Bab 234: Chapter 234: Ballon d'Or Ceremony, Lin Quan Becomes a Dark Horse?
Chapter 234: Ballon d'Or Ceremony, Lin Quan Becomes a Dark Horse?
On January 13, 2013, the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or Awards Ceremony was held grandly at the Zurich Opera House in Switzerland.
Compared to previous years, this year's Ballon d'Or was full of controversy.
FIFA originally set the deadline for Ballon d'Or voting as November 15. However, five days after the voting deadline, FIFA suddenly announced an extension of the deadline to November 29, allowing those who had already voted to modify their previous votes.
Such post-voting modifications were unheard of before, leading to considerable skepticism from the public.
Some even believed that this was a rule change specifically made for Ronaldo.
The reason was simple. The day before FIFA announced this decision, Ronaldo had displayed remarkable prowess, scoring a hat-trick in the World Cup playoff against Sweden, not only defeating Ibrahimovic but also leading Portugal to qualify for the World Cup finals.
Extending the voting deadline and allowing modifications after the deadline undoubtedly favored Ronaldo's chances.
Moreover, prior to this incident, another event occurred in football: Blatter's criticism of Ronaldo.
At the end of October, FIFA President Blatter expressed his preference for Messi at the Oxford Union, stating that "Ronaldo acts like a commander on the field and cares more about his hairstyle."
This statement caused a huge uproar in football.
Blatter's words deeply angered Ronaldo and also offended Real Madrid.
Ronaldo publicly announced that he would refuse to attend any FIFA events, including the Ballon d'Or ceremony.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid President Florentino called Blatter, demanding a public apology to Ronaldo.
At the same time, Ronaldo's fans, as well as legends from Real Madrid and Portugal, criticized Blatter, believing that he should apologize for his words and actions.
Furthermore, some people believed that there was a conspiracy behind FIFA's Ballon d'Or.
Blatter, as FIFA President, publicly declaring his preference for Messi made it hard to believe that the Ballon d'Or ceremony would be fair, especially considering the previous controversy between Messi and Sneijder over the award.
Seeing the situation escalate, various conspiracy theories emerged. Facing immense public pressure, Blatter had to apologize to Ronaldo on Twitter and expressed a desire for friendly dialogue with him. However, Ronaldo promptly rejected this request.
Therefore, many people believed that FIFA's sudden rule change was an attempt to appease Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
Extending the voting deadline was already outrageous enough, and allowing modifications to previously cast votes was even more outrageous.
This approach naturally drew strong dissatisfaction from Ribery. Originally, according to everyone's expectations, Ribery had a very high chance of winning the Ballon d'Or.
After all, in a year without major international tournaments, he deservedly won the Ballon d'Or as the core player of the Champions League-winning team.
However, due to FIFA's actions, Ribery's chances of winning were greatly reduced.
Before the final results of the Ballon d'Or were announced, according to the odds offered by bookmakers, Ribery's chances of winning had dropped to second place, behind Ronaldo, and even threatened by the third-placed Lin Quan.
Although Ribery was suppressed, Lin Quan suddenly emerged as a dark horse.
FIFA's temporary rule change was originally intended to favor Ronaldo, but during Ronaldo's dominant period, Lin Quan's performance in league and Champions League matches was also outstanding.
This significantly increased his chances of winning the award, and he even surpassed Messi, who had missed several matches due to injuries, and successfully made it into the final three nominees for the Ballon d'Or.
If we compare all the data from 2013 between Ronaldo and Lin Quan, Lin Quan's performance is not inferior to Ronaldo's at all.
At the national team level, Lin Quan led Spain to 17 consecutive victories as the core player, winning the Confederations Cup with a perfect record.
At the club level, he led Werder Bremen to win the DFB-Pokal and also won the Bundesliga Golden Boot.
In the Premier League, he led Manchester City to remain unbeaten and was far ahead of other competitors in the Premier League top scorer list.
