinese media even shouted that this was the best opportunity and the best battlefield to settle the grievances between China and South Korea.

Neither coach commented on the grouping situation. When reporters interviewed the Chinese team's players, Zhang Jun unexpectedly said, "China-Korea grievances? Wasn't that settled in the Olympic qualifiers in Athens? What else needs to be settled now?"

This simple sentence made the Korean media gnash their teeth, because they unanimously believed that this was Zhang Jun's obvious contempt for them, and they shouted that the fourth-place Korean team in the World Cup should give the Chinese team and Zhang Jun a lesson.

On the other hand, the Korean team's players seemed relatively calm. Their forward, Cha Du-ri, who played for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, said in an interview, "Zhang Jun is a very good forward. I think we will have a very difficult game if we want to qualify directly."

This World Cup, Asia had 3.5 qualifying spots. The first place in each of the two groups qualified directly, while the second place in each of the two groups played two home-and-away play-off matches. The winner entered the World Cup finals, and the loser would compete with the fifth-place team in South America for the last qualifying spot.

As the captain, Yang Pan maintained a cautious attitude towards the Chinese team's prospects for qualifying. He believed that Korea and Australia were not weak teams, and Kuwait's performance might very well determine the final ranking, so the Chinese team could not be careless and could only go all out to fight for qualifying.

Yang Pan's answer had a touch of officialdom in it. He said a lot of things that were basically meaningless, which made the reporters feel very disappointed. Looking back, Zhang Jun's words were still more straightforward. He just looked down on Korea and didn't take his opponents seriously, providing unlimited possibilities for the media to hype.

In addition to participating in the World Cup qualifiers, Zhang Jun also won the "Asian Footballer of the Year" award from the Asian Football Confederation and the "Chinese Footballer of the Year" award from the Chinese Football Association. He also entered the top fifty candidate list for the European Footballer of the Year for the first time, but in the end, because Fiorentina did not win the league championship or perform well in European competitions, he only ranked twenty-fifth.

This was not the best result for Chinese players. A season ago, Li Yongle, who led Inter Milan to win the league championship, also won the Asian Footballer of the Year and the Chinese Footballer of the Year in the same year. In addition, he entered the top fifty candidate list for the European Footballer of the Year and finally ranked eighteenth. In addition, he also entered the World Footballer of the Year list.

In comparison, Yang Pan was much more unlucky. He won the second place in the Asian Footballer of the Year and the second place in the Chinese Footballer of the Year for two consecutive years. In the selection of the European Footballer of the Year, he was only fortieth, and he had never entered the candidate list for the World Footballer of the Year. His two "double runners-up" were both lost to his teammates in the national team.

※※※

The winter break ended quickly, and Serie A fully started on January 6. Fiorentina narrowly defeated Udinese 1:0 away in the first round after the winter break. Kru was still absent, but Joaquin's return greatly helped the team. Having adapted to Serie A's defense, he performed vigorously on the field, giving Italian defenders a headache.

Next, on January 13, Fiorentina hosted Lecce at home. Zhang Jun scored twice, helping the team win 4:2 at home.

On January 20, Fiorentina challenged Atalanta away. Zhang Jun scored another goal, and while scoring his fourteenth goal of the season, he also helped the team easily win 3:0 away. With Zhang Jun's goal, Fiorentina's ranking also rose to fifth place.

Some Italian media claimed that Zhang Jun's consecutive goals after the winter break were building momentum for the upcoming Serie A Oscar Awards.

The local media in Florence had been promoting Zhang Jun for more than a month.

The so-called "Football Oscar", as the name suggests, was modeled after the American Oscars, and it was an awards ceremony that summarized the league of the previous year. The Football Oscar had a total of nine awards: Best Player, Best Italian Player, Best Foreign Player, Best Defender, Best Newcomer, Best Goalkeeper, Best Coach, Best Referee, and Best Goal.

