I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 681: Chapter 93: Brand-New System

”Golden Ball, Golden Ball, Golden Ball!”

”Chen! Chen!”

From the moment Real Madrid’s special plane touched down, numerous fans had gathered with banners, shouting and welcoming, as Chen Zhong would soon present his Ballon d’Or at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in front of all the fans. Chen Zhong is the first Real Madrid academy player in recent years to win the Ballon d’Or.

Florentino was watching this moment with a smile. Recently, Real Madrid had been under quite a bit of commercial pressure, especially with regards to the surrounding merchandise of Real Madrid, particularly Chen Zhong’s jersey, which had sold out in China.

Although Florentino already valued China’s purchasing power, when he saw the specific numbers, he couldn’t help but be secretly amazed.

Because the sales from China alone were roughly equivalent to the total sales of players of the same level in Europe.

”We underestimated the capability of Chinese consumers.”

”They just lacked motivation, not capability.”

”This aspect is not only reflected in jerseys but also in other areas, such as films...”

Hollywood movies, Marvel movies are box office hits globally. Although China has a large population, due to their unique culture, games, movies, and others haven’t been given much attention. However, this incident served as a wake-up call for Florentino.

That is, when something piques the interest of Chinese people, only then will people realize what they are up against.

Real Madrid has been astounded by China for the second time, once with the voting and today with the orders for Chen Zhong’s jersey...

And years later, when ’Demon Child 2’ premiered, while everyone was amazed by the Chinese film market, Florentino just smiled knowingly, because he had already foreseen this in 2011.

A few hours later, in the morning, China, Xinhua News Agency

A hot new comic was released, depicting shy eyes and blushing cheeks at the Ballon d’Or, while behind it, the comic version of Chen Zhong donned a brand-new black suit, holding a bouquet of roses, smiling and saying: ”Hello, beautiful lady~”

This comic was widely shared online, accompanied by links to Real Madrid jerseys. Many fans, influenced by the atmosphere, quickly chose to buy, and many passersby purchased as well, upholding the belief in supporting their compatriots.

Meanwhile, endorsements, advertisements, and sponsorships regarding Chen Zhong continued to flood in. Real Madrid also began a new round of contract negotiations with Chen Zhong.

This was a rare instance where Florentino took the initiative to increase payment.

Florentino believes that the top teams and top players should also have the top treatment.

...

”Alright, guys, have a good rest.” Mourinho held a brief meeting with the players after disembarking, looking at Chen Zhong and saying, ”Especially you, you fine lad, our next match in the King’s Cup is against Atletico Madrid.”

Mourinho stopped there without saying much more, but everyone understood.

As Messi’s good buddy, Aguero recently discussed the Ballon d’Or in a news interview. When asked about Chen Zhong winning the award, Aguero initially didn’t answer directly but talked about Xavi.

”I’ve discussed these things with Xavi.”

”He said some things that were quite enlightening.”

”For instance, we all feel that this year’s voting process was unfair, based on an equal weight of votes from China, Senegal, Fiji, and France, England, Germany.”

”This is clearly an issue, as some places are relatively underdeveloped, and their understanding of football isn’t as clear.”

The issue Aguero raised indeed points to a problem in the voting system.

This time, Chen Zhong was able to prevail over Iniesta and Xavi partly because the two divided the votes, and also because Ronaldo and Messi split some as well.

The other factor was winning the final prize thanks to the votes from national team coaches and managers.

More accurately, it was the coaches and captains of smaller footballing nations who elevated Chen Zhong to the title of Ballon d’Or winner.

Among the football powerhouses, or rather, the generally recognized top eight football nations — Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain — only five voted Chen Zhong as their top choice for the year, including Spain, but that’s because they couldn’t vote for Xavi or Iniesta.

Thus, the Spanish national team coach and captain Casillas ranked Chen Zhong first.

Calculating these votes, Xavi had the highest with 36 points, Chen Zhong ranked second with 28 points, and Iniesta was 2 points behind Chen Zhong.

In the ”contest” among the eight major football nations, although Chen Zhong was at a disadvantage, the support from many coaches and captains of weaker football countries played a crucial role in his win.

In fact, around the same time, Iniesta also expressed his discontent while discussing the Ballon d’Or, but his focus was more on the nature of the award itself.

Iniesta stated: ”In a team sport, individual awards are always unfair; there should be an award for each position.”

”The Ballon d’Or always goes to those scoring goals, those forwards. It’s rarely given to goalkeepers. I only remember it happening once (to Yashin in 1963), and at the World Cup, Casillas was outstanding.”