Chapter 754 - 138: Counterattack to the Top! Winning Countless Awards! Golden Ball Award Controversy! War of Words with Blatter! Taking Over FIFA!

The European Golden Ball Award was actually okay, with relatively less controversy. However, FIFA’s World Footballer of the Year sparked massive debate almost every year. Leaving aside the turn of the century, let’s just look at recent times. Was it reasonable to give the 2010 Golden Ball Award to Messi? Diego Milito couldn’t even make the 23-man shortlist—was that fair? Ultimately, as long as awards were voted on by people, true fairness didn’t exist.

Did people really think Wang Shuo was just running around making appearances because he had no national team duties? Weren’t Ronaldo and Messi doing exactly the same? Messi had just picked up several major awards in Argentina, followed by a slew of honors like the La Liga Best Latin American Player Award. Not to mention the individual accolades awarded to him by various authoritative media outlets in the Catalonia Region.

Ronaldo hadn’t been idle either. Both Asi Newspaper and Marca Newspaper gave him their annual grand prizes, along with Portugal’s Best Football Player Award, and countless other accolades big and small.

What was the most outrageous part? When accepting an interview with reporters a couple of days ago, this guy publicly declared, "I don’t care about the Golden Ball Award!"

Yeah, right! Didn’t care?

Wang Shuo had directly forwarded that news article into their private group chat and tagged Ronaldo. In the end, the guy stubbornly refused to surface, pretending he hadn’t seen it.

Recently, the fans of all three players had been fighting fiercely online. Who was actually more qualified to win the award? Opinions varied. Wang Shuo’s fans argued that their idol had the best stats and the most championships, all of which were genuine and highly prestigious.

The problem was, no player from Asia had ever won the Golden Ball Award or World Footballer of the Year. Furthermore, Wang Shuo had never even played in a World Cup. Did he deserve it? This was the provocation thrown at him by the fans of Ronaldo and Messi. Of course, those two fanbases didn’t get along either and were happily tearing each other apart. Regardless, the Golden Ball Award had now become a hot topic closely followed by global public opinion.

In reality, Wang Shuo received support from many people. Klopp and Tuchel, who were right in front of him, had both previously spoken up for Wang Shuo. A couple of days ago, Wenger had specially written a column for Eurosport, focusing entirely on the Golden Ball Award. The Arsenal manager gave his answer right at the beginning of the column:

"The candidate for this year’s Golden Ball Award is entirely undisputed; it is Wang Shuo!

"Wang Shuo’s performance over the past year, in terms of both goals and entertainment value, is unquestionable.

"Looking at the current world of football, there is no player more outstanding than Wang Shuo. He deserves all the rewards and praise!"

Naturally, the same was true for Real Madrid and Barça. Mourinho and Guardiola also stepped forward one after another to staunchly support Ronaldo and Messi. The two super giants mobilized all their resources to back their respective star players. Their influence was truly massive. In this regard, let alone Arsenal, even Manchester United in the Premier League couldn’t compare to the La Liga Giants.

Wang Shuo stayed in Berlin for one night and left the next day. However, instead of returning to London, he headed to Paris, France, to receive the 2011 L’Equipe Newspaper Champion of Champions Award at the publication’s headquarters.

This was also a highly authoritative annual individual sports award. Its selection wasn’t limited to football players but encompassed all sports. The winners over the past two years were the 100-meter sprinter Usain Bolt and tennis superstar Nadal. In the football domain, only Rossi, Maradona, Romário, and Zidane had won this award. Not even Ronaldo in his prime had managed to claim it. However, it was precisely because of this that the award’s influence in the global football world wasn’t considered massive.

Wang Shuo was the fifth football player to ever receive this honor.

After securing the award, Wang Shuo flew straight from Paris to London, heading to World Soccer magazine to accept the 2011 World Player of the Year Award. This was a highly prestigious award in world football with a very long history. Furthermore, its selection process was completely different from those of UEFA and FIFA. For example, the winner in 2009 was Messi, but the 2010 winner was Harvey. Now, in 2011, Wang Shuo had won the award.

After receiving World Soccer magazine’s World Player of the Year, Wang Shuo went to Arsenal’s Colney Training Base to receive the European Golden Boot Award. This was the second European Golden Boot Award of his career. Winning this award for two consecutive years, Wang Shuo was still incredibly happy, even if he wasn’t quite as thrilled as last year. This was especially true given the current timing.

When accepting an interview after the award ceremony, Wang Shuo took the initiative to mention Ronaldo and Messi.

"I feel deeply honored to be in the same era as Ronaldo and Messi," Wang Shuo said. "Mutual competition is a good thing. Competing alongside the best players in the world makes it easier to unleash one’s personal potential.

"I don’t resist competition. On the contrary, I love it. I love competing with Ronaldo, with Messi, and with everyone!"

Even though he desperately wanted to win the Golden Ball Award in his heart, Wang Shuo still maintained during the interview that personal accolades were not his pursuit. "In contrast, I much prefer being able to help Arsenal win more championship trophies!"

These words could also be understood in reverse. When Arsenal won more championships, would Wang Shuo, as the Gunners’ number one ace, be short on personal honors?

When Wang Shuo returned to the Colney Training Base, he still didn’t get any downtime. The end of every year was the peak season for awards. There were countless awards from various media outlets, magazines, and television stations all over the world, big and small.

What could he do about it?