This was an award that was highly valued in Italy. It was similar in nature to FIFA's World Footballer of the Year and the French magazine *France Football's* European Footballer of the Year. It was a very authoritative award. Winning the Best Player award was actually being named the Italian Footballer of the Year. Being able to win this award was a great honor and official recognition for a player playing in Serie A.

※※※

This year's Serie A Football Oscar was held in Milan, the home of AC Milan, the league champion of the previous season. The specific location was the Milan Large Auditorium in the south of Milan. Coincidentally, it was only a three-minute walk from Milanpoint on May 24th Square, which was a major gathering point for Milan fans. It was not a simple coincidence that AC Milan had just won the championship last season.

This was an annual ceremony in Italian football, so many players would bring their wives and lovers. Many reporters waited at the entrance of the auditorium, taking pictures of every couple they saw. The flashes never stopped.

When Zhang Jun and Sophie appeared together at the entrance, the sound of reporters pressing the shutter almost became one. All the reporters who had seen Sophie had to marvel at her beauty today. Sophie, who rarely wore makeup, wore some light makeup today, applying light-colored lipstick, eyeshadow, slightly touching up her eyebrows, applying foundation, wearing a black low-cut evening dress, a white scarf draped over her bare shoulders, and her hair playfully curled around her ears, rising and falling with her steps.

Compared to her, Zhang Jun, who was wearing a black suit next to her, was a bit inconspicuous. Men's clothing didn't have anything special, all black suits and white shirts. The key was to see who was handsome and who was more manly. Zhang Jun couldn't be considered handsome, and he didn't rank in the top ten of Serie A's handsome guys compared to Kaka, Sheva, and others. But today, thanks to his fiancée, they were in the limelight. Almost all the reporters pointed their cameras at them. They were asked to stand still outside the gate so that the reporters could take pictures.

Zhang Jun leaned over to Sophie's ear and joked, "How does it feel? You used to take pictures of others, now it's other people taking pictures of you."

Sophie just smiled, and the reporters couldn't help but take more pictures.

The broadcast rights of the awards ceremony were sold to a free television station "Sportitalia", and other television stations wisely did not join in the fun. Only Mediaset's Italian 1 station comedy program Leiene came to produce their special program. Leiene's reporters produced a lot of match footage, allowing the players and referees who arrived at the scene before the opening to select satirical awards such as "Best Dive Award" and "Best Violent Foul Award".

Zhang Jun, as a player who had attracted much attention, was naturally pulled over and asked to judge an award. Zhang Jun was also very interested in the humor of the Italians. He stood in front of a simple backdrop that imitated the Oscar Awards ceremony and watched the video as they asked.

The Football Oscar imitated the Movie Oscar Awards, announcing in English at the last moment: "thewinneris..." Leiene's program also copied it.

Zhang Jun was asked to judge the "Best Violent Foul Award". The candidates included Adriano stomping on his opponent's stomach in the match against Reggina, Emerson elbowing his opponent in the face, and Bari's Treto stomping on Kru's knee.

"thewinneris..." the host asked.

Zhang Jun answered without hesitation: "Treto."

Everyone next to him laughed.

Entering the venue, he found that many people had come. They were all sitting together according to their respective clubs. Frey waved to Zhang Jun, signaling that Fiorentina was over here, so he pulled Sophie over.

At this Football Oscar, Zhang Jun was nominated for Best Foreign Player and Best Goal. Since the Best Player would be selected from the Best Foreign Player and the Best Italian Player, he was actually nominated for Best Player as well.

In addition to him, Frey was nominated for Best Goalkeeper, Xiang Tao was nominated for Best Foreign Player and Best Defender, Kru was nominated for Best Foreign Player, Mascherano was nominated for Best Foreign Player, Bonera was nominated for Best Italian Player and Best Defender. Of course, this was based on his performance at Parma, and Pazzini was also nominated for Best Italian Player.