In the Champions League, Lin Quan scored in six consecutive matches, breaking the Champions League's historical record. He also caught up with Ronaldo in total goals scored and jointly topped the Champions League top scorer list.
Comparing the two, Lin Quan only slightly lagged behind Ronaldo in terms of fame, and even led in other aspects.
Therefore, after FIFA changed the voting rules, although Ronaldo's number of votes increased significantly, at the same time, Lin Quan also gained favor from many voters, and his number of votes also surged.
This left the final outcome of the Ballon d'Or uncertain. The votes that were originally expected to go to Ronaldo after the rule change were partially taken away by Lin Quan.
Although Ribery's lead was weakened, it did not necessarily mean that he would be overtaken by Ronaldo.
As for the final result, we have to wait until the awards ceremony to find out.
Therefore, this edition of the Ballon d'Or, although shrouded in controversy, is the most suspenseful one in recent years.
Although bookmakers have Ronaldo in the lead, his lead over Ribery and Lin Quan is not significant. Before the final result is announced, all three of them have a chance to win.
And because of the high suspense of this year's Ballon d'Or, the TV ratings for the ceremony are very high.
In countries like Spain, England, Portugal, Germany, and France, the ratings have generally reached historic highs, breaking previous records for Ballon d'Or ceremonies.
In Asia, Lin Quan's nomination has significantly increased the attention to this year's Ballon d'Or. Topics and discussions on platforms like forums and microblogs are very active, and fans stay up late to await the final results.
The high level of attention made FIFA attach great importance to this event.
They specifically invited a large number of football legends to attend the awards ceremony.
Zidane and Barak took the stage first, announcing the 11-man lineup for the Best Team of 2013.
These eleven players are goalkeeper: Neuer.
Defenders: Lahm, Ramos, Thiago Silva, Alves.
Midfielders: Iniesta, Xavi, Ribery.
Forwards: Ronaldo, Lin Quan, Messi.
The awarded 11 players went up on stage one by one, took their prizes, and then took a group photo together.
The front three of Ronaldo, Lin Quan, and Messi stood together.
Ronaldo was a head taller than them, so when he stood beside them, he stood out.
Messi was the shortest among the three, four centimeters shorter than Lin Quan.
Standing beside the two, Messi seemed a bit awkward.
As the victim of FIFA's modification of the Ballon d'Or voting rules, Messi did not make it into this year's top three candidates.
And both of the players beside him were selected, which made Messi feel a bit embarrassed.
What's more awkward is that, at the moment when the photographer took the picture, Lin Quan and Messi noticed that Ronaldo next to them suddenly tiptoed, making himself taller.
Already taller than the two, Ronaldo appeared even taller in the still photo.
Compared to him, Lin Quan and Messi seemed like dwarfs.
Seeing Ronaldo's move, Lin Quan and Messi both showed surprised expressions on their faces, exchanged a glance, and shared a look.
Messi instinctively moved a step towards Lin Quan, not wanting to be overshadowed by Ronaldo.
Lin Quan couldn't help but want to laugh a little. The president was indeed narcissistic, wanting to be the most handsome even in a photo.
As for the other positions of this lineup, let's not discuss it for now. But this front three combination is definitely the strongest and most expensive front three combination in history.
In other awards, the Best Coach award was given to the retired old man, Heynckes, without any suspense. Everyone agreed with this result.
The Puskas Award was given to Lin Quan. He won this award by scoring a stunning bicycle kick goal against Chelsea, beating Ibrahimovic and Neymar.
Unconsciously, Lin Quan successfully defended his Puskas Award.
He also became the first player to successfully defend this award, inadvertently creating another record.
Finally, the climax came. After awarding FIFA's honorary Ballon d'Or to the king of football, Pele didn't leave the stage.
Today, he was not only here to receive the award but also as the final presenter to announce the most important award—the Ballon d'Or!
