Chapter 764 - 139: Wondergoal! Golden Ball Award Rankings! The Value of a Superstar! Wang Shuo: Golden Ball Award? I Don’t Care Anymore!

In the past, across the football world—including his recent clashes with the United Kingdom—he had been accustomed to throwing his weight around. So what if he misspoke? Apologize? That was impossible! Making a slight concession was already giving them more than enough respect.

Most importantly, Blatter controlled FIFA and held all the chips. But this time, facing Wang Shuo, he felt completely at a loss, finding no weakness to exploit and nowhere to apply his leverage.

Three days after the match against Everton, FIFA officially announced the 23-man shortlist for the 2011 Golden Ball Award. Wang Shuo’s name was prominently listed, sparking widespread discussion among media and fans worldwide.

A very clear signal emerged from this list: the Premier League only had four nominees. La Liga, on the other hand, boasted a staggering 14 nominees, topping the global football scene. Although Dortmund had won the treble last season, following Wang Shuo’s transfer, the Bundesliga only had three nominees: Thomas Müller, Reus, and Schweinsteiger. The remaining two were Brazil’s Neymar and Serie A’s Sneider.

This made it obvious to everyone that in the current European Football Scene, La Liga still reigned supreme when it came to star players. Furthermore, La Liga’s stars were largely concentrated in its two powerhouse clubs: Bar?a and Real Madrid. Anyone could see that while Bar?a and Real Madrid might still suffer from inconsistent match results, their brand influence and ability to attract star players were in a league of their own within world football.

As for the four Premier League nominees—Wang Shuo, Rooney, Suarez, and Aguero—they coincidentally belonged to Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Manchester City, respectively. This also marked the first time in recent years that Chelsea had zero players shortlisted for the Golden Ball Award.

However, in the concurrently announced 55-man shortlist for the FIFA FIFPro World XI, Arsenal appeared to be the weakest link. Out of so many players, the Gunners only had one nominee: Wang Shuo. The Premier League had 18 nominees in total, while La Liga had 22. Unlike Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City, which all had multiple players shortlisted, Liverpool only had Suarez, and Tottenham Hotspur only had Gareth Bale. This essentially reflected the current distribution of star players in the Premier League.

Nevertheless, this couldn’t be considered an absolutely definitive list. For instance, Kaka, playing for Real Madrid, was also nominated.

In the Puskás Award selection, Wang Shuo’s goal advanced to the second round of voting with a commanding lead. As things stood, his chances of winning the Puskás Award were incredibly high. Coupled with this, the public demand for Wang Shuo to win the Golden Ball Award was rising steadily.

However, many media outlets speculated that because Wang Shuo had prematurely announced his refusal to attend the FIFA Golden Ball Award ceremony, FIFA was highly likely to strip him of his eligibility. If that happened, even if Wang Shuo won by a landslide in the votes, he wouldn’t be able to receive the Golden Ball Award.

"Blatter will absolutely never apologize!"

"If Wang Shuo wants to win the Golden Ball Award, he must take the initiative to mend his relationship with FIFA."

Despite the swirling rumors, ever since his last response to Blatter’s remarks, Wang Shuo had consistently declined all interview requests from the media.

Since the team had already secured their qualification in advance, during the final round of the Champions League group stage mid-week, the Gunners once again fielded an all-substitute lineup for their away match in Lille, France. The group’s situation was already quite clear: Villarreal sat at the bottom of the points table, and Lille was highly likely to finish third. Arsenal and Naples advanced hand-in-hand as the first and second seeds of the group, respectively.

With the overall outcome already set in stone, Lille didn’t go all out against Arsenal either. In the end, the two sides shook hands on a 0-0 draw. Meanwhile, Naples defeated Villarreal 2-0 on the road.

Who could have imagined that Villarreal, originally a Pot 2 team, would unexpectedly be eliminated at the very bottom of the group? Furthermore, they only managed to secure a single point. And they only got that conciliatory point because Arsenal, having already qualified, fielded a fully rotated squad. Otherwise, Villarreal likely would have bowed out with zero points.

As if to validate FIFA’s 23-man shortlist, the final round of the Champions League group stage was surprisingly rife with upsets.

While Manchester City crashing out early in third place was somewhat expected and didn’t raise too many eyebrows, Manchester United’s shocking 1-2 away defeat to Basel in the final round left everyone’s jaws on the floor. It was worth noting that prior to this match, Manchester United was sitting comfortably at the top of their group. More importantly, they had been drawn against Benfica, Basel, and Romania’s Gala?i. When the group stage draw was first released, everyone claimed that Manchester United had gotten a lucky draw and was essentially guaranteed a spot in the Round of 16.

But what was the result? In the final round of the group stage, needing only an away draw against Basel to advance, the Red Demon inexplicably lost 1-2 to the team from Switzerland. This caused a massive uproar in the United Kingdom.

Ever since the Champions League was restructured in the 2003/04 season—switching from two group stages to the current single group stage—the Premier League had seen at least three teams reach the Round of 16 every single season. Yet this season, both Manchester City and Manchester United crashed out in the group stage. In the end, it was Arsenal and Chelsea—the two teams least favored before the season started—who defied expectations and advanced to the Round of 16.

This truly left everyone feeling bewildered.

Legendary Manchester United captain Roy Keane furiously slammed the team’s players on television. From the young starlets to the established stars, he tore into every single one of them, branding the situation an absolute disgrace!

Ferguson was equally displeased and immediately fired back, "As a manager, he also has the opportunity to prove himself."