Chapter 674: Chapter 673: Latin Queen Shakira
"He achieved tremendous success at Ajax, sweeping up both the top scorer and top assist provider titles last season! Being the twenty-third in the Golden Ball award is undoubtedly a huge affirmation for him."
"Juventus is very eager to acquire this player, Ibrahimovic possesses everything they desire, everything!"
In the footage, Ibrahimovic stylishly signed his name, then stated in response to the host’s question, "I won’t be joining Juventus, I’m very comfortable at Ajax."
"I have full confidence in Ajax, and I believe it has the same feeling as that initial Sporting Lisbon."
"I hope to lead Ajax further in the Champions League! To become the second player after Sporting Lisbon’s miracle to win the Champions League trophy again!"
After Ibrahimovic, Germany’s new star who joined Bayern Munich, Ballack, walked the red carpet.
He was the twenty-second in this year’s Golden Ball award.
However, in stark contrast to Ballack, there was Zé Roberto, once dubbed as one of the twin stars at Bayer Leverkusen, even surpassing him in performance.
Zé Roberto had become a substitute at Bayern Munich, visibly falling from grace.
The twenty-first in this year’s Golden Ball award was the King of Rome, Totti, from Roma.
Compared to the splendid Inter Milan, Juventus, and AC Milan, Roma’s situation wasn’t looking optimistic.
And that was still the better scenario.
Clubs like Napoli, Parma, Fiorentina, were one sadder than the other.
Serie A was in decline.
The players ranking from tenth to twentieth in the Golden Ball award were Beckham, Ronaldo, Larsson, Deco, Pierro, Dida, Makelele, Van Nistelrooy, Nesta, and Nihat.
This sparked a shocking discussion.
Because in the recently concluded FIFA World Player of the Year ceremony, Ronaldo was a finalist in the top three.
Could the same performance yield such a huge disparity between two different awards?
More people recognized the Golden Ball’s evaluation.
Fame carried much less weight in the Golden Ball awards than it did in FIFA World Player of the Year.
Especially when Beckham ranked higher than Ronaldo.
That was somewhat interesting.
Ronaldo’s low ranking might have something to do with Beckham’s transfer to Real Madrid.
After all, there were only so many awards to go around at Real Madrid, and with Beckham taking some of them, injured Ronaldo naturally slid down the ranks without any stellar performances.
In addition, Portugal’s new national team member Deco was ranked fourteenth, which made many people very happy.
This was the third-highest ranking for a Portuguese player in the Golden Ball award this year.
Van Nistelrooy wasn’t pleased with his ranking.
He believed that if Manchester United had invested all their resources in him, he would have been the one to enter the top ten of the Golden Ball award, not that... conceited Portuguese kid!
And indeed, Van Nistelrooy’s guess was correct!
That’s right, Cristiano Ronaldo made the top ten again!
Following the FIFA World Player of the Year award where he tied in tenth place with Shevchenko, Cristiano Ronaldo also made it into the top ten of the Golden Ball.
And... not just in tenth place.
This year’s Golden Ball award, the tenth place went to Juventus and the Italian national team’s first-choice goalkeeper, the young Buffon!
If Juventus had won the Champions League last season, Buffon’s ranking could have risen by three to five places.
But it was all ruined by Kaka.
The ninth place went to Roberto Carlos from Real Madrid.
The eighth place also came from Real Madrid, Raul.
The seventh was Manchester United’s new number seven, Cristiano Ronaldo!
It’s hard to tell whether it was a coincidence or Ferguson’s arrangement.
The number seven jersey.
The seventh in the Golden Ball award.
Manchester United was determined to imprint everything about Beckham onto Cristiano Ronaldo.
The sixth place went to Zidane, who had just won the FIFA World Player of the Year.
The fifth place was AC Milan’s Ukrainian missile, Shevchenko.
His failure to break into the top three was mainly due to... Maldini ranking fourth in the Golden Ball award.
These two teammates ended up splitting votes, and both fell just a bit short of the final fight for the prize.
In the end, they were just slightly lacking in honors.
If last season AC Milan had not only clinched the Champions League but also the league title,
then Maldini and Shevchenko would have been in the top three together!
After all the players had entered the theater,
Latin pop queen Shakira, as the special guest, performed the opening act, elevating the award ceremony to new heights!
There had never been such a performance before, at least not one of such caliber.
After the performance, the host interacted with Shakira and asked why she was willing to come here.
Shakira’s gaze turned to the right side of the audience.
There, the three finalists for the Golden Ball Award took their seats one by one.
Henry, Nedved, Deng Kai.
Next to Deng Kai was his partner, Anne Hathaway.
But at the same time... behind Deng Kai, there was Keira Knightley.
Now, tell me the organizers don’t know how to play this game!
Shakira, "Because I knew that Deng Kai was shortlisted for the final stage of the Golden Ball Award. I’ve always heard this name, and many of my friends have been talking about him."
"So, I became curious about him."
"I hope... to get to know Deng Kai better when we have time."
Hathaway’s face darkened on the spot.
Keira at the back felt the same way.
Damn!
Our girls from 1982 and 1985 are tempting, and you, an old lady from 1977, want a piece of the action? No way!
The camera then panned to Deng Kai.
Deng Kai said with a smile, "We’ve already met now, haven’t we?"
Shakira, "Then I hope we’ll have time in the future for deeper discussions about music, movies, football, art..."
Deng Kai just smiled without saying a word and nodded his head.
Then he felt a sharp pain in his waist.
Hathaway’s twist was so strong that Deng Kai nearly lost a chunk of flesh.
Deng Kai turned his head, as if telling her he knew she was anxious, but to hold off since that was just a normal friend.
Hathaway’s face was full of reproach.
In fact, women and men truly do think differently.
Hathaway had once told Deng Kai during a conversation that she wouldn’t be extremely upset if one day Deng Kai ended up with Keira.
Subconsciously, Hathaway thought Keira was better than her.
Because Keira was younger.
From being younger stemmed a host of perceived advantages like being prettier and more attractive.
But at the same time, Hathaway absolutely could not accept Deng Kai being seduced by an "older woman."
Because she couldn’t accept being defeated by someone she saw as inferior to herself.
Is this theory ridiculous?
Very much so.
But many women indeed think like this.
So the twist that Hathaway gave just now was not really targeted at Deng Kai, but at Shakira herself!
Deng Kai: Can’t you actually give Shakira that twist? Ouch!
...
In the end, the Golden Ball was unveiled.
Henry, who posted the strongest personal statistics of his career last season and led his team on a seventeen-match unbeaten streak in the Premier League this season, came in third.
