Chapter 65: Chapter 65 Golden Ball Award Ceremony
"Exonerated! Over five thousand fans line the streets outside Lisbon Police Station to welcome Deng Kai after the end of the investigation!"
"The hero recognized by Portuguese fans—Chinese footballer, Deng Kai!"
"Others play football to make money for themselves; he plays to make money for the fans!"
"Chinese football genius so strong he almost got framed and banned by the European betting syndicates!"
"He is called the Football Caesar by the European football world! Jiang Yunzhu brings you an in-depth interview with the Chinese rising star, Deng Kai!"
"Sports Weekly Feature: The Absolute Superstar Chinese Talent—Deng Kai!"
Overnight in China, the name Deng Kai exploded across the country like thunder, resonating everywhere.
Sports Weekly went crazy, not only placing a photo of Deng Kai from the press conference on the front page headline of their current newspaper.
They even published a special issue, fully reporting on Deng Kai’s achievements in the Portuguese youth football scene this season.
Such aggressive marketing made many fans who did not believe in the news start to believe.
In recent years, there have been successive news stories of Chinese players shining in the European football world, but most of them were fake.
Thus, people were rather cautious about such news.
The major newspapers wouldn’t report it without confirming the authenticity of the news.
This time, Sports Weekly’s front page and special issue releases undoubtedly had specific information on Deng Kai and had been tracking him for a long time.
Consequently, Sports Weekly’s rival, currently the largest football reading publication in the country, Football, felt a headache.
Because they knew nothing about Deng Kai.
Their connections in domestic football were much stronger than those of Sports Weekly.
Abroad, their network was wider than Sports Weekly’s, but they dealt with the upper echelons, only engaging with top-tier clubs.
Lisbon Sporting was originally beneath their notice.
Now with Deng Kai’s soaring popularity in China, Football had no choice but to follow suit for the sake of maintaining traffic.
One advantage they had was their deeper connections with overseas players like Yang Chen and Fan Zhiyi, both of whom were quite successful in their European football careers.
Football: "Frankfurt’s leading striker Yang Chen: I also only recently learned of Deng Kai’s name. His nickname is Football Caesar, just like Beckenbauer. A player with such a title must be someone extraordinary."
Football: "Crystal Palace player Fan Zhiyi: Of course I know Deng Kai. Manchester United’s Ferguson is particularly fond of Lisbon Sporting’s Chris, and Deng Kai is the twin star of Lisbon Sporting’s U15 team, as famous as Chris."
"Such high-caliber talented players will start their professional football careers with top clubs if they grow successfully!"
Deng Kai’s popularity in China was on the rise.
And Sports Weekly took the opportunity to announce their Wahaha Team project.
Sports Weekly: "This coming January, Sports Weekly, in collaboration with many domestic football schools, will send the Wahaha Team to Europe to train and compete with youth teams from various big clubs."
"Confirmed opponents include the youth team of Bundesliga club Schalke 04, the U15 squad of Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven, the U15 squad of the Premier League team Everton, the U15 team of Serie A club Sampdoria... and the U15 squad of Portuguese giants Lisbon Sporting."
"Among them, Lisbon Sporting’s U15 squad includes the currently Europe-wide known twin stars Cristiano Ronaldo and the Chinese genius footballer Deng Kai!"
There was nothing but support for such a project from fans.
Everyone generally expressed admiration and found it exciting, willing to follow along.
Deng Kai gradually became a regular topic of discussion among domestic fans.
"Deng Kai is awesome, almost turned the foreign scene upside down, haha."
"Football Caesar, what a domineering name!"
"You call that something? Have you seen Deng Kai’s celebration after scoring? VENI VIDI VICI, I came, I saw, I conquered! So cool!"
"Holy shit! Fellow upstairs actually has a video! Can you share it with this little brother?"
"And the siu! Super cool! The celebration by Deng Kai is my favorite!"
"Is this Deng Kai for real? Is he that amazing?"
"Drop that ’is he’! He’s now the assist king of the Portugal U15 league!"
"Psh, just eleven assists. Youth matches always have a lot of goals anyway. There are several others with nine or ten assists right behind him, nothing amazing about that. It’s that Chris who’s something else, with twenty-four goals already, and a significant lead over the rest."
"Hehe, ignorance is bliss. Did you know Deng Kai gave those guys behind him a two-month head start?"
"Wow! That cool, huh?"
"Youth Champions League three matches, four goals and two assists, tell me if that’s amazing or not! Chris has only got three goals and four assists in six matches!"
"Holy shit! Guys, we’ve got a major situation here! Zidane has just beaten Ronaldo to win the Golden Ball award!"
"World Cup final, two headers to knock out the extra-terrestrial! Awesome!"
"Not just the Golden Ball award, Zidane’s probably bagging the FIFA World Player too!"
"Next year, my Ronaldo will definitely take it back, just you wait!"
In the midst of all the chatter, the news that Zidane won the Golden Ball award with the Hercules Cup performance swept across the globe.
This was also the first time in his career that he had won the Golden Ball award.
Last year, he was among the top five candidates for the FIFA World Player, and this year, he’s likely to take home both the Golden Ball and the FIFA World Player.
...
At the Golden Ball award ceremony.
Hundreds of media outlets were eagerly waiting because the ceremony had reached its climax, and Zidane was going up to receive his award!
After Zidane had given his acceptance speech, the host asked a rather special question.
Host: "Congratulations on becoming Mr. Golden Ball and for leading Juventus into the knockout stage of the Champions League. Have you watched this year’s Youth Champions League?"
Obviously, the question was asked in order to promote the Youth Champions League.
Sixty percent of the fans watching the ceremony hadn’t even heard of the Youth Champions League, and ninety-five percent had not seen a Youth Champions League match.
Zidane, not yet completely bald, smiled: "Are you talking about that young player’s prediction for this year’s Champions League champion?"
The audience below all laughed.
Those who were clueless immediately asked their friends nearby, and then those in the know explained to them about Deng Kai’s prediction that Manchester United and Bayern Munich would reach the finals, with Manchester United winning the championship.
The host was also happy: "That’s right."
Zidane: "In any field, those who dare to call themselves Caesar are not simple..."
There was another round of good-natured laughter from the audience.
Zidane: "I’ve watched the Youth Champions League, and I’ve seen plays by Deng Kai; he’s an intelligent midfielder. It’s too early to discuss his shortcomings; he’s young, and anything is possible for him."
"But what I want to say is, I’ve seen a new understanding of passing in him. It has been an inspiration to me, and from this perspective, I think he has the potential to become a very good midfielder."
The expressions in the audience gradually changed.
Because they sensed... sincerity in Zidane’s tone!
Is he serious?
"But about the Champions League prediction, sorry, Kai, I can’t agree," Zidane said to the camera, "Manchester United is certainly a great club, and Bayern Munich is one of the top teams right now. But this year’s Champions League will definitely belong to Juventus!"
In these past two years, Juventus, both in terms of strength and public perception, has been amongst the top in Europe, well above Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
Host: "In that case, how about you make a bet with Deng Kai?"
Before the words fell, a spotlight shone down, and Deng Kai appeared beside the stage.
To regain fans’ confidence in football, UEFA, betting companies, and official bodies across Europe have really put in a lot of effort.
They especially invited Deng Kai to attend this year’s Golden Ball award ceremony.
