Chapter 39 Best Player in Europe

In fact, as early as two weeks ago, a major event triggered extensive discussions among the Chinese media and fans - UEFA announced the final three candidates for the best European players. As a representative of Chinese football, Zhou Yiming Among them, he, Messi and Ribery entered the final on-site voting and selection process.

For Chinese football, it is of course a big event for Zhou Yi to be among them. Because no Chinese player has ever been able to reach this height before, let alone Chinese players, there is no one among Asian players, Zhou Yi is the first.

At first everyone thought it was the Ballon d'Or, but later they found out it was the best player in Europe.

This award is a little unfamiliar to Chinese fans. In everyone's traditional impression, the two most famous annual awards in international football are also the pinnacle of personal honors for players. They should be FIFA's "World Footballer" and "France". "European Ballon d'Or" held by "Football".

Who is the best player in Europe?

It sounds like it doesn't have a lot of gold content but a lot of moisture. Could it be that the Chinese media habitually put gold in the faces of its players and forcefully brag?

The Chinese media quickly spread the word and told everyone that this award is actually very awesome - strictly speaking, the predecessor of the European Player of the Year should be the "UEFA Club Player of the Season" awarded every year before the Champions League draw ceremony. ".

Chinese fans must have an impression of this. Every year before the group draw ceremony of the new Champions League season, the best of the previous season will be awarded, including the best player, best forward, best midfielder, best defender and best goalkeeper. . However, many people think that it is the best in the Champions League, but it is not. It is the overall selection of all European club players, including the player's performance in club leagues, domestic cups, Europa League, Champions League, and even national team games. Comprehensive evaluation - yes, that's right, national team games are also included. For example, Zhou Yi is not a player of the European national team, but because he plays for a European league team, his performance even if he represents the Chinese national team It will also be included in the selection reference.

In fact, this will have nothing to do with the Champions League, but because the reference value of the Champions League is too large, especially in non-competition years, performance in the Champions League can almost determine the results of these best awards. Over time, it gives people the impression that these best are the best in the Champions League.

One thing can prove that this is not the case - the award was established in the 1997-1998 season, and the first European Club Player of the Year winner was Brazilian forward Ronaldo who played for Inter Milan that season. He did not participate in the Champions League that season. He participated in the UEFA Cup, helping Inter Milan defeat Lazio in the final and win the UEFA Cup. The pendulum goal in the final became an eternal classic.

Since Ronaldo, only players who have participated in the Champions League, or even won the Champions League, have won this award. The only exception is Buffon, the best player in the 2002-2003 season. He represents Juventus. They lost to AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final, but Buffon won the best player award with his stable and outstanding performance. Won the best player as a goalkeeper, Buffon is worthy of being the top goalkeeper in Europe.

After getting rid of the misunderstanding about this award, it will be easy to understand that this award is actually very important - in fact, it is not impossible to say that it is the official version of UEFA's "European Footballer"...

However, due to historical reasons, "France Football" has a long-standing Ballon d'Or award, and the FIFA-led World Footballer selection also started as early as 1991.

Compared with them, the first European Player of the Year selection was held for the first time in 1998, which is too young and lacks authority. Especially since this award has to be split into various positions, its importance and topicality are not as important as the "only" World Footballer and Ballon d'Or.

However, after 2010, this situation changed.

In 2010, FIFA and "France Football" cooperated to merge the World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or to form the FIFA Ballon d'Or. UEFA feels that it is really uncomfortable not to have its own voice in this annual selection, not to mention that the first cooperation between FIFA and "France Football" caused trouble. That year, they won the club's honorary treble. Sneijder, who led the Dutch national team to the World Cup finals in South Africa, actually lost to Messi in the FIFA Ballon d'Or selection and did not even make the final list of three candidates. In other words, he was not even included in the voting process. None of the top three. Messi's teammates at the club, midfielder Xavi and his partner Iniesta, who helped the Spanish national team win the historic World Cup, also lost to Messi. Messi's winning of the award caused an uproar in the media, with everyone questioning the authority and professionalism of the FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Even Messi himself was very embarrassed about him receiving this award, and the Catalan media felt that not giving it to Xavi was really unjustifiable.