The female host handed a sealed envelope containing the list of Ballon d'Or winners to Pele.
After opening the envelope and taking a look, Pele teased: "Wow, what a surprising result!"
As soon as he said this, there was an immediate buzz in the audience.
An unexpected result? Wasn't Ronaldo supposed to win? The cameras immediately focused on the Portuguese, Ronaldo sat up straight, his expression appearing very serious.
He had originally refused to attend the Ballon d'Or ceremony, but came to the venue later under Florentino's persuasion.
But if he came to the venue and still failed to win the Ballon d'Or, what was the point of his attendance?
Was he here specifically to reconcile with Blatter? But he hadn't decided to forgive Blatter yet!
Pele successfully aroused the curiosity of everyone. Then he slowly began to open the envelope.
"The winner of the 2013 Ballon d'Or is—"
The cameras simultaneously locked onto Ronaldo, Ribery, and Lin Quan, giving the three of them a split-screen view.
In the shot, Ronaldo looked serious, Ribery appeared slightly nervous.
Only Lin Quan, this guy, was chatting and laughing with Guardiola next to him as if he had nothing to do with the result.
"This guy, he's really got a good mentality!"
As an outsider, Messi's mentality was relatively relaxed, without the tension he usually had.
But he didn't expect Lin Quan, who was nominated for the first time, to be so calm. Back when he was first nominated for the final three, he was nervous to death.
This made Messi couldn't help but sigh. This guy was truly born with a big heart.
...
"Pep, why don't you jump ship with Kroos and come to Manchester City!"
Lin Quan joked half-seriously to Guardiola.
Although Guardiola still had two and a half years left on his contract with Bayern, from Bayern's recent actions, it seemed they severely lacked respect for Guardiola.
The person who was supposed to buy didn't, and they were reluctant to pay the transfer fee.
During the winter transfer window, Guardiola sold players he explicitly stated couldn't be sold. Such actions, regardless of whether they're attributed to Guardiola or to the scapegoat Ragnick, show extreme disrespect towards him.
Guardiola didn't want to dwell on this topic and changed it:
"Kid, you still have the mood to talk about these things. Don't you care if you win an award or not?"
Lin Quan shrugged indifferently, "If I get it, I'm lucky; if I don't, it's fate. Besides, I'm just here as a companion runner. The winner will either be Ribery or Ronaldo, definitely not me!"
Guardiola nodded slightly, satisfied that Lin Quan could see reality and didn't harbor unrealistic fantasies. After all, he was still young, and with his current performance, winning the Ballon d'Or was only a matter of time.
Compared to Lin Quan, Guardiola was more concerned about Ribery.
Ribery didn't have the formidable individual strength like the other two, and Bayern didn't win the Champions League every time. Moreover, the French national team's performance in major tournaments wasn't outstanding. This meant that this could be Ribery's only chance in his career to win the Ballon d'Or, which was extremely important for him!
If he didn't win this time, Ribery would definitely suffer a serious blow.
Maybe he'd even slump! With one less midfield general in Bayern and Ribery being the team's ace, if he slumped, Bayern's second half of the season would probably be doomed.
"The winner of this year's Ballon d'Or is—Cristiano Ronaldo!"
Upon hearing Pele announce the result, Ronaldo first lowered his head. When he raised it again, a smile couldn't be contained on his face.
After kissing his girlfriend Irina, he went on stage, shook hands with Blatter, Pele, and other presenters, and finally, Blatter handed the Ballon d'Or trophy to Ronaldo himself.
The handshake between the two also wiped out their previous grievances.
This was Ronaldo's second Ballon d'Or after 2008, and he ended Messi's four-year monopoly on the award.
In the competition for personal honors between the two, Ronaldo finally gained some ground, no longer being compared with four Ballon d'Ors against his one.
