Chapter 352: Su Dong won the award!
As December came, the European football world entered the awards season.
On December 13th, the European Golden Ball Awards ceremony.
December 20th, FIFA Awards Ceremony.
These two supreme honors for professional players will be announced one after another in just one week, which will undoubtedly attract the attention of fans and media reporters all over the world, making them worried about whether the stars they support will be elected.
The fans and media reporters were nervous, and the players participating in the competition were even more anxious.
Even the players' clubs are very nervous and are busy carrying out the final "public relations".
For example, Italian media previously reported that Italian Prime Minister and AC Milan Chairman Berlusconi personally called the editor-in-chief of French Football Magazine, Erno, and personally lobbied him to give this year's European Golden Ball Award to AC Milan star Shevchenko.
This undoubtedly creates a lot of suspense.
Barcelona godfather Cruyff spoke up for Su Dong in his column for three consecutive days, believing that Su Dong was the best superstar in the past year and he should be rewarded even though he was only 20 years old.
"From the national derby, we can see that today's professional football world is in great need of young players like Su Dong to break the old pattern, bring us stronger and fresher impacts, and inject fresh blood into football!"
Barcelona's first European Golden Ball winner, Spanish star Luis Suarez, also frequently spoke out, saying that Su Dong deserved the award. "I don't think anyone is more qualified than him to get this award."
"If Su Dong didn't win the award, I would be ashamed of having ever received this honor!"
Cruyff has two European Golden Ball Awards, and Luis Suarez has also won one. The two of them supporting Sudong at the same time has greatly boosted Sudong's momentum, and Barcelona fully supports Sudong.
First, President Laporta personally accepted an interview to support Su Dong, and then technical director Begiristain also spoke out, head coach Rijkaard, captain Puyol, third captain Xavi, midfield core Deco...
Finally, even Ronaldinho said in an interview with the media, "Su Dong is indeed more qualified than me to get this award, I think he should win it!"
With full support within the Barcelona team, Su Dong's momentum is also at full steam.
The Catalan media were also hyping up the issue crazily, and even AS and Marca, which were close to Real Madrid, were actively calling for Sudon. This made the chances of Sudon winning the award quite high, which in turn suppressed Shevchenko.
Germany's Bild newspaper has made a special prediction, believing that the key to whether Sudong can win the award lies in whether he can get far more votes than Shevchenko from journalists from non-Eastern European countries.
As early as the beginning of December, just after the voting ended, Mundo Deportivo was the first to disclose the news that in the Eastern European voting area, Shevchenko far surpassed Su Dong, Deco and Ronaldinho.
The person voting on behalf of Spain was Mundo Deportivo reporter Aguilar, who once revealed an inside story to Mundo Deportivo: "In almost all votes from Eastern Europe, Shevchenko ranked first, while Su Dong did not even make the top three in many Eastern European votes. This is very outrageous. They did it on purpose."
The revelations made by Mundo Deportivo once caused fierce protests from the Spanish media, who believed that this voting method was not fair at all.
"If some voters have determined from the beginning that a certain player will win the award, they will deliberately rank his competitors very far back in the ballot order, so that he gets very few points. This is cheating!"
France Football magazine quickly revealed that it had not found any problems in this regard and believed in the authority of the journalists from 52 countries who voted. It would also announce the voting results of the 52 journalists as soon as the awards were announced to demonstrate fairness.
Germany's Bild newspaper said that the Eastern European countries' banding together had already caused considerable controversy in the vote in 2003, and it was not surprising that they voted for Shevchenko again this year. However, if they really put popular competitors such as the Soviet Union and Ronaldinho at the back with malicious intent, it would indeed make people question the fairness and rigor of the vote.
But Bild said that since the voting mechanism is already like this, it cannot be changed temporarily. If the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe want to win the award, they must grab more points in the votes of non-Eastern European countries to make up for the gap in the Eastern European votes.
…
From the club's public relations war to the support from friends in the circle, both parties involved in the competition have launched a public opinion offensive by every possible means, while also attracting the attention of fans and media around the world to the headquarters of France Football Magazine in Paris.
As usual, the magazine will go on sale the day after France Football magazine announces the results.
But before the magazine goes on sale, the winners have to be photographed and interviewed, which requires advance preparation.
As a result, the whole world is paying attention to the movements of Elno, editor-in-chief of French Football Magazine.
But French football magazines were also aware of the focus of the media and fans. No one knew where Elno had gone. Was he in Milan? Or in Barcelona? But just after the 15th round of La Liga, when Barcelona played away against Albacete, Mundo Deportivo, which participated in the vote and was well-informed, suddenly published a piece of news, which once again attracted the attention of fans and media around the world.
