Chapter 748 - 137: Advancing Early! Challenging for the Golden Ball Award! Making the Premier League Submit! The Big Three’s Crazy Goal-Scoring Race!

"Xiao Hu is right. I’ve heard the news. It’s only November, and Real Madrid and Barça’s propaganda machines are already running at full speed, firing on all cylinders to build up momentum."

Thomas Essien nodded repeatedly. "You know how it is. They are century-old powerhouses. Their resources and channels are far superior to Arsenal’s. We have to work even harder."

Arsenal was also doing everything in their power to support Wang Shuo’s bid for the Golden Ball Award.

If they were going to aim for the Golden Ball Award, the first step was to understand the voting rules. The FIFA Golden Ball Award was a combination of the European Golden Ball Award and the World Footballer of the Year, and the rules were identical.

The votes came from three sources. Under the original World Footballer of the Year rules, the votes from the head coaches and captains of the 209 national teams under FIFA each accounted for one-third. The remaining third came from the votes of authoritative media outlets around the world.

"Coming to the Premier League was the right move," Shen Qinghe said, looking at Wang Shuo with a smile. "Messi and Ronaldo are fighting tooth and nail in La Liga, but what about us? The stance of the media here in the United Kingdom is practically unanimous: they are fully supporting us!"

When it came to the highest individual awards, the Premier League—and the old First Division before it—had always been at a disadvantage. Especially in recent years, the Premier League had very little competitiveness in this regard.

The last person from the league to win both the Golden Ball Award and the World Footballer of the Year was Ronaldo, and that was all the way back in 2008. Over the past few years, Premier League players struggled even to break into the top three. Now, things had changed. Wang Shuo had emerged.

Never mind Arsenal’s full backing; the Premier League, The Football Association, and the United Kingdom media were all throwing their full weight behind him! Without a Golden Ball winner among its ranks, how could the Premier League have the nerve to call itself the number one league in the world? Furthermore, Wang Shuo’s current performance was obvious to everyone. Therefore, on this matter, the Premier League presented a united front against the outside world.

Of course, in return, Wang Shuo had to cooperate with these media outlets, feeding them exclusive material and giving them some perks. Exclusive interviews were one of these perks. This was not to be underestimated. Securing an exclusive interview with Wang Shuo guaranteed skyrocketing sales for that issue of the newspaper or magazine! Earlier, to get an exclusive interview with Wang Shuo, the Sun Newspaper even cooked up the sensational news of Alexandre Song assaulting a university student.

Unlike the Premier League’s undivided support for Wang Shuo, Spain was divided between Ronaldo and Messi.

"In addition, Coach Gao sent me news from back home. Our domestic public opinion is also firing on all cylinders. The national media and fans are supporting you, using every means possible to mobilize various grassroots connections.

"The Asia Region has many countries, and the Chinese diaspora wields immense influence. Meanwhile, we also have significant clout in Africa."

The official authorities certainly wouldn’t step in on this matter; otherwise, it would cause a huge uproar. But even just having grassroots forces mobilize was already an incredible advantage.

"You also need to actively reach out to your teammates at Arsenal and Dortmund. Most of them are key players in their respective national teams, which can help us secure votes. Remember, each country only has two votes."

Some national team votes were effectively "sold," but others were favor votes. Naturally, FIFA had already taken this situation into account.

A single ballot allowed for three selections. Starting from first place, the choices would receive five points, three points, and one point, respectively.

The most crucial part was building momentum, ensuring that your name made it onto the voters’ three-man lists. You had to make as many voters as possible feel that it would look highly unprofessional not to include you on their lists.

Under the original France Football Magazine’s Golden Ball Award voting process, the ballot allowed for five names and only featured established journalists, making it far more authoritative. However, after the merger, each ballot was reduced to three names. This introduced a lot more unpredictability into the mix.

This was Wang Shuo’s first time contending for the Golden Ball Award, and he truly lacked experience. But upon hearing that he had the full support of his motherland, a wave of joy washed over him.

Since joining the Premier League, he was the top star. And currently, in the entire Premier League, there was no other player who could compete with Wang Shuo. If the United Kingdom media presented a unified voice, he believed they could build immense public momentum, perhaps even overpowering the media in Spain.

As for social media, that was Wang Shuo’s absolute home turf. He was now the bona fide number one influencer in global sports online, with a staggeringly massive fan base! The players who managed to reach the top rankings all possessed undeniable skill and stellar performances. But to actually win the award, one genuinely needed to be flawless across all fronts—the club, media, sponsors, national team, and fans—mobilizing every single force available.

Wang Shuo still clearly remembered the year Henry first lost the Golden Ball Award to Nedved. It was because the voting pool had been expanded that year, increasing the number of ballots, which made Eastern Europe players more favored and allowed them to rake in more votes.

Later, when Henry lost to Shevchenko, some media claimed it was because Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a personal phone call to France Football Magazine before the voting to mediate on Shevchenko’s behalf, hoping to keep the "Nuclear Warhead" at AC Milan. That year, Chelsea was aggressively trying to poach Shevchenko, and AC Milan used the award as a bargaining chip to keep him. But all of this was in the past, and it was hard to say what truly happened. Only one thing was certain. To win the award, you had to go all out on every single front!

As time marched into November, the voting period for the Golden Ball Award officially began. According to the schedules of previous years, voting usually closed in the middle to late November. Therefore, the battle for the Golden Ball Award became increasingly fierce. It wasn’t just a war of public opinion in the media; the players themselves were leaving everything out on the pitch.