Chapter 555 It Belongs to Messi!

FIFA's attention to Tottenham Hotspur can be seen from the series of arrangements they made before the award ceremony.

In order to attract more attention to this award ceremony, FIFA invited all the players of Tottenham Hotspur's first team participating in the Club World Cup to come to Zurich, and specially chartered a special plane of Qatar Airways to pick up all the team members directly from Abu Dhabi to Zurich. After attending the award ceremony, Tottenham Hotspur will also be sent to London.

Not only that, all the expenses of Tottenham Hotspur in Zurich are borne by FIFA. In order to create a better and more comfortable environment for Tottenham Hotspur and avoid being disturbed by the outside world, FIFA has chartered one of the floors of the Park Hyatt Zurich Hotel for Tottenham Hotspur's exclusive use.

This is a five-star luxury hotel located in the Zurich financial district. It is only one kilometer away from here to the Zurich Opera House where the award ceremony is held. It can be reached on foot. It is more troublesome to take a car because there are many restricted roads in the financial district, so you need to take a detour, but it only takes five minutes.

The entire Tottenham Hotspur team attended the award ceremony at the Zurich Opera House. Sponsors also attach great importance to this. Versace specially provided each player in the team with a set of black dresses. At that time, all Tottenham Hotspur players, including head coach Ye Qiu, will wear this set of gifts sponsored by Versace and walk on the red carpet outside the Zurich Opera House.

This is exactly like an Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, the difference is that this is the Oscars of football.

Ye Qiu attaches great importance to the team's trip to Zurich, but it is not as imagined by the outside world, thinking that it is to attach importance to commercial development. In fact, although Ye Qiu attaches importance to the team's commercial development, he is not worried about Peter Kenyon and Ron Gourlay in this regard. What he really worries about is the health of the players.

You know, from London to Abu Dhabi, the temperature difference is close to 20 degrees. That is to say, the players are so intensively traveling back and forth between Europe and the Middle East. The test they are subjected to is not only the time difference, but also the temperature difference of nearly 20 degrees. Everyone knows that such a large temperature difference in a short period of time will easily cause problems for ordinary people, let alone sensitive athletes.

Therefore, Ye Qiu made very high requirements for the doctors accompanying the team on this trip to the Middle East. Wellington Hospital even arranged a team of experts to accompany them. This time, when they returned to Zurich from the Middle East, everyone arrived in Zurich in the morning, but they were forced to stay in the hotel and not go out.

From the plane to the hotel, the players acted collectively throughout the whole process. After entering the hotel, everyone began to accept the tests of the team doctor and the team expert group, and then they were allowed to go back to the room to rest. For several players who might have problems, the team doctor and the expert group also immediately formulated preventive measures.

The whole process was carried out meticulously, and everyone was so busy that in the afternoon, many reporters directly expressed their dissatisfaction with Tottenham Hotspur's refusal to interview reporters at the press conference before the FIFA awards ceremony, hoping that FIFA could make coordination, but FIFA also maintained this point.

This was the tacit understanding reached by Blatter and Ye Qiu before, and it was also the reason why Tottenham Hotspur was willing to attend the awards ceremony with the entire team.

However, at the press conference, Messi, Ribery, Fabregas, Alves, Thiago Silva and Cech, the six players selected for the annual best eleven, gave reasonable explanations for the team's actions when they were interviewed by the media, that is, the players needed some time to adjust after a long journey and a temperature difference of more than 20 degrees.

"I apologize on behalf of the team for the troubles and disappointments caused to fans and reporters by some of the team's actions, but we also hope that all fans and reporters who like Tottenham Hotspur can understand and understand, because we are first a group of professional players, and we must ensure that we always maintain a healthy body during the league to ensure the team's combat effectiveness!"

Captain Thiago Silva's explanation was affirmed by the media and reporters, and the team also conducted public relations in this regard, such as appropriately expressing apologies on the official website or mobile APP application. After all, more than 5,000 fans were disappointed at the airport and hotel entrance in Zurich and failed to see the team as they wished. This is indeed a pity.

Robert Milson personally supervised Tottenham's public relations, and through media reports and comments, he told all fans that Tottenham did not intend to snub the fans. In fact, long before the team went from Abu Dhabi to Zurich, the team called on fans not to go to the airport and hotel, but more than 5,000 fans still came.

From the club's perspective, the team has done everything it can and originally had no responsibility, but the fans are always right, so Tottenham officially apologized and successfully won this public relations battle in less than a few hours.

That night, when all the team members took a bus to the Zurich Opera House, nearly 10,000 fans gathered on the scene, many of whom came for Tottenham. This time, Tottenham also tried its best to satisfy all fans' wishes to take pictures and stayed on the red carpet for a long time.