The Dutch media were angry that Sneijder was not even in the top three.

After such a farce, UEFA led by Platini believes that they should respond to the voice of the masses and come out to maintain the fairness and authority of football selections.

But "France Football" has already cooperated with FIFA. The cooperative relationship will not expire until 2016, and the two parties can also renew the contract. It is said that Blatter paid 15 million euros to Amaury Group in order to obtain authorization from Amaury Media Group, a subsidiary of France Football, the organizer of the Ballon d'Or.

Since they do not have the right to use the natural IP of the "Golden Ball Award", UEFA thought of the UEFA Club Player of the Season award that they have held for 12 years.

So in 2011, the original UEFA Club Player of the Season selection was gone, replaced by the "Best Player in Europe" selection. The original practice of sharing the best among each position was also cancelled. There was no best player. Forward, best goalkeeper, best midfielder, best defender, there is only one best player left, representing the best player among the players playing for European clubs that season.

The difference between this award and FIFA's Ballon d'Or is that it does not use natural years as the time period to judge player performance, but seasons as the time unit. Before the start of each season, one of the best players in all of Europe from the previous season is selected.

In order to ensure the authority of the award, UEFA has cooperated with ESM - not to be confused with EMS, which is not the European Stability Mechanism. ESM is the abbreviation of European Sports Media Alliance. This organization was founded in 1989. June 9th is a well-known professional print sports media organization composed of top sports media from various European countries. They have been the selection body for the European Golden Boot and the Best XI every season. The organization is composed of fourteen top professional sports media, including Italy's "Gazzetta dello Sport" in Europe, Germany's "Kicker", "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", Spain's "Marca", Portugal's "Equipmento" , England's "World Football", Russia's "Sports Express", Belgium's "Football Magazine", Turkey's "Fanatical", Denmark's "Lottery Intelligence", the Netherlands' "Eleven Magazine", "Telegraph" and other famous media.

In China, Sports Weekly is also a member.

The authority and professionalism of such an organization are unquestionable.

UEFA has enlisted the help of the European Sports Media Alliance, which has greatly increased the value of the new European Player of the Year award. Do you want to know why the European Ballon d'Or Award of "France Football" has always been considered to be a more professional and powerful award than FIFA's Footballer of the Year selection? It is because of the difference in the selection methods between the two. Unlike FIFA's method of voting by the head coaches and captains of all FIFA member countries, the Ballon d'Or award uses the votes of journalists from authoritative European sports media, which is more convincing.

Now UEFA has done the same thing as "France Football". When the FIFA Ballon d'Or Award was controversial, the emergence of this European Best Player Award naturally quickly attracted the attention of the general public and professionals. welcome and recognition.

Some people even mistake this award as the successor of the European Golden Globe Award, which shows the professionalism of this award.

Players also view this award as an important honor.

For example, in 2012, Iniesta was elected as the European Player of the Season. Real Madrid star and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo did not win the award. He directly showed his disappointment and was criticized for being ungraceful. . If he didn't care about the award, would he have made it so obvious?

The famous "Ronaldo three votes" allusion also occurred in the first European Player of the Season. After Messi was elected the best player, Cristiano Ronaldo was ridiculed as "Ronaldo" because he only received three votes. Three votes”.

Now the best player in Europe is no longer a piece of cake, but a resounding honor.

Zhou Yi, as the representative of Chinese players, can be selected into the final three-man list, and his historical status will suddenly be different.

In the past, everyone thought that his personal abilities were outstanding, but without recognition from influential awards, even if his supporters claimed that he was the world's top star, they would still face the risk of being criticized. Not anymore.

This is recognition from the most authoritative European Sports Media Alliance. Who dares to say that Zhou Yi is not the world's top player?

Chinese fans and media are naturally happy for Zhou Yi's selection, but at the same time they are also a little worried...

This is really strange. They have all been selected into the final three list. What else is there to worry about?

What they were worried about was that Zhou Yi might be selected to accompany the prince to study, or just go there for a formality. In fact, he was not the one who won the award in the end!

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