"Thank you to the judges, to UEFA and Johansson, to the editor-in-chief of France Football and Pierre." "Although I am honoured to receive this honor, I still have a lot of respect for two great players, Cannavaro and Gianluigi Buffon, just as I respect the world champion Italian team," said Zhuoyang. ”

"Thank you to Madiborg and AC Milan!"

After a year, Zhuo Yang won the European Ballon d'Or again on the stage of the Opéra Garnier in Paris, and he narrowly beat the captain of the world champion team, Italy, Cannavaro to win the 2006 European Golden Ball.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it was a narrow victory, and in the final selection score, Zhuo Yang only surpassed Cannavaro's 173 points with 182 points and less than 10 points, becoming the European footballer with the smallest gap in the past. Last year's 32-point lead over Ronaldinho was already a rarity, and this year Ronaldo is fifth with a total of 73 points.

In fact, from the beginning of his selection, Zhuo Yang has been behind Cannavaro and Buffon, as well as Zinedine Zidane, not because those three performed better than Zhuo Yang in 2006, but because this is a World Cup year.

The influence of the World Cup is too great, not to mention the Italian team as the champion. In the case of similar individual performances, the Ballon d'Or will be awarded to the members of the world champions, and even if others are more obviously convincing, the judges will inevitably favor the champion.

However, France Football, the organizer of the Ballon d'Or, is known for its professionalism, and the world's leading football journalists, who are the judges, also have to take into account the candidates' individual performances on the pitch and try not to judge the reputation alone. Even if it will be biased towards the champion members, it will be as unchampion as possible. However, Zhuo Yang did not participate in the World Cup at all, which made it very difficult for the judges who admired him.

However, this is a World Cup event for civilian stars, and there is no one who dominates the crowd during the entire tournament, and there are no undoubted outstanding figures such as Ronaldo in 02, Zidane in '98, and Romario in '94. Otherwise, Zhuo Yang can basically rest this year.

Since the selection kicked off in October, there has been a grand competition between Zhuo Yang, Cannavaro, Buffon and Zidane, which is not common in previous years, and more years are expected to compete with each other.

The situation of the four people is different, Zidane belongs to feelings, especially his tragic parting in the final and his retirement, he is very advantageous in terms of feelings, and he is the king of the older generation, with a long history and a large number of media fans. But that's all, if he doesn't retire and red card, just talk about the performance of the French team in the World Cup, in fact, Henry and Scar Ribery are more convincing than Zidane, Henry ended up in fourth, he is only three points less than Buffon, Scar is seventh.

If the French team had a little better luck in the penalty shoot-out in the final and became the world champion, Zidane would have secured the golden ball this time, and Henry and Ribery could be even higher. Of course, in that case, there would be no Cannavaro and Buffon at all.

Cannavaro's only strength is as captain of the championship team, and of course, he has performed very well, but it is too difficult for defenders to overshadow the midfield in the limelight. Cannavaro's new club, Real Madrid, is helping him build momentum this time, including some Spanish and Italian media.

Italian football has always been relatively united to the outside world, and with the help of the World Cup victory, the Apennines are keen to reverse the negative impact of the 'phonegate'. After careful analysis, Italy grandly launched Buffon.

The first to build momentum for Buffon was Platini, a former French superstar, Juventus legend and UEFA executive committee member, and his case was strong: "After Yassin, the Ballon d'Or has not been awarded to another goalkeeper for 43 years, and he needs an heir. ”

Platini's words immediately captured the hearts of the world.

Truth be told, the Ballon d'Or or World Footballer of the Year award is a bit unfair to the backfield players, with the midfield, especially the attacking players, being too favoured. The whole world knows that football owes Maldini a Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year, but it is hypocritical to say that it is not awarded to him.

And Gianluigi Buffon did a great job at the World Cup in the summer, with champions Italy conceding two goals in the tournament, a penalty from Zinedine Zidane and an own goal from Zaccardo. It's a natural fit, the back line is excellent, but Buffon's play is outstanding. Aside from the captain of the national team, Buffon is actually more qualified than Cannavaro.

Platini stands for Gianluigi Buffon for a number of reasons, he is well known as a Juventus fan and a Barcelona honey. In the 50-man squad, 9 players from the Italian national team were selected, except for Gattuso, Zambrotta, Grosso, and Toni, who obviously came to join in the fun, and even Pirlo, Montolivo and Totti basically couldn't get rid of the fate of accompanying the prince to study. Platini chose to support Buffon after much deliberation, not only because Juventus is his old club, but also because Juventus are currently in the second division.

Platini thinks from a novel perspective, and it seems that Gianluigi Buffon's departure from the top flight with Juventus is a huge disadvantage, but the emotional bonus of 'loyalty' is more than enough to make up for it. And although Juventus temporarily left Serie A, their influence in the Apennines and the whole of Europe is undoubtedly no less than that of any giant, so Juventus soon reached a tacit understanding and even an explicit agreement with Platini to push Buffon to the top.

Of course, there is a more important reason for Platini to admire Buffon, he wants to build momentum and speak for his bid for UEFA president next year, that is, Platini is rubbing the heat. Platini, who is no longer a football superstar and has turned into a politician, is very thoughtful and deep-minded.

AC Milan pushed Pirlo and Zhuo Yang, but did not stumble Buffon; Real Madrid brought a group of Western media to build momentum for Cannavaro, but they also had to take care of Zidane's face; The rest of the Barcelona department cheered for Ronaldinho and Eto'o respectively; The Premier League's touting of Thierry Henry, Ribery and Didier Drogba has distracted the fire, and none of them is convincing enough; Germany could only push Klose, and Ballack lost his emotional points in the Bundesliga after defecting to the Premier League.

As a result, from the beginning of the selection, Buffon has been ahead of other people and occupied the media discourse list, and even at the beginning of last month, many media were very sure that Buffon would win the Golden Ball. Cannavaro will be followed by a narrow disadvantage in second place, while Zhuo Yang, in the analysis of the media, is third anyway.

However, at the last moment of voting and scoring, two things suddenly happened, completely reversing the situation of the Golden Globes.