FIFA has already announced the top five players for the World Footballer of the Year, including Leo Messi and Franck Ribery from Tottenham Hotspur, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka from Real Madrid, and Xavi from Barcelona. This year's World Footballer of the Year will be selected from these five players.

Whether from the team's honors or personal performance, Messi is undoubtedly the top favorite to win the title, but there is a saying that is also true: no one knows who will win the trophy until the last moment.

After entering the venue, Messi and Ribery, the two players who entered the top five list, were taken to an event by the organizers, while all the people from Tottenham Hotspur were arranged in the lower seats of the opera house, which are very close to the stage and have the best sight.

When Ye Qiu entered the venue, officials from the Chinese Football Association came over and talked to him for a while. It had been announced that they would receive the Football Development Award, so the Football Association also arranged for senior officials to come to the venue, but Ye Qiu did not have a good impression of them and had no contact with them in normal times, so he just said a few words perfunctorily. Just as the award ceremony began, they returned to their seats.

The entire award ceremony process was actually the same as in previous years. There were also some promotional videos and song and dance performances in between each award, which looked like it was going to be a feast similar to the Oscars.

Blatter came out first and summarized FIFA's work in the past year and affirmed some achievements.

What was more relevant to Ye Qiu was that the first award of the whole venue was awarded to China, the Football Development Award, and the winner was the Chinese Football Association, followed by the Fair Play Award, which was given to Sir Bobby Robson who passed away this year, and then the Puskas Award, which was won by Cristiano Ronaldo.

The list of winners of the annual best team includes Cech as goalkeeper, Evra, Vidic, Thiago Silva and Alves as defenders, Fabregas, Gerrard and Xavi as midfielders, and Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi as frontcourt players. Tottenham Hotspur occupies six of the seats, which can be said to be the most popular.

On the one hand, the outside world has given affirmation to Tottenham Hotspur for getting so many seats, but on the other hand, they are also gearing up for it. After all, everyone is now competing with Tottenham Hotspur, whether it is Manchester United, Chelsea and other teams, or those teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League and Europe, they are eager to kill Tottenham Hotspur.

The reason is simple, as long as you kill Tottenham Hotspur, you will be famous!

When people are famous, there are many disputes. When everyone meets you, it is like taking chicken blood, you can imagine how difficult your situation will be.

The World Footballer of the Year award was given to Brazilian player Mata, and this is the fourth consecutive year that he has won this award.

Awards were given out one after another, and the entire award ceremony was coming to an end before they knew it, and the only thing left was the last grand prize, the World Footballer of the Year.

Ye Qiu sat between the management and the players, with Peter Kenyon, Ron Gourlay and others on his left, and Messi, Ribery, Thiago Silva, Fabregas and others on his right. Tottenham Hotspur almost occupied the entire row of seats, and several young players in the team were obviously very excited. After all, participating in such a grand event is something that countless people dream of in their careers, and they were lucky enough to participate because of the club.

During the entire award ceremony, Ribery kept talking to Messi. The French scarred face obviously had no pursuit, because he had no chance of winning this award, and even the chance of being in the top three was not very big, so he was more open-minded and planned to make a comeback in the future.

But Messi is different. The Argentine who just won the European Golden Ball Award is now fully focused on the World Footballer of the Year Award, hoping to leave his name in the world football, so whether he can win the award is crucial to him.

Throughout the process, Messi looked very nervous, while Ribery, Fabregas and others kept talking to him, trying to make him laugh, but Messi still looked very nervous.

"By the way, Leo, is Jorge here?" Ye Qiu did not see Messi's father Jorge.

Messi nodded, "He should be sitting in the back row!"

"Oh, how is his recovery? Is he okay?" Messi's father had some health problems before. After all, he is not young anymore. When he was young, he was tired from working and had a root cause of illness. Now that he is old, it has begun to appear. He had an operation at Wellington Hospital before, and Huang Chu did it for him personally. After that, he returned to Argentina for recuperation.

Speaking of which, Ye Qiu hadn't seen Jorge for a long time. But today in the hotel, he heard that Jorge went to visit Messi, so Ye Qiu guessed that he probably came to Zurich from Argentina.

"Well, he's almost recovered. I asked him to stay at home and rest, but he refused!" Messi's tone was not very good when he talked about his father, and he was obviously unwilling to talk more.

As for the relationship between Messi and Jorge, Ye Qiu didn't plan to get involved, because it was difficult for outsiders to intervene in the problem between the two fathers, and there was no way to say who was right and who was wrong. In short, there were often conflicts and disputes.

The reason is simple. A father who wants to control everything of his son, including his marriage, and a son who thinks he is old enough to make his own decisions on many things, who do you think is right and who is wrong? Or, who do you think you should favor?

The answer is simple, remain neutral and not biased, let the father and son solve it themselves!

