Chapter 755 - 138: Counterattack to the Top! Winning Endless Awards! Golden Ball Award Controversy! War of Words with Blatter! Occupying FIFA!

Broadly speaking, these awards fell into three categories.

The first included highly authoritative media outlets like *Bild*, *Kicker Magazine*, *World Soccer*, and *L’Équipe*. Wang Shuo gave them the utmost respect by personally showing up to receive his awards. The same applied to prestigious domestic media and magazines, whose awards he had already collected while still in China.

Another category consisted of organizations with little to no influence that somehow managed to contact Arsenal. They would declare Wang Shuo the winner and simply mail the trophies over.

As a result, when Wang Shuo returned to the Colney Training Base, he was greeted by a massive, dazzling pile of mailed-in awards featuring various languages—some of which he couldn’t even decipher.

Falling somewhere between these two extremes was the third category: decently influential media outlets that Wang Shuo’s team cooperated with regularly. They would schedule an appointment with Arsenal and his team to present their awards in person. If the outlet had a significant enough reputation, they might even secure an exclusive interview in the process.

In short, after returning to London, Wang Shuo was still incredibly swamped.

But even so, trouble still managed to find him.

***

"Wang Shuo is an exceptional young man. He plays beautiful football.

"Who is better among him, Messi, and Ronaldo? That, I cannot judge.

"Is the Golden Ball Award voting currently underway? Yes, precisely. We are in a crucial period right now.

"I am very fond of all three of the top favorites you mentioned. But if I had to make the decision, I would choose Messi or Ronaldo."

"Why?" an off-screen reporter asked.

"Because I would choose a player who competes in La Liga!" Blatter replied. "Furthermore, Wang Shuo has yet to play in a World Cup."

This video of Blatter being interviewed during a FIFA event in Spain had been forwarded to Wang Shuo’s phone while he was in the gym at the Colney Training Base, "competing" against Henry.

The reason Henry had returned to the Colney Training Base was because his team, the New York Red Bulls, had lost to Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy in the playoffs. After being eliminated, the New York Red Bulls had no more matches for the season, so Henry called Wenger to ask if he could return to Arsenal to train.

Wenger naturally had no objections.

Thus, when Wang Shuo returned to Colney, he bumped into Henry. And when the two of them watched the video of Blatter’s interview on Wang Shuo’s phone, the French legend’s first reaction was pure disbelief.

"Has this old geezer gone mad?"

Wang Shuo was absolutely floored as well.

Now was a critical period for the Golden Ball Award voting, yet the FIFA president was out here saying things like this? Wasn’t this blatant favoritism? Had his brain short-circuited?

"Shouldn’t this count as public discrimination?" Wang Shuo found it utterly baffling.

"Absolutely," Henry agreed, equally perplexed. "Has the old man’s brain gone soft recently? He just had a spat with Ferdinand a few days ago and got dogpiled by the entire United Kingdom—from the media all the way up to the Prime Minister. Did he get so triggered that he lost his mind and completely lost his filter?"

"Dogpiled?"

"You didn’t know?" Henry was more surprised than Wang Shuo.

"I’ve been run off my feet lately, so I honestly haven’t had time to pay attention to these things."

Realizing this, Henry proceeded to explain the backstory to him.

To trace the origins of the whole fiasco, one had to go back to December 2010, during the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Given the economic downturn in recent years, the entire United Kingdom had placed immense importance on hosting the 2018 World Cup. To this end, they had assembled an incredibly formidable bidding committee.

Just how formidable was it?

Spearheaded by Prince William and the Prime Minister, and including global icons like Beckham, it was an unprecedented super lineup. They made a massive splash, and with the media fanning the flames, everyone around the world assumed the United Kingdom’s bid was a guaranteed success. After all, they were one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council; surely FIFA would give them face?

But the result? They were knocked out in the very first round!

Not only were they eliminated immediately, but absurdly enough, England had only managed to secure a pitiful two votes. That meant out of the twenty-two executive committee members with voting rights, only two had cast their ballots for England.

The United Kingdom was absolutely furious!

Did they really think the sword of the British Empire had dulled?

Following the humiliation, they launched an all-out media war, aggressively exposing FIFA’s bidding scandals, corruption issues, and the like. Meanwhile, within The Football Association, numerous officials—from the chairman down to key executives—were unceremoniously stripped of their positions.

This incident took place between December 2010 and early 2011. At the time, Wang Shuo was still playing for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, so he had merely been an amused spectator on the sidelines.

The recent catalyst, however, occurred during the ninth round of the Premier League on the afternoon of October 23rd. Chelsea had suffered a 1-0 away defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

After the match, the media revealed that cameras had caught Terry hurling racially sensitive slurs at Anton Ferdinand, a player for Queens Park Rangers.

Who was Anton? Rio Ferdinand’s younger brother.

Could Ferdinand tolerate such an insult? He immediately lambasted Terry.

As the media rapidly reported on the incident, public outrage fermented and quickly escalated into a massive debate over racial discrimination. Up to this point, the drama had absolutely nothing to do with Wang Shuo or the Golden Ball Award.

But just a few days ago, FIFA President Blatter had chosen to comment on the matter during an interview. Blatter stated that racial discrimination on the football pitch was not a serious issue, and that disputes between players could be resolved with a simple handshake after the game.

"Racism is a common phenomenon on the football pitch, and there is an ongoing, typical case of it in England," Blatter had stated.

It was clear that Blatter was truly losing his wits in his old age.