Chapter 710: Chapter 709: European Golden Shoe, Kaido Luo
And the winner of the Spanish King’s Cup was Zaragoza.
They miraculously defeated Real Madrid in the King’s Cup final, a true dark horse until the end!
The top scorer of La Liga this season was Real Madrid’s Ronaldo, who scored twenty-four goals with relatively few injuries.
The title of assist king of La Liga went to Zidane and Beckham from Real Madrid as well, both delivering twelve assists.
This also shows that the problem with Real Madrid wasn’t their offense.
It was their defense.
The root issue was that after they brought in Beckham, they failed to retain Makelele.
Which led to Makelele transferring to Chelsea.
Deng Kai had criticized this transfer as incredibly foolish at the start of the season, saying that Real Madrid made a grave mistake.
The Melinge fans weren’t too happy at the time, thinking Deng Kai was simply wary of Real Madrid.
After all, although Deng Kai had once beaten the early Galacticos led by Zidane in a Champions League final,
he must have been afraid that Real Madrid were getting stronger and becoming invincible.
Now, the Real Madrid fans were somewhat speechless.
Everything Deng Kai predicted had come true.
Real Madrid had sold the one player they should never have sold.
They achieved great commercial success.
But they also faced the biggest sporting failure in recent years!
All of the major leagues mentioned above were very exciting this season.
But without exception, none were as spectacular as the Premier League.
From a club perspective, the Premier League this season produced the most thrilling title race in history.
Even strong teams like Manchester United and the wealthy Chelsea could only stand by and watch, losing the chance to contend for the title early on.
Two undefeated teams battled it out, and it wasn’t until the final round that the winner was decided based on goal difference.
The invincible Arsenal!
The invincible Manchester City!
The Premier League sent shockwaves throughout continental Europe.
But after all, these were only two teams.
Arsenal was already a powerhouse.
So the surprise, or rather the shock, was only about Manchester City.
It should have been okay.
But...
In terms of football stars, the Premier League also saw an explosion of talent.
This was the main reason why European football was trembling.
The former Premier League Golden Boot, Hasselbaink, spent the season on the bench at Chelsea.
Even so, he still delivered thirteen goals and five assists.
The invincible Gunners’ left winger Pires had the peak performance of his career, with fourteen goals and nine assists, ranking high in both goals and assists.
Manchester United’s winter signing, Saha, contributed fifteen goals and six assists.
The statistics looked pretty good, too.
Unfortunately, most of these goals came from his time at the previous club.
He did not find his form at Manchester United.
This was a secondary reason for Manchester United’s downturn this season.
The main reason, of course, was because... Arsenal and Manchester City were just too formidable.
Manchester City’s right winger Ribery shone brightly this season with superb stats of fifteen goals and fifteen assists, making him one of the strongest attacking players on the wing in the Premier League!
He soared to the status of a top star!
Liverpool’s prodigy Owen scored sixteen goals and provided four assists this season; his personal stats were good, but he couldn’t wreak havoc with his old teammate Robbie Fowler and take the team further.
Because Fowler was injured again.
His injury-prone nature only improved a bit at Manchester City.
And that was in last season’s frequently rotating Manchester City.
If it had been this season, Robbie Fowler would likely have been out of action right after the winter transfer window!
Fourth in the Premier League top scorers’ chart is Manchester United’s star forward Van Nistelrooy.
He scored twenty goals and provided two assists.
His goal-scoring momentum significantly slowed down in the second half of the season because Cristiano Ronaldo moved from right winger to center forward, taking away Van Nistelrooy’s unlimited firing rights.
Van Nistelrooy was furious about this.
But there was no help for it.
Ferguson obviously favored Cristiano Ronaldo a bit more.
And third in the Premier League scorers’ chart was none other than Cristiano Ronaldo!
He scored twenty-one goals and provided twelve assists.
He transformed from a speedy striker to a core striker with excellent passing and shooting.
He was becoming Manchester United’s super nucleus upfront!
Indeed, after Saha lost steam, Ferguson considered moving Cristiano back to the right winger position.
But Cristiano was adamantly opposed.
He settled into the forward position and refused to leave.
In the first half of the season, despite racking up assists, scoring was truly hard for him.
Not to mention, whenever he glanced at Deng Kai’s stats, how could Cristiano sit still?
Luckily, in the end, Ferguson didn’t force Cristiano and went back to training Saha instead.
Second in the Premier League top scorers’ chart was the veteran Alan Shearer!
The thirty-four-year-old Shearer scored twenty-two goals and made four assists in the competitive Premier League.
He was no worse than Van Nistelrooy.
Of course, considering the resource problem, he actually couldn’t be compared with Van Nistelrooy.
But there was no help for it, who let Alan Shearer have the unlimited firing rights!
Essentially, at this stage of the Premier League, Van Nistelrooy, Ribery, Pires, and Giggs were the first-tier stars.
Excellent in both data and on-field performance.
But Cristiano, in terms of data and performance, was half a level above them!
But...
You have to admit, as strong as Cristiano was, his performance this season was still inferior to three other people.
These three people were the triumphant trio who shared the Premier League Golden Boot with thirty goals each, Deng Kai, Henry, and Adriano!
Adriano scored thirty goals and seven assists this season, presenting a masterpiece in his professional career!
His stats were 0.2 levels stronger than Cristiano!
Henry scored thirty goals and ten assists this season, shouldering Arsenal in their battle against Manchester City, his role as a core player was much stronger than the attacking Adriano.
That’s about half a level better than Cristiano.
Cristiano: "Aren’t you guys comparing Adriano with me? Why bring it to me now? So I’m your unit of measure now, huh?"
If Arsenal could beat Manchester City to become Premier League champions, Henry would have definitely attained legendary status!
Absolutely!
But...
There are no ifs in this world.
Stronger than an undefeated Premier League season... is an undefeated season!
Deng Kai scored thirty goals and twenty assists, once again achieving the super milestone of 30+20 in his career.
Although it was the best value 30+20 compared to his last season’s thirty-four goals and twenty-five assists, which was a complete decline.
But considering this season’s pressure and environment for Manchester City, the value of these stats became even higher!
If Adriano was 0.2 Ronaldo stronger than Cristiano.
If Henry was 0.5 Ronaldo stronger than Cristiano.
Then Deng Kai was about "a bushel" of Ronaldo stronger than Cristiano this season!
In short, a Douluo!
Therefore, Deng Kai, along with Henry and Adriano, will also jointly win this season’s European Golden Shoe!
If you say Jia De’er’s two Golden Shoes, one Silver Shoe, and one Bronze Shoe in five years was a blasphemy to the "European Golden Shoe,"
Then Deng Kai winning the European Golden Shoe two years in a row has caused the value of the award to skyrocket!
Especially this season’s spectacular three Golden Boot winners, they will definitely become a diamond in the history of the European Golden Shoe!
