In fact, as early as two weeks ago, there was a major event that sparked widespread discussion among the Chinese media and fans - UEFA announced the final list of three finalists for the best player in Europe, and as the representative of Chinese football, Zhou Yi was among them, and he entered the final live voting process together with Messi and Ribery. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

For Chinese football, Zhou Yi can be among them, of course, it is a big event. Because no Chinese player has ever been able to reach this height before, let alone Chinese players, there is no one among Asian players, Zhou Yi is the first.

At first, everyone thought it was the Ballon d'Or, but later it turned out that it was the best player in Europe.

This award is a little unfamiliar to Chinese fans, and in everyone's traditional impression, the two most famous annual awards in international football, as well as the pinnacle of individual honors for players, should be FIFA's "World Footballer of the Year" and the "European Golden Ball Award" held by "French Football".

What is the best player in Europe?

It doesn't sound like it has a lot of gold, but it feels like it's very wet. Could it be that the Chinese media habitually put gold on their players' faces and forcibly brag?

The Chinese media quickly launched a popular science to tell everyone that in fact, this award is also very good - the predecessor of the best player in Europe should strictly be the "UEFA Club Player of the Season" awarded every year before the Champions League draw ceremony.

Chinese fans must have the impression that every year before the draw for the new Champions League group group, the best of last season's best players, best strikers, best midfielders, best defenders and best goalkeepers are awarded. However, many people think that it is the best in the Champions League, but in fact it is not, but the overall selection of all European club players, including the comprehensive evaluation of the player's performance in the club league, domestic cups, Europa League, Champions League, and even national team competitions - yes, that's right, national team competitions are also included, for example, Zhou Yi is not a player of the European national team, but because he plays for the team in the European league, his performance even if he represents the Chinese national team will be included in the selection reference.

Actually, this will have nothing to do with the Champions League, but because the reference value of the Champions League is too large, especially in non-major years, the performance in the Champions League can almost determine the outcome of these best prizes. Over time, it gives the impression that these best are the best in the Champions League.

One thing that proves not to be the case is that the award was established in the 1997-1998 season, and the first European Club Player of the Year winner was Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who played for Inter Milan that season. He didn't play in the Champions League that season, he played in the UEFA Cup, helping Inter Milan beat Lazio in the final to lift the League, and the pendulum dribble goal in the final became a timeless classic.

Since Ronaldo, the only players who have won this award have been in the Champions League, and even those who have won the Champions League - with the exception of Gianluigi Buffon, who was the best player of the 2002-2003 season, but Juventus lost to AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final, but Buffon won the best player with his consistent performances. Having won the best player as a goalkeeper, Buffon deserves to be the top goalkeeper in Europe.

Once you have cleared up the misconceptions about this award, it is easy to understand that this award is actually very important - in fact, it is not impossible to say that it is the official version of UEFA "European Footballer of the Year......

However, for historical reasons, "French football" has a long-standing Ballon d'Or, and the FIFA-led World Footballer of the Year selection began as early as 1991, compared with them, the first European best player selection was held in 1998, which was too young and authoritative. In particular, this award has to be split into various positions, and the importance and topicality are not as important and topical as the "only" World Footballer of the Year and the Ballon d'Or.

However, after 2010, this situation changed.

In 2010, FIFA and France Football teamed up to merge the World Footballer of the Year and the Ballon d'Or to become the FIFA Ballon d'Or. UEFA felt that it was too unhappy to have no voice of its own in this annual selection, not to mention that the first cooperation between FIFA and "French Football" made a fuss, Sneijder, who won the club honorary treble and led the Dutch national team to the World Cup final in South Africa, lost to Messi in the FIFA Golden Ball Awards, and did not even enter the final list of three candidates, which means that he was not even in the top three in the voting process. And Messi's teammate at the club, Xavi, the core of the midfield who helped the Spanish national team win the World Cup in history, and his partner Andres Iniesta also lost to Messi. Messi's award caused an uproar in the media, and everyone questioned the authority and professionalism of the FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Even Messi himself was embarrassed that he won this award, and the Catalan media felt that it was really unjustifiable not to give Xavi.