Last year, after Messi broke the record for the most goals in a calendar year and won his fourth Ballon d'Or, there was a voice in the football world: Some Messi fans believed that there was no such thing as two greatest players.
Messi was in a class of his own, and Ronaldo, with only one Ballon d'Or, was not worthy of comparison with Messi.
This opinion was widely accepted in football, which put immense pressure on Ronaldo.
Now, this pressure had finally eased somewhat.
During his acceptance speech, Ronaldo tearfully thanked his club and national team teammates, his family, and those who voted for him.
Seeing Ronaldo tearfully emotional, the audience erupted into warm applause, but one person didn't applaud.
Ribery's face turned pale as soon as Pele announced Ronaldo's win, like a statue, unmoving.
Someone had stolen his trophy!
After the award ceremony, when facing the reporters' interviews, Ribery directly stated that he didn't accept this result, and he would never accept it.
"I believe I deserve this award, but there are too many external factors!"
Ribery's interview quickly put FIFA, the event organizer, in a tight spot, and the questioning voices online grew louder.
France's coach, Deschamps, openly expressed support for Ribery, believing that the Ballon d'Or result was unfair to him.
Some French fans were also very dissatisfied with the result. They protested outside the headquarters of "France Football" magazine.
As a French magazine, it was surprising to see them siding against Ribery. French fans demanded that "France Football" end its cooperation with FIFA and conduct separate evaluations like before.
Faced with external scrutiny, FIFA chose to play dead.
They planned to delay, hoping that once the heat died down, the public would stop paying attention to the matter.
However, at this moment, French journalists uncovered a big story.
They interviewed some of the people who participated in the voting, and these people said that there was a significant discrepancy between their votes and the final announced results, leading them to suspect that their votes had been tampered with!
For example, Fiji's national team coach, Buzetti, checked his voting results published by FIFA.
His three votes were cast for Ronaldo, Ribery, and Lewandowski.
But Buzetti revealed that he was a fan of Messi and Lin Quan, and he had always firmly cast his first vote for Messi. However, he didn't see Messi's name in the results published by FIFA.
"Lewandowski? I didn't vote for him at all because I don't think he's on the same level as the top three players."
Buzetti expressed his indignation to the reporters.
Following Buzetti's statement, many others who participated in the voting also gradually expressed that the results announced by FIFA were different from their own voting results.
After these revelations came to light, the external questioning grew louder, and FIFA couldn't pretend anymore.
So they quickly sent someone to explain, suggesting that this situation might be the result of proxy voting by football associations from various countries.
Although coaches and captains were the ones with actual voting rights, football associations from various countries might have directly voted on behalf of coaches and captains, resulting in inconsistencies between the voting order and the list and the choices made by coaches and captains.
This explanation seemed reasonable, and some fans began to believe FIFA's explanation.
However, just at this moment, a journalist from one of the organizers, "France Football," came out to say that in the internal voting, Ribery had the highest score.
This led to a flood of questioning, with French fans outraged and Ribery publicly criticizing FIFA on social media and in front of reporters.
To completely dispel the fans' suspicions, FIFA approached "France Football" magazine, and together they announced the voting results for the three Ballon d'Or candidates.
Cristiano Ronaldo came first with 1305 points, Ribery received 1127 points, nearly 200 points behind Ronaldo.
It can be said that Ribery's loss was not unjustified!
After FIFA announced the results, the external questioning immediately dissipated somewhat.
However, fans discovered something shocking:
The second-highest scorer was not Ribery but Lin Quan!
He received 1265 points, just 40 points behind Ronaldo.
"Dang, Lin Quan almost snatched the Ballon d'Or from Ronaldo!"
"What a loss! If we had known this result earlier, we should have had the Spanish Football Association and Manchester City officials rally for Lin Quan and pull some strings!"
"Who knew Lin Quan could get so many votes!"
"A narrow victory of 40 points! Someone get Ronaldo a new pair of pants!"
(End of this chapter)
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