Chapter 752 - 138: Comeback to the Top! Winning Awards Nonstop! Golden Ball Award Controversy! War of Words with Blatter! Occupy FIFA!

Arsenal crushed West Bromwich Albion 5-0 at home.

Chelsea defeated Blackburn 1-0 away thanks to Lampard’s goal.

Liverpool drew 0-0 with Swansea at home.

Manchester United narrowly beat Sunderland 1-0 at home with a goal from Van Persie.

Manchester City pulled off a 3-2 comeback against Queens Park Rangers away.

When the results of the 11th round of the Premier League were all finalized, the league was suspended to make way for a two-week national team training camp. Meanwhile, the battle for the Golden Ball Award entered its final sprint.

FIFA was the first to reveal the top 10 nominees for the 2011 Puskás Award. All the goals on this list represented the most spectacular strikes in world football during the 10/11 season. Stars like Wang Shuo, Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney, and Eevee all had goals nominated.

Among them, Wang Shuo’s goal was his stunning turn-and-volley—a strike rivaling Zidane’s legendary volley—scored in October 2010 during Dortmund’s Champions League group stage match against Spartak Moscow. Because of the timing, this goal happened a bit early, right before the announcement of the 2010 Puskás Award. Consequently, many thought it was a goal from last year, causing numerous fans to forget about it entirely.

In addition, the young Brazilian prodigy Neymar also had a goal nominated. And just like in previous years, there was one goal from a female player among the top ten. This was customary.

According to the rules of the Puskás Award, after FIFA announced the 10 nominated goals, they uploaded the goal videos to their official website and opened a voting channel for fans. The top three would then advance to the second round of voting.

The most magical scene occurred on the very day the voting channel opened. According to the rules, one had to register on the official FIFA website to vote. What no one expected was that the official website’s server actually crashed! That’s right, it crashed! And it stayed down for an entire day.

This sparked heated discussions among netizens and fans, drawing the immediate attention of major media outlets. When had the Puskás Award ever generated such massive buzz? It reached a point where a FIFA spokesperson had to urgently contact major mainstream media outlets that very day to provide an explanation. The server crashed because the number of users logging in was simply too high, exceeding the system’s capacity.

"Our network engineers are conducting emergency maintenance. We expect to reopen registration and voting within 48 hours."

The British Sun revealed that the "culprit" behind the FIFA official website’s server crash was none other than Wang Shuo. Wang Shuo had the most fans on the internet, and a massive wave of Chinese fans frantically logging into the official FIFA website to vote for him had caused the server to overload and crash. This news was quickly picked up and republished by major media outlets, becoming an amusing anecdote! For the first time, everyone witnessed a little shock from the internet, courtesy of Chinese netizens!

Facts also proved that once registration and voting reopened, Wang Shuo’s votes surged ahead, leaving everyone else in the dust. Even if the votes of the other nine nominees were added together, they still wouldn’t match his alone. This once again triggered a wave of reports from major global media outlets.

As the Daily Mirror put it:

"Although there is still a second round of voting, with such a massive gap in votes, does the second round even matter anymore?

"Furthermore, Wang Shuo’s turn-and-volley truly ranks first in both technical difficulty and aesthetic appeal!"

In response to this news, Wang Shuo replied on Twitter abroad and Weibo in China, thanking all the fans who voted. As a result, this sparked a second wave of voting frenzy.

On the night of November 13.

Wang Shuo was lucky enough to encounter Germany’s first snow of the 2011 winter. When he arrived in Berlin, the snow here had already stopped. But in the city center, right outside the Bild headquarters, the moment he opened the door of the Mercedes-Benz MPV, a biting blast of cold air rushed in. It made him instinctively pull his down jacket tighter.

"It’s freezing. Zip up quickly," Wang Shuo reminded Shen Qinghe and Thomas Essien inside the car.

Although Bild’s headquarters was in Hamburg, in reality, over the past few years, more of their business operations and office spaces had relocated to Berlin. Therefore, Berlin was their true core.

As soon as Wang Shuo stepped out of the car, Bild’s editor-in-chief, Kai Dickman, opened his arms and came forward to greet him.

"Ha, Wang, our big star has finally arrived! Welcome to Bild, my friend!"

"Hello, Kai!" Wang Shuo smiled and hugged Kai Dickman. Seeing Manfred Hart next to him, he walked over, gave a high-five, and hugged him as well. "Great to see you, Manfred."

"Welcome, Wang!"

Manfred Hart was the head of Bild’s digital projects. He frequently dealt with Wang Shuo’s new media team and had collaborated with them on several occasions, such as co-hosting topics or interactive events on the internet.

"How was it? Did everything go smoothly on the way?"

"It did. I’m just sorry for causing you guys so much trouble," Wang Shuo said apologetically.

"Please don’t say that. We are incredibly honored that you could come in person to accept the award."

The reason this was scheduled for the evening was mainly to accommodate Wang Shuo’s schedule. Ever since the league was suspended, Wang Shuo had been incredibly busy. He had only arrived in Frankfurt from China yesterday. First, he visited the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, then went to the Adidas Headquarters for an event, and spent the night in Munich. Early this morning in Munich, he visited the Süddeutsche Zeitung headquarters to receive their annual award and participated in an interview.