When Blatter handed the envelope containing the list of World Footballers to Platini, the award presenter, the audience applauded, but there was no surprise in the applause, only routine, because everyone knew that unless the name in the envelope was not Messi, there was nothing worth surprising.

So, when the big screen began to play the wonderful video highlights and celebration shots of the five final candidates in turn, the other four people, including Ribery, were obviously very calm, and Cristiano Ronaldo was talking and laughing with Kaka sitting next to him, looking like he didn't care about the award at all.

Everyone knew in their hearts that it belonged to Messi!

"Messi!" Platini did not finally pronounce the shocking name, but called out Messi neatly.

The whole audience burst into applause again, but there was still no surprise.

But this was obviously just the mentality of a bystander. As the person involved, when Messi heard his name, he stood up from his seat reflexively, looking a little at a loss. Then he was hugged by Ribery who stood up beside him, and then Thiago Silva and Fabregas and others hugged Messi one by one to celebrate his winning of the award.

"Head!" After hugging his teammates, Messi stood in front of Ye Qiu and hugged Ye Qiu tightly. At this time, he finally couldn't help but shed tears. His hands kept patting Ye Qiu's shoulders, which was a little painful, showing his excitement at this moment.

"Thank you, Peter!" After Messi let go of Ye Qiu, he hugged Peter Kenyon and Ron Gourlay and others one after another.

You know, in the past few years, Messi's commercial value has increased very quickly, and Peter Kenyon has contributed the most. Without the bald man behind the scenes, he would never have become one of the highest-paid players on the planet, and he would never have become a superstar in the public relations industry.

It is not a simple matter to operate a superstar and build a golden signboard. He needs to operate from many aspects, through news media public relations, through long-term operations, and through various channels. This is a long but very complex operation model.

Messi is now a superstar, but he knows very well that without Tottenham Hotspur's huge business operation team and Tottenham Hotspur's strong news and public relations capabilities, he would not be where he is today, because his father, Jorge Messi, is just an Argentine who can't even speak English fluently.

Many people questioned Tottenham's contract with Messi. One important reason is that after Messi chose to stay in Tottenham in the summer, the team did not update the contract, nor did they sign a new contract according to the past practice of retaining players. This was seen by many as a precursor to Tottenham's plan to sell players.

But only Messi himself knew very well that although the salary stipulated in his contract was not the highest in world football, and even his after-tax income was lower than that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, and even Rooney who jumped from Chelsea to Manchester United, the salary of a player is never just a string of numbers in the contract.

According to the income obtained by Tottenham from operating Messi's image rights, according to the profit-sharing agreement reached by the two parties, Messi's income from advertising, commercial activities, etc. in the past year exceeded 20 million euros, and according to a 50-50 split, Messi can get 10 million euros, which is 3 million euros more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka's share of image rights in Real Madrid, and nearly half more than Rooney, Gerrard and other stars with higher salaries than him.

What does this mean?

This means that although Messi lags behind others in salary, he has equaled or even surpassed them in total income.

Of course, compared with the huge annual salary offered by Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur is definitely not comparable, but here, Messi can get a broader development platform, because a few days ago, Tottenham Hotspur gave Messi's father Jorge an expectation, that is, if Messi wins the European Golden Ball and the World Footballer of the Year, then as long as he does not perform badly in the 2010 South Africa World Cup, the increase in commercial income in 2010 will exceed 50%, that is, it will reach 30 million euros.

Because from the current point of view, including Adidas, Nike, Pepsi, MasterCard and other world top brands hope to cooperate with Messi, and the team will also cooperate with Adidas to operate Messi's personal brand.

According to Rob Newman, CEO of Moon Sports Services, the football world has been lacking an idol since Zidane retired. Kaka was originally the player with the most ability and temperament, but unfortunately, his glorious period did not last longer, and he encountered some problems after transferring to Real Madrid.

Now, this market is vacant, and all teams hope to create their own superstars to fill this gap. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, Manchester United wants to build Rooney with all their strength. The Englishman joined Manchester United with this in mind, and Tottenham Hotspur also wants to build its own superstars with all their strength to compete for this market.

Looking at Tottenham Hotspur's stars, Messi has the most bargaining chips, but he is shy and introverted. Ribery is charismatic, especially because he came from a humble background, which makes him more attractive, but his image is a major flaw. Fabregas is limited by midfielders.

In short, compared with Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, Tottenham Hotspur's players have certain flaws, which makes the team encounter more challenges and greater difficulties when operating.

To put it bluntly, the whole world likes handsome guys, whether they are rebellious handsome guys or gentle handsome guys, so Real Madrid's two superstars are more popular, but Tottenham Hotspur is not without confidence, that is the team's performance.

In general, it is still unknown who will win!

Just as Messi embraced the Tottenham players and management and walked onto the podium, the final scores of the top five players in the World Footballer of the Year were shown on the big screen, and the ranking was surprising!