Some media claimed before the awards ceremony that considering that Fiorentina was still struggling to stay in the league a season ago, it was now a remarkable achievement that so many players could be nominated for the Oscars.

The only regret was that Sabato's name was not on the Best Coach nomination list. Zhang Jun expressed his incomprehension to him. Sabato understood everything: "Idiot, I've always been at odds with those people above, and they also think I'm a troublemaker. How could they possibly give me a chance to go up and accept an award? Wouldn't that be slapping them in the face in public? Besides, I don't care about that empty title. The team's ranking and the championship trophy are the most real."

That's what he said, but Sabato still received an invitation from the organizing committee, because all the coaches of Serie A teams received an invitation.

Sabato also brought his wife to attend the ceremony. He wanted to see how his disciples looked on that stage. For him, even if it was just to let his players go up to accept the award, it would be considered slapping some people above in the face.

Zhang Jun's seat was right next to the aisle, so he could see people coming and going, many of whom he knew.

If they were on good terms, they would stop to say hello and chat for a word or two. He saw Yang Pan, Kaka, Li Yongle and others. Several people stood up and chatted for a few words, just asking about their recent situations. Those who could come here were either nominated or specially invited by the organizing committee.

※※※

The entire awards ceremony imitated the American Movie Oscars, introducing the achievements created by several candidates in the past year, playing their video clips, and interspersing some entertainment programs such as performances by popular artists.

The Best Goalkeeper was the most unsurprising of all the awards. In Italian football, after Toldo got old, no one could completely compete with Juventus' Buffon. He was the best in the entire world of football, let alone Italy? Buffon won with an overwhelming advantage over his number one competitor, AC Milan's Dida. After all, Dida was also old and no longer had the courage of his youth. Fiorentina's Frey finally got a third place, which was also a good result. The reason for nominating him was: Frey made a great contribution to Fiorentina's rapid progress last season. Without his stable and extraordinary performance, Fiorentina's front line would not be able to score goals with such confidence.

The Best Referee was Paparesta. Before the bald referee Collina retired, this award had always been held by Collina.

The Best Defender was won by AC Milan's Nesta. Bonera finally got second place.

The Best Coach was given to Van Basten, who led AC Milan to win the league championship. Competing with him were Inter Milan's Mancini and Juventus' Capello.

The Best Newcomer was given to Cherci, a forward from Roma. This young player performed well after entering Roma's first team. It is said that Roma will sell Cassano after the end of this season, which is inseparable from his excellent performance.

Then came the Best Goal award.

The three goals that finally entered the candidate list for the Best Goal and competed directly were: Zhang Jun's thirtieth league goal against Chievo in the last round of the league, Adriano's long-range shot of thirty-seven meters against Parma in the twenty-fifth round of the league, and Gilardino's goal against Lecce in the seventeenth round of the league, which was a collection of the team's tacit understanding.

The three goals had their own characteristics. Zhang Jun's was a breakthrough score after passing four people in a row, while Adriano's was an ultra-long-range powerful shot, and Gilardino's was a perfect reflection of team spirit. A total of five AC Milan players participated in the attack, passing the ball eight times, and the opponent did not touch the ball once.

Finally, the host came to the stage to announce the results: "thewinneris..." He deliberately prolonged the last sound, and as he prolonged the sound, the broadcast camera swept across the faces of Zhang Jun, Adriano and Gilardino respectively. After reading it, he was not in a hurry to announce the final result, but first looked at the reaction off the stage, and then smiled triumphantly: "Zhang Jun! Congratulations!"

Applause rang out in the venue, and the TV camera was firmly focused on Zhang Jun, who was sitting in the outer part of the third row. He stood up and first high-fived his teammates next to him, and then walked to the stage. Before going up, he also took the microphone from the staff.

