Chapter 760 - 139: Wonder Goal! Golden Ball Award Rankings! The Value of a Superstar! Wang Shuo: Golden Ball Award? I Don’t Care Anymore!

The deep-pocketed Manchester City felt like they were just playing a game of Football Manager.

"Wang, are you really not going to attend the FIFA awards ceremony?" Arteta asked with concern.

This was currently one of the most widely circulated rumors in the outside world. Wang Shuo hadn’t let a single word slip when facing the media, but in the locker room, he had nothing to hide. In fact, he was secretly hoping his teammates or the staff would leak it to the press.

It was an indirect way of applying pressure!

"I’ve already said it. Unless Blatter publicly retracts his inappropriate remarks and formally apologizes to me and everyone else he offended, I won’t go." Wang Shuo wore a relaxed smile, completely unbothered by the whole situation.

"How is that even possible?" Arteta shook his head. "Blatter will never apologize."

"Exactly. Just look at how huge this issue became in the United Kingdom. All twenty Premier League teams stepped forward, and did he apologize?" Aaron Ramsey also found it completely unrealistic.

"I never expected him to apologize," Wang Shuo smiled. "He can refuse to apologize, and I can choose not to go. It’s just the Golden Ball Award, isn’t it? I don’t care for it anymore!"

Everyone around him was utterly dumbfounded. That definitely didn’t sound like he was speaking from the heart. How could he possibly not care?

But Wang Shuo was making a statement!

"Are you serious?" Arteta was genuinely taken aback.

Wang Shuo was resolute. "Of course!"

The Golden Ball Award was indeed something every player dreamed of, but some things were much more important!

Shen Qinghe was absolutely right. Awards relied heavily on authority and prestige. To put it bluntly, they relied on the trust of the fans! If the entire world believed that Wang Shuo deserved to win, but the award was given to Messi or Ronaldo instead, getting away with it once or twice might be possible. But what about in the long run?

Furthermore, the footballing world had more than just the FIFA Golden Ball Award. Wasn’t UEFA’s seasonal award also called the European Golden Ball Award?

Once you lose authority and trust, someone else will inevitably step up to compete. Ultimately, it boiled down to the power of influence! Whoever controlled the narrative held the power.

And whose hands currently held that narrative?

The next day.

The British Independent was the first to leak a piece of inside gossip. According to a tip from an Arsenal locker room insider, Wang Shuo had bluntly stated to his team: "The Golden Ball Award? I don’t care for it anymore!"

Once this news was published, it immediately stirred up a media frenzy and spread like wildfire.

If Wang Shuo were a nobody, his words would have only drawn ridicule. People would just brush it off as sour grapes. And if he had said this under normal circumstances, people would have interpreted it as a facade of generosity to cover up his lack of confidence in winning.

But now, his statement only made everyone feel his unwavering, heroic resolve and a deep sense of sacrifice.

It was all Blatter’s fault!

This quickly sparked another wave of heated debate, with figures from all sides stepping forward to offer their interpretations. In this matter, Wang Shuo naturally occupied the moral high ground of public opinion because his achievements were earned through his own tangible, hard-fought performances on the pitch.

And Blatter? In the professional football circle, he was nothing more than a politician! He hadn’t even played professional football a day in his life. Over the years, even at the advanced age of seventy-five, Blatter still insisted on taking the field to "play" a few matches every year. Everyone knew it was just for show—a mere photo op—but he kept doing it anyway.

Wang Shuo’s remark—that Blatter had been away from football for far too long—dealt the most devastating blow to his image. It directly slapped the label of a football ignoramus right on his forehead!

You, a politician who has never played professional football, dare to critique the best professional player in the world? Do you even have the right? What are you trying to accomplish? Sway the votes? The Golden Ball Award was hosted by FIFA. As the President of FIFA and the representative of the organizers, was it appropriate for you to step forward and make such remarks?

Just as public outrage was peaking, France Football Magazine, the partner of the FIFA Golden Ball Award, stepped forward to clarify the situation. They publicly released the voting criteria they had provided to all the participating media journalists.

"Our criteria are very clear: we evaluate a player’s individual and team performances for their club and national team in 2011, especially in major competitions, as well as their overall class and sense of fair play."

France Football Magazine reiterated that their voting criteria contained no mandatory requirement regarding participation in the World Cup. "Wang Shuo is one of the top football stars in the world today. Even if he hasn’t played in a World Cup, he should not be subjected to any form of discrimination or prejudice because of it."

Immediately, the media dropped a bombshell revelation: ever since the World Footballer of the Year and the European Golden Ball Award had merged, two completely different sets of voting criteria had coexisted.

One was FIFA’s criteria, which originated from the former World Footballer of the Year award. This focused on the player’s on-pitch performance over the past year, as well as their words and actions both on and off the field.

The other was the criteria France Football Magazine provided to the journalists, which stemmed from the original European Golden Ball Award.

Though they seemed identical, they were fundamentally different.

The European Golden Ball Award primarily considered individual and team performances. And "team performances" effectively meant championships! In a year without a major international tournament, was there any championship weightier than the Champions League? Wang Shuo had secured an unprecedented treble in the Bundesliga. Was that not weighty enough?

However, FIFA’s voting criteria placed the emphasis entirely on the individual, completely omitting team performances.

It was only at this moment that everyone finally understood where the root of the ongoing controversy truly lay.