I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 677: Chapter 91: FIFA Ballon d’Or Announced

Zurich, Switzerland

A month ago, FIFA and ”French Football” announced the top three players shortlisted for the 2010 joint capital FIFA Golden Ball Award.

Chen Zhong from Real Madrid, Xavi and Iniesta from Barcelona Club dominated the top three.

The final result will be officially announced tonight.

According to the schedule released by FIFA in advance, at 14:00 Zurich time (21:00 Beijing time), the candidates for the Women’s World Footballer of the Year and the candidates for Coach of the Year will attend a press conference.

At 15:00 (22:00 Beijing time), the top three candidates for the FIFA Golden Ball Award, and the candidates for Coach of the Year Mourinho, Guardiola, and Bosque will attend a press conference.

Then, from 16:30 to 18:00 (23:00 to 1:00 the next day, Beijing time), a series of other activities will take place.

At 19:00 (2:00 in the early morning of the 11th, Beijing time), the final award results will be officially announced.

Real Madrid’s head coach Mourinho, players Chen Zhong, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others have already boarded a private plane to Zurich, and senior club officials are also all present. All of these actions seem to have already hinted that Chen Zhong will win this year’s Golden Ball.

Barcelona’s head coach Guardiola, players Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and other teammates will also head to Zurich, Switzerland to attend the awards ceremony.

However, Barcelona Club has already stated before the awards ceremony that Barcelona’s players will go and return quickly, and will rush back to Barcelona to prepare for the next day’s training right after the ceremony ends.

But even so, many fans still believe that Xavi or Iniesta should be the necessary choice to win the Golden Ball.

After all, when discussing the Golden Ball, these two are highly favored by many people.

Cruyff claimed that the Spanish midfielder should win the Golden Ball, and the British magazine ”World Football” also selected Xavi as the number one player of 2010 (with Chen Zhong ranked second), with very good reasons. Besides outstanding personal performance, the most important thing is that Xavi is a World Cup champion.

This has been regarded for a long time as ”evidence” that either Xavi or Iniesta should win.

After all, since FIFA began selecting the World Footballer of the Year in 1991, there has been an unbroken pattern: in a World Cup year, the individual annual award winner always comes from the World Cup champion team.

Romario in 1994, Zidane in 1998, and Ronaldo in 2002 were all selected this way, with the most typical example being in 2006, where an outstanding Italian team produced Cannavaro as the award representative.

In a World Cup year, giving the award to Xavi or Iniesta would be normal, but giving it to Chen Zhong seems more like a surprise. On the internet, there is even a statement: ”Chen Zhong becomes the first to break the World Cup champion Golden Ball pattern, does he have the weight, does he have the strength?”

But since Mourinho defeated World Cup champion coach Bosque in the Best Coach selection.

The ”gold content” of the South African World Cup seems to have been reduced.

In fact, in 2010, FIFA has become increasingly difficult to understand. This year, they surprisingly awarded the 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Qatar and then pushed for the idea of holding the World Cup in winter.

This led to repeated public criticism from famous coaches like Wenger: when the bidding occured, you didn’t mention anything about winter events, who would have chosen Qatar knowing that!

Will FIFA set a new precedent and, in a World Cup year, award the Golden Ball to a player who didn’t perform in the World Cup? Who can say for sure?

”CCTV, CCTV.”

”We are now live-streaming for you the 2010 FIFA Awards Ceremony.”

”Barcelona’s head coach Guardiola will serve as the presenter for the FIFA Golden Ball Award.”

”He is currently holding the golden envelope with the winner’s name written inside.”

”He will soon open the envelope to reveal the final winner.”

”This awards ceremony is being broadcast in over 150 countries.”

”In the 20th year of FIFA awards and the 55th year of the ’Golden Ball’ of ’French Football’, the two major awards have merged into the FIFA Golden Ball Award.”

”This is certainly a good beginning.”

”Although the award time has been moved to January of the following year.”

”The attention it receives has increased.”

”Now the screen is showing the introduction of the three Golden Ball candidates.”

This is the first FIFA Golden Ball Award, and Barcelona certainly has thoughts on this, as can be seen from their heavy promotion of Iniesta and Xavi.

After all, pushing these two gives them a chance to win the Golden Ball in a World Cup year, but in the case of Messi.

Based on Messi’s ordinary performance in the World Cup, and Barcelona’s empty achievements in the league, with the four silver boots being overshadowed by Chen Zhong’s data, it’s impossible to compete against Chen Zhong.

On the internet, many fans have also started to look at the ”backgrounds” of the three players, and naturally, Chen Zhong’s experiences don’t require much introduction. Some who watch less or just for fun might think Chen Zhong’s background is great, but after seeing Iniesta and Xavi’s backgrounds, they realized this is just normal for genius players.

The second player shown is Iniesta. If one had to choose between Iniesta and Xavi for the Golden Ball, Iniesta would undoubtedly have more advantage than Xavi, who was widely watched at the beginning of the season.

Iniesta joined Barcelona Club in September 1996, when he was only 12 years old.