The host began to introduce why he gave him the Best Goal award when he came to the stage: "Everyone saw it on the big screen, the styles and characteristics of these three goals are absolutely not repeated, and the judges also spent a lot of effort. In the end, we considered that Zhang Jun's goal not only reflected his outstanding personal skills, but also had great significance. This is the first goal in Serie A history that has reached thirty in forty-nine years. Moreover, passing four people in a row does test the skills very much, and Zhang Jun has performed such wonderful stunts for us many times. This Best Goal award should belong to him."

Zhang Jun walked to the stage and shook hands with the two hosts and two beautiful co-hosts respectively, and then took the Football Oscar's Little Golden Man from the host's hand - a golden little man model kicking a ball.

According to the convention, the host had to interview the winner, and the winner also had to talk about his feelings.

"Talk about that goal, I was also at the scene at the time, and I felt very excited, how about you?"

Zhang Jun put the microphone to his mouth: "I didn't think so much at the time, I just wanted to score a goal. But then I realized that I had scored the thirtieth goal, and I was indeed very excited. It feels great."

"So this season, you have already scored fourteen goals, what is your personal goal?"

"Try to score more goals, if possible... still aim to exceed thirty."

"Wow - ! Everyone heard it! Sheva, Adriano, Ibrahimovic, Gilardino... are you all at the scene? Did you hear that, there is a guy here who openly challenges you! Haha!" The host laughed and pointed at Zhang Jun next to him, and Zhang Jun also had a smile on his face. He knew that the host was joking, this was the humor of the Italians. But he really wanted to take this opportunity to say what he wanted in his heart.

He was the top scorer last season, what did he have to be afraid of.

Everyone laughed, some took it as a joke, but some took it seriously.

※※※

Zhang Jun, holding the Little Golden Man, went back to his seat. After a period of entertainment performances, it was time for the highlight of this awards ceremony.

The Best Foreign Player and Best Italian Player, and the Best Player awards were announced.

Sophie gently held Zhang Jun's hand: "Nervous?"

"What's there to be nervous about? Anyway, I also have a Little Golden Man, it's not a wasted trip." Zhang Jun shook his head.

"I'm afraid you'll be nervous since it's your first time here."

"Haha, how is that possible, I've been through even more tense matches than this..."

The two of them lowered their heads and whispered to each other. Those who saw them were envious - these two had such a good relationship!

Therefore, without the two of them knowing, the TV station gave the two of them a special close-up shot for as long as ten seconds.

After the song and dance performance, the host took the stage again.

"The next award to be presented is the Best Foreign Player. Please see the candidate clips we have prepared for everyone."

The big screen began to play the wonderful highlights of the three candidates who finally entered the selection. The first one released was Zhang Jun, his various goals, and some small details in the matches. Even Zhang Jun had to admire the efforts and meticulousness of the TV station staff. There were some places that he himself had not noticed.

Next was not his teammates at Fiorentina, but Adriano.

The third was Kaka from AC Milan.

Kaka had won the league championship for the club and brought himself the Best Foreign Player and Best Player awards with his excellent performance in his first season in Serie A. Entering the top three nominations again this time also fully demonstrated his strength.

The selection of the two Brazilians reflected the current strength of Brazilian football.

When these highlights were all played, the picture switched back to the scene. After a burst of rapid drumbeats, the host said to everyone with a smile on his face: "The suspense is coming, who will be the final winner? thewinneris... Zhang - Jun!! Congratulations on scoring twice!!"

Someone in the audience screamed, and Zhang Jun stood up again and high-fived his Fiorentina teammates around him to celebrate.

"As the new captain of Fiorentina, he led Fiorentina to fourth place in the league, entered the European Champions League, and won the league's top scorer with thirty-one goals, breaking the curse that no one had been able to score more than thirty goals in a single season for forty-nine years... these reasons are enough for him to be elected as the Best Foreign Player!"

Zhang Jun took the Little Golden Man from the host for the second time, and then raised it high to show it to the audience.

"Goals, what are your personal goals?" the host asked Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun looked at the trophy in his hand: "Well, I think it's to strive to be able to stand here again at this time next year."

