The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 548: Chapter 108: Unexpected Surprise! Domain Skill: Reverser! Wang Shuo’s Golden Ball Ranking! Ferguson and Wenger Fight Over Him

"If you want to stand up there..."

Ferguson pointed toward the meticulously arranged FIFA awards stage.

"Think carefully about my words!"

With that, Ferguson also left.

From start to finish, neither Ferguson nor Wenger revealed anything specific.

But Wang Shuo felt that with those two old foxes, every word, every gesture, and every glance was part of an act, all meant to convey their true intentions.

And Wang Shuo had definitely gotten the message.

’This is ridiculous!’

Wang Shuo muttered to himself, ’To do this right in front of the FIFA president, on a stage built by FIFA, openly violating FIFA’s regulations...’

’And the most ridiculous part is, I can’t even pin anything on them. My god!’

He was just venting.

Still, their words had left a deep impression on Wang Shuo.

At the very least, Wang Shuo was proud to be held in high regard by both Ferguson and Wenger.

...

As far as Wang Shuo was concerned, the only thing he looked forward to at the 2010 FIFA awards ceremony was his own ranking.

’Will I make it into the top ten?’

With precedents like Diego Milito not making the 23-man shortlist and Sneider missing out on the top three, Wang Shuo couldn’t help but feel anxious.

As the awards ceremony began, the various awards were announced one by one.

First came the best lineup, then the Fair Play Award, which went to the Haiti U17 Women’s National Team.

What particularly caught Wang Shuo’s attention was the Best Men’s Coach award, which went to Mourinho.

According to the voting breakdown released by FIFA after the ceremony, Mourinho had an edge over Bosque in votes from both team captains and the media.

Mourinho had a commanding lead, especially in the votes from team captains.

Bosque’s only slight advantage was in the votes from other coaches.

So, in the end, Mourinho took home the award.

This could be considered something of an upset.

After all, Bosque was the coach who had led Spain to a historic World Cup victory.

But Mourinho’s achievement of leading Inter Milan to a treble was also simply too brilliant.

’What can you say?’

Either one would have been a worthy winner.

As for the final award, the Golden Ball Award, Messi successfully beat out Iniesta and Harvey to win this year’s FIFA Golden Ball Award.

This, too, was somewhat surprising.

But it had nothing to do with Wang Shuo.

In the 23-man voting results that were later made public, Wang Shuo finally saw his own ranking.

7th place!

However, according to the detailed voting breakdown released by FIFA, if the results were calculated using the old European Golden Ball Award method—that is, based only on media votes—Wang Shuo would have ranked 5th, behind only Sneider, Iniesta, Harvey, and Messi.

That’s right. Messi, the Golden Ball Award winner, only ranked 4th in the media vote.

If the two major awards hadn’t merged, Messi wouldn’t have won at all; he wouldn’t have even made the top three.

But Messi scored very highly in the votes from national team coaches and captains.

This was also why Wang Shuo ranked lower than Diego Fran and Ronaldo.

Having no experience with a national team and never having played in a World Cup, Wang Shuo’s vote count from the two major pools—coaches and captains—was abysmal.

The fact that he managed to place 7th was largely thanks to the media votes.

Wang Shuo sat in the audience, watching Messi on stage thanking his teammates, his coaches, Barça, and his family. A wave of envy washed over him.

He, too, hoped that one day he would be able to stand on that stage and win that award.

But just as Ferguson had said, he would never be able to achieve this dream if he stayed in the Bundesliga.

Just look at the facts: Bayern were the runners-up in last season’s Champions League, the Germany National Team took third place in the World Cup, yet the highest-ranked German player for the Golden Ball Award was 13th.

Bayern’s star player, Robben, was a World Cup runner-up, and he only managed to place 14th.

Ribery?

He hadn’t even made the 23-man shortlist.

Wang Shuo knew the Bundesliga was a great league.

But he truly wanted to take the next step.

More importantly, he could already feel it clearly: if he remained in the Bundesliga, it would be difficult for him to improve any further.

His current skill level already made him stand head and shoulders above the rest in the Bundesliga.

The Bundesliga had become his comfort zone, and it’s hard for anyone to improve while staying in their comfort zone.

At this thought, Wang Shuo looked back toward Messi on the stage.

He was holding the FIFA Golden Ball Award high, displaying his prize for the whole world to see.

Wang Shuo was envious, but also defiant.

’I’m not any worse than Messi!’

’I want to win the Golden Ball Award, too!’