Chapter 667: Chapter 666: Miss World Football
In the end, Manchester City clinched a 3-2 victory over Everton with a last-minute goal.
Ribery, after assisting Adriano to break the deadlock for the team, received an assist from Villa and scored a goal himself.
The two substitutes, David Silva and Torres, completed the last-minute kill during stoppage time, sending distant blessings to Deng Kai.
Manchester City boasted an eight-game winning streak across all competitions!
The next day, as expected, Swiss bank officially announced that Deng Kai had become their global spokesperson.
The facade of the Swiss bank’s building was adorned with a poster of Deng Kai wearing Manchester City’s number ten jersey.
And this spot was on the must-pass route to the FIFA World Player of the Year awards ceremony.
On this day, football stars from all over the world flocked to the venue.
Everyone had to gaze upon the gigantic poster of Deng Kai with admiration, envy, and jealousy.
December 15, an unremarkable day, yet remarkable nonetheless.
The FIFA annual awards ceremony took place grandly in Basel, Switzerland.
During the red carpet segment, numerous football stars made appearances.
Even Ronaldo, all smiles, arrived at the scene.
Because he was shortlisted for the final Top 10 candidates for FIFA World Player of the Year.
The organizers first announced the Fastest Progress Award.
The Bahrain national team from Asia received this honor.
They have only a population of seven hundred thousand, with just five thousand registered football players.
They only started participating in international competitions in September this year.
Yet their ranking surged by forty-one places within a year, rising from 105 to 64.
They were also the first Asian team to receive this award.
They had just won the qualification to participate in the 2004 Asian Cup finals.
Following that, the Fair Play Award was announced. The Celtic fans received FIFA’s recognition and won the award.
Then came the FIFA Presidential Award, which was presented to the war-torn Iraq, as they faced aggression from the Americans starting in March this year.
Up next were the major awards.
The Best Team of the Year.
There were two teams in the running.
Brazil and France.
In the end, the Brazilian team, still basking in the glow of last year’s World Cup, defeated this year’s Confederations Cup champions France to win the award.
The Brazilian team became the darling of football fans around the world.
A World Cup, in this era, has an impact that can radiate for two years.
For players who performed exceptionally in non-major competition years, this wasn’t exactly fair.
That is one reason why Ronaldo was considered to be at least among the top three in this edition of FIFA World Player of the Year.
The penultimate award presented was the FIFA Women’s World Player award.
Swedish star Hanna Ljungberg ranked third and received the bronze trophy.
From the United States team, Mia Hamm placed second, winning the silver trophy.
And German football star Birgit Prinz was crowned FIFA Women’s World Player, holding aloft the golden trophy.
The stars in attendance gave them a round of warm applause.
To liven up the atmosphere, the host interacted with Ronaldo, Zidane, and Deng Kai, as they were the three finalists for the last super award!
The two Real Madrid giants teamed up against the Emperor of Manchester City.
Ronaldo: "I feel pity for Mia Hamm, she had been the FIFA Women’s World Player for two consecutive terms, and she came close to completing a hat-trick!"
Zidane: "Hanna performed exceptionally well, I hope she continues to do well."
Deng Kai: "In fact, Ronnie doesn’t need to have any regrets because starting now, the world of women’s football is about to enter the Prinz era."
"I’ve watched Prinz play, and she’s immensely talented and strong. I think she can achieve what you just mentioned!"
Cristiano Ronaldo’s face darkened, "Are you actually calling someone else Ronnie?"
Deng Kai: "And there’s also Ronaldinho who is called Ronnie."
The host was taken aback, "Kai, do you mean... Prinz will be chosen as World Footballer of the Year three times over her career?"
Prinz was full of surprise, she hadn’t expected Deng Kai, a player known as "one of the world’s best," to think so highly of her.
Men’s football is different from women’s football.
The level of men’s football is far higher than that of women’s football, as is its influence.
So even though she’s honored as the World Footballer of the Year, Prinz is also a fan of many male football stars.
Prinz was extremely thankful for Deng Kai’s encouragement: "In fact, I knew about Deng Kai as soon as he started playing. We Germans were among the first to recognize this Caesar."
Ha ha ha.
Everyone shared a knowing laugh.
Football Caesar... This was Deng Kai’s first nickname, meaning the Emperor of Football.
It was mostly meant to mock.
But now... he had become a true Emperor of Football.
At the very least, he was already the emperor of Manchester City.
However, Deng Kai shook his head: "No no no, please don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that Prinz will be chosen as World Footballer of the Year three times over her career."
"The precise wording should be, I believe Prinz will be consecutively chosen as World Footballer of the Year three times over her career!"
Deng Kai finished speaking.
The room was in an uproar.
Three times in a row?
Do you think this is the Portugal Cup?
That easy?
Of course, Deng Kai didn’t need to explain.
Because Prinz’s career was just that brilliant.
If nothing else, she had been chosen as the World Footballer of the Year consecutively in 2003, 2004, 2005.
Over her career, she had won the German Footballer of the Year eight times, the Bundesliga top scorer four times, the Women’s World Cup champion twice, the UEFA Women’s Championship five times, the Women’s Champions League thrice, the Bundesliga champion nine times, and the German Cup champion ten times!
The host awkwardly smoothed things over.
But the atmosphere in the room had already turned a bit strange because of this.
Finally, the highly anticipated award ceremony for the World Player of the Year officially began.
The superstar striker from Manchester United and the legend Shevchenko from AC Milan were tied for the tenth place in the World Player of the Year!
Cristiano Ronaldo had joined Manchester United last season and with his impressive performance, helped Manchester United return to the apex of the Premier League, becoming the King of the Premier League.
Shevchenko had an incredible season with AC Milan’s legendary squad, mounting a comeback and ultimately securing the Champions League!
In terms of athletic level and personal honors, Cristiano Ronaldo was nowhere close to Shevchenko.
But fame is a significant part of the World Player of the Year award criteria.
Cristiano Ronaldo benefited from the boost in reputation from Manchester United, especially in the second half of the year after Beckham left Manchester United. He inherited almost all of Beckham’s "legacy" at Manchester United.
Whereas Shevchenko, hailing from the Eastern European region, struggled with a less privileged background.
Plus, the star-studded AC Milan squad divided the spotlight and credit, taking away from him a lot.
Maldini, Rivaldo, Rui Costa, and even the rising talent Kaka, had all, to some extent, impacted Shevchenko.
This year’s tenth place was the ticket that Shevchenko had to pay.
If he could continue such explosive performances in the future, then he would definitely enter the top three.
This shortfall is something players who previously entered the World Player of the Year and Golden Ball competitions had all encountered.