"Then we also wish you!" The host shook hands with Zhang Jun and sent him off the stage.

The next Best Italian Player was taken away by AC Milan's center back Nesta, and he scored twice at this awards ceremony like Zhang Jun.

Then a very interesting thing happened. Since the Best Player must be selected from the Best Foreign Player and the Best Italian Player, whoever won between Zhang Jun and Nesta would be equal to completing a "hat-trick" at the awards ceremony. This was a very remarkable honor.

The TV camera began to frequently show Zhang Jun and Nesta.

The host took the stage again, holding an envelope in his hand, and everyone knew what was inside.

"It's finally time for the most critical moment, the final award is about to be revealed." The host put the envelope behind him with his hands behind his back, "Before revealing it, let me say something nonsense. The significance of the awards ceremony is not who wins the award and who doesn't, but to thank you for your contributions to Italian football in the past year, whether it is a local player or a foreign player, without your efforts, there would be no Serie A's prosperity... Well, in fact, I was just talking nonsense, the purpose is just to increase the pressure on the two candidates, haha! Just pretend you didn't hear it."

There was a burst of laughter from the audience, and the TV camera also aimed at the two people again with the host's words.

"So... now let's reveal the last year's Football Oscar Best Player Award." The host opened the envelope, and then took out the folded letter paper inside, unfolded it, and raised the microphone.

"thewinneris..."

He once again wickedly did not continue to read, but raised his head and scanned the audience, and everyone was interested in waiting for him to reveal the answer.

"thewinneris..." he repeated again, but without looking down at the paper in his hand, "... Zhang - Jun - !! Wow - hat trick! Zhang Jun's hat trick!!"

Applause, cheers, whistles, screams and music rang out in a chorus, Zhang Jun stood up and hugged everyone around him, and this time he specially hugged Sophie.

While Zhang Jun was still hugging and celebrating with others off the stage, the host had already begun to introduce Zhang Jun's achievements on the stage.

"In fact, the reasons for his award have already been explained very clearly in the Best Foreign Player award earlier, but I think it is necessary to repeat it again. As a forward from China, after experiencing several seasons that were not considered successful, his performance last season can be described as dazzling, no, it should be described as 'phenomenal'. He successfully helped a team that was on the verge of relegation to stay in the league, and in the following season, as the team's new captain, he brought the team to a height, they got the qualification to participate in the European Champions League. And he himself became the top scorer in Serie A, and even the top scorer in Europe. His thirty-one goals created half a century of history in Serie A, and he himself became the core of the Fiorentina team, the symbol of the city..."

While the host was talking non-stop, the big screen simultaneously showed Zhang Jun's complete record of thirty-one goals in Serie A, coupled with the live sound effects from the Franchi Stadium: "Long live! Zhang Jun! Long live! Fiorentina!!"

"...He is a very talented player, a genius forward!"

When Zhang Jun stood on the stage, holding the Little Golden Man high, he said to the microphone: "There are too many people to thank, from my coach to ordinary fans, my teammates, the club's chairman, my agent, and my lover. Thank you all!" After saying that, he bowed ninety degrees.

Li Yan, who was invited by the organizer, the Italian Players Association, also attended the ceremony. He watched the whole process of Zhang Jun's coronation on the spot.

The flashes flashed, the ribbons fluttered, and the exciting music sounded. Zhang Jun stood in the center of the field, holding the golden cup high. At this moment, he was the focus of everyone's attention.

It is said that as the champion of last season, AC Milan will be the biggest winner of this ceremony. In fact, Zhang Jun is, Fiorentina is. This is the official recognition of Zhang Jun. He is a world-class star, without any doubt.

Asian Footballer of the Year, Chinese Footballer of the Year, Italian Best Player, Serie A Top Scorer, European Golden Shoe.

Last year belonged to you, Zhang Jun. The future... will continue to belong to you.