Barcelona booked a Gulfstream G550 special plane, which will fly from Barcelona to Paris on the morning of December 13th.
Such a puzzling news once again set off a storm in the world of football.
A large number of European media flocked to the news, frantically digging into the details behind it. Everyone knew what it meant.
Some media reporters even started to stay up all night at the Barcelona airport just to catch first-hand news.
Many media outlets have also rushed to discuss this point, especially Gazzetta dello Sport.
They found that on December 13, neither Shevchenko nor AC Milan had any unusual behavior, and Shevchenko was on vacation at his home in Lake Como.
There is no need to say more about what this means.
Around noon on the 13th, Sudong, dressed in a neat black suit, appeared at the Barcelona airport accompanied by eight people including club president Laporta, vice president Sarah Martin, technical director Begiristain and the club's press officer.
The media reporters who had been staying up all night rushed over and surrounded them.
Both Su Dong and Barcelona were in a very good mood, but due to the confidentiality agreement, they did not reveal anything to the outside world. However, they promised to hold a press conference after returning from Paris.
"In the 16th round of La Liga, we will hold a special event before the home game." Laporta revealed this little "secret" with a smile on his face.
This also made everyone present know clearly that Su Dong won the prize!
The fans who originally supported him, with their hearts hanging in the air, can finally settle down.
…
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Su Dong and Basa's group arrived in Paris on a special plane.
At this time, media reporters and fans in Paris had already received the news, and some had even rushed to the airport to pick them up.
But on the tarmac, Su Dong and others were picked up by the reception car of the French Football Magazine.
When Su Dong appeared again, it was already 8 o'clock and the lights were on.
On the wall of the reception hall on the basement floor of Canal+ TV station, there is a huge framed picture of the cover of France Football magazine with Ronaldo, Zidane and Nedved, the three recent winners of the European Golden Ball, holding goals in their hands.
But in the most conspicuous position at the entrance of the hall, there is a huge photo of Su Dong holding the European Golden Ball Award. On the table in front of him are two large stacks of the latest issue of French Football Magazine, which will be officially launched tomorrow, and the cover is this huge photo.
Accompanied by two bodyguards, Su Dong appeared in the reception hall, but did not go to the live broadcast site. Instead, he went to an interview room first. He was interviewed by Aguilar, a voting reporter from the Spanish Mundo Deportivo.
There is actually not much to say about the interview process. It was all official procedures and Su Dong was very cooperative. But outside the interview, Aguilar revealed to Su Dong that his victory this time was actually very dangerous.
"You know what? In the 18 Eastern European countries, Shevchenko won 17 first picks and one second pick. This is simply unbelievable, and you didn't even get a first pick, so you are 50 points behind."
Su Dong was shocked.
The voting mechanism for the European Golden Ball Award is that one ballot has five rankings, and each can get five to one point in turn.
According to information revealed by Aguilar, Shevchenko received 89 points in the votes of 18 Eastern European countries alone, while the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe lagged behind by 50 points, which is only 39 points. This gap is indeed too obvious.
It is no wonder that Aguilar previously blasted the Eastern European voting bloc in the media, believing that they were cheating.
Su Dong himself has enough confidence. Even if he performs badly, he won't be so far behind Shevchenko, right? Could it be that all the goals he scored and the championships he won in the past year were fake?
But on second thought, the fact that he can stand here proves that he has done very well in the voting in the remaining thirty or so countries.
Otherwise, how could he win the award?
"You got the first pick in the votes of Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, England, Germany and other powerful teams, except Italy. This is the most convincing. Even if Italy gave the first pick to Shevchenko, the second pick would still be given to you."
"In the end, you surpassed Shevchenko by 38 points and was elected without any suspense!" Aguilar laughed.
When Su Dong heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He knew that the battle for the Ballon d'Or was fierce, but he had no idea that there was such a competition behind it.
He had heard about the Eastern European votes before, but he had no idea that the impact behind it was so huge.
Just imagine, if he had not tried his best in the past year and gained enough votes from non-Eastern Europeans, he would definitely have failed in the Golden Globe selection.
Just like Ronaldinho and Deco, they were only about 30 points behind Shevchenko in the Eastern European votes, but although they were ahead in the non-Eastern European votes, they failed to widen the gap and finally lagged behind Shevchenko in the total score.
So the final result of the top three of the Ballon d'Or is Su Dong, Shevchenko and Deco.
Sorry for the late update! I won't leave my room until I finish the remaining two chapters! No one can help me!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
