Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Ten Strongest Ones
The group draw will be followed by an awards ceremony to award last season's European club player of the year. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
The award was created last year with the intention of reviving the selection of the European Ballon d'Or in the past, and the FIFA Ballon d'Or rivalry. This is an initiative of UEFA President Michel Platini after the European Ballon d'Or was co-opted by FIFA.
The European Club Player of the Year award is a first-round voting by journalists from 53 European countries to select the top three players, shortlisted to the final round of voting, and then live voting at the award ceremony to select the best player.
The award is not limited to nationality and will be taken into account as long as the player plays for a club affiliated with a UEFA member state and the player's performance in national, international, club and national team competitions.
Zhou Yi was the only Chinese player on the shortlist at the first European Club Player of the Year last year, and he ended up in 27th place, a far cry from the top three.
And this time, he is no longer the only Chinese player selected, with Atletico Madrid's goalkeeper Sun Pan also among them thanks to his outstanding performances in La Liga and Europa League.
But this time it was still nothing for them.
Zhou Yi didn't even have to go to the scene because he didn't make it to the final list of three people. Although his performance at Dortmund was excellent, it was still a little less convincing than the three who made the final list.
Rounded out of the trio are Barcelona's Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.
These three are three of the best players in football today, and there is no doubt about that, there is no dispute.
Zhou Yi still has a long way to go if he wants to become one of the three best stars in the world. Of course, he was still young......
Although last season's Champions League winners were Chelsea, Chelsea did not have a single player in the three-man squad. Because it's not a Champions League player, it's the best player in all competitions all season.
Although Barcelona was eliminated by Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid was eliminated by Bayern Munich, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo shined too brightly, and it was normal for them to be included in the final list.
Andres Iniesta has also been favored by journalists for his irreplaceable importance in Barcelona.
Before the final results were announced, the three candidates were invited to the stage one after the other, and the host conducted brief interviews with Andres Iniesta, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
When asked about the Portuguese, the host asked a question that made the audience laugh, and she asked: "Cristiano, what do you think of Real Madrid's grouping results in the Champions League this season?"
This question is generally after the end of the lottery awards, the reporters came to ask the players below, but I didn't expect the host to make a guest appearance directly as a reporter and ask this question in front of everyone.
It's clear that everyone is interested in one of the most terrifying death groups of all time.
Amid everyone's laughter, the Portuguese shook his head with a helpless smile on his face. Then he faced the host's microphone, shrugged his shoulders and said, "This group is really difficult to play, and every opponent is very strong. However, as last season's La Liga champions, we have the confidence and ability to face any tough challenge. ”
This answer sounds decent at first, but in fact, when you think about it carefully, it still reveals the ambition and self-confidence of the Portuguese. Because he used a word - "challenge", who will be challenged? Of course, it is the strongest and the highest position that will be challenged, which means that in his opinion, Real Madrid is the strongest in this group.
Today's beautiful host seems to be deliberately trying to be bad, after asking Cristiano Ronaldo, she turned the microphone to Messi next to the Portuguese, but the question she asked Messi had nothing to do with Barcelona, it had to do with Real Madrid, she asked: "So Leao, as a Barcelona player, how did you see Real Madrid being placed in the group of death?"
Beauty is always privileged, and if such a question was asked by a middle-aged man with a slanted top and obesity, I am afraid that Messi would have rejected it with silence. But when the beautiful hostess threw the question with a sly smile on her face, Messi was embarrassed to refuse.
After everyone's laughter was over, he replied with a smile on his face: "Anything can happen in the group of death, and I think that in a game at this level, strength and luck are just as important. ”
This answer is obviously a bit of a non-answer, but it is actually a sign of not wanting to answer the question head-on.
The beautiful host also knew that she would accept it when she saw it, so she didn't continue to ask.
Bypassing the two of them, the interview ended.
Finally, there is a live vote to announce the winning players.
Standing on the stage, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who looked like the protagonists, were unable to win this award, and the final winner was Andres Iniesta, who was low-key next to him.
This result also seems to show that the award of European club best player is more professional than the FIFA Ballon d'Or.
When Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo monopolized the FIFA Ballon d'Or and its predecessor, the World Footballer of the Year, many people complained about Xavi, Iniesta, Sneijder and others. Experts believe that these players are no less important than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but the latter two have an advantage in the selection vote because they are more famous in the world.
For example, the 2010 World Footballer of the Year was finally awarded to Messi, but this result was controversial.
The 2010 FIFA Player of the Year award was the first after the merger of the World Footballer of the Year and the European Ballon d'Or, and the votes were divided into three shares: the national team manager, the national team captain and the media reporters each had one-third of the voting rights, which led to the more professional media votes being only a minority, so in the end, Messi, who was more famous, won the FIFA Golden Ball Award after the merger that year, that is, the World Footballer of the Year.
In 2010, Messi did not win anything in the club Barcelona and the Argentine national team, and in the eyes of many professionals, the selection of the best player of the year is basically a soy sauce existence. And Xavi, the double midfield core of the Spanish national team and Barcelona, and the double midfield core of the Dutch national team and Inter Milan Sneijder, are more qualified for the FIFA Ballon d'Or than him.
Xavi led Spain to a historic World Cup triumph in South Africa, while Sneijder not only led the Netherlands to a World Cup final for the third time in their history, but also led Inter Milan to Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Champions League treble.
As a result, Messi, who did not have a convincing performance in the end, won the Golden Ball Award with greater fame.
The result sparked protests and prompted Platini to restart the European Ballon d'Or. Since the name "Ballon d'Or" already belonged to FIFA, UEFA renamed it "European Club of the Best Player Award", and the trophy could not continue to use the classic golden football shape, but became a jersey shape with raised arms.
2011 was the first edition, and finally Messi was elected with 39 votes, and in the 2010-2011 season Barcelona won the Champions League, Messi was the top scorer, and this performance won this award, which is much more convincing than a year ago. And in this selection, there is another episode. That is, Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who has always been full of confidence but too high-profile and unlikable, only got a pitiful three votes in the final live vote, and when this vote was exposed, it immediately attracted the ridicule of many people who hated him. Inside China, the Portuguese star has even earned a nickname called "Luo San Ticket...... It's miserable enough.
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Soon after the ceremony, the final top 10 rankings of the European Club's Best Player awards appeared on the Internet.
What many Chinese fans and Chinese reporters didn't expect was that they saw a familiar name in the top 10 - Zhou Yi.
Yes, compared with the 27th place a year ago, Zhou Yi has improved rapidly this year, just like a rocket, and can be called a player who has improved really fast in European football. He finished up in 10th place.
He was preceded by Falcao in ninth, Petr Cech in eighth, Didier Drogba in seventh, Iker Casillas in sixth, Xavi in fifth, Andrea Pirlo in fourth, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in joint second, and Andres Iniesta, who was voted Player of the Match.
The list of 10 people was selected by the most authoritative media reporters in Europe, in other words, these 10 people are recognized by the authority as the 10 strongest people in world football at the moment.
And Zhou Yi is one of the ten strongest people!
This is really a bit of a surprise for Chinese fans and reporters, they know that Zhou Yi is very powerful, but there are always people who are worried that this is because everyone is Chinese, so the evaluation of Zhou Yi will be a bit emotional, but now it seems that ...... Europeans' evaluation of Zhou Yi is even higher than many Chinese people imagined! )