The Dutch media, on the other hand, were outraged that Sneijder was not even in the top three.

After such a farce, Platini's UEFA believes that they should respond to the call of the masses and come out to maintain the fairness and authority of the football selection.

But France Football has already done it with FIFA, and the partnership will not expire until 2016, and the contract can be renewed. Blatter is said to have paid 15 million euros to the Amaury Group in order to be able to obtain authorization from the Amaury Media Group, which is owned by France Football, the organizer of the Ballon d'Or.

Because they do not have the right to use the natural IP of the "Ballon d'Or", UEFA thought of the UEFA Club Player of the Season award, which they have held for 12 years.

So in 2011, the original UEFA Club Player of the Season selection was gone, replaced by the selection of "Europe's Best Player", the original practice of sharing the best from each position was also canceled, and without the best striker, the best goalkeeper, the best midfielder, and the best defender, there was only one best player, representing the best player among the players who played for European clubs that season.

The difference between this award and FIFA's Ballon d'Or is that it does not use the natural year as the time period for judging a player's performance, but the season as a time unit. Before the start of each season, one of the best players in all of Europe from last season is selected.

In order to ensure the authority of the award, UEFA has partnered with ESM - not to be confused with the postal express EMS, nor the European Stability Mechanism - ESM is the abbreviation of the European Sports Media Alliance, which was founded on June 9, 1989, is a well-known professional print sports media organization, composed of leading sports media in European countries. They have been the selection body for the European Golden Boot and the Team of the Year every season. The organization is made up of 14 top professional sports media outlets in Europe, including Italy's Sport Milano, Germany's Kicker, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spain's Marca, Portugal's Stale Bla, England's World Football, Russia's Sport Express, Belgium's Football Magazine, Turkey's Fever, Denmark's Lottery Intelligence, the Netherlands' Eleven, The Telegraph, and other well-known media.

In China, Sports Weekly is also a member.

The authority and professionalism of such an organization are naturally beyond doubt.

UEFA has brought in the help of the European Sports Media League, which also adds to the gold content of the new European Player of the Year award. You must know why the European Golden Ball Award of "French Football" has always been regarded as a more professional and compelling award than FIFA's Footballer of the Year? It is because of the difference in the selection methods of the two, FIFA's voting method for the head coaches and captains of all FIFA member countries, and the voting method of the Golden Ball Award by European authoritative sports media reporters, which is more convincing.

Now UEFA is doing the same thing as "French football", when the FIFA Ballon d'Or is controversial, this European best player award was born, and naturally it was quickly welcomed and recognized by the general public and professionals.

Some people even mistake this award for the successor of the European Golden Globe Award, which shows the professionalism of this award.

The players also see this award as an important honour.

For example, in 2012, when Iniesta was voted the best player of the season in Europe, Real Madrid star, and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo did not win the award, he directly showed his disappointment and was criticized for his lack of grace. If he didn't care about the award, would he be so obvious?

And the famous allusion to the "three votes of Ronaldo" also happened in the first European Player of the Season, after Messi was elected the best player, Cristiano Ronaldo was ridiculed as "Ronaldo three votes" because he only got three votes.

The best player in Europe is no longer a chicken rib, but a well-deserved honor.

Zhou Yi, who was able to be selected as a representative of Chinese players, was selected for this final three-person list, and his historical status was suddenly different.

Previously, everyone thought that he had outstanding personal ability, but there was a lack of recognition of influential awards, and even if there were supporters of him who wanted to say that he was a top star in the world, he would be at risk of being stigmatized. Not anymore.

This is an admission from the most authoritative European sports media league, who would dare to say that Zhou Yi is not the world's top player?

Chinese fans and media are naturally happy about Zhou Yi's selection, but at the same time they are also a little worried......

It's really strange, they've all been selected for the final three, so what's there to worry about?

What they are worried about is that Zhou Yi may be selected this time to accompany the prince to study, or to go up to go through the motions, but in fact, it is not he who won the award in the end!