Chapter 170 One day, my career will come to an end, and you will be crowned king! (Part 2)
This father and son is Messi and his eldest son Thiago.
Chen Xiaoliang was very curious about how the two of them ended up in this pizza shop.
Messi said that as soon as the ceremony was over, his wife Antonella took their second son Mateo back to their residence. Mateo was only 6 years old and was clamoring to go to bed, not to mention that there was also a 3-year-old son, Ciro, at home.
He came to Paris to play, but he hasn't found a suitable house yet, so he has been living in the Royal Monceau Raffles Hotel. So he didn't go to the hotel arranged by the organizer for the award ceremony this time.
Chen Xiaoliang has read relevant reports that Messi's hotel room in Paris costs 15,000 pounds per night...
The weekly cost is 105,000 pounds, which is about 850,000 yuan, which is more than many people can earn in a year.
However, for Messi, who earns 960,000 pounds a week, it is a drop in the bucket.
After sending his wife and children away, he and Thiago changed into casual clothes in the nanny car. Thiago said he was hungry, so he asked the driver to find a nearby restaurant to eat something, so they came here.
Since Messi joined Paris Saint-Germain, who in the whole city of Paris doesn't know him?
Erica smiled slightly when she heard this, and said meaningfully, "It turns out that children are always hungry at night."
Helena nodded: "Yes, that's true."
Chen Xiaoliang thought: You two...
Soon, the boss brought everyone freshly baked pizza and freshly cooked vegetable soup on an iron plate.
Seeing that Tiago was eating enthusiastically, Chen Xiaoliang teased him deliberately: "Little brother, do you think I'm good at playing football?"
Tiago nodded obediently.
"Then do you want to play football with your brother?"
"don't want……"
"Why?"
Thiago swallowed a mouthful of food and said proudly, "You are far inferior to my father."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Chen Xiaoliang was speechless. Everyone laughed, even the pizza shop owner laughed.
Messi smiled and touched Thiago's head: "This brother and dad play different positions, so they can't be compared. Besides, the brother is very young, and he may surpass his father in the future."
Messi's humility inspired admiration from everyone present.
Thiago was unconvinced: "That doesn't matter, unless he can also win seven Ballons d'Or."
Okay, I've made you install all of my tricks.
Then everyone talked about many topics and asked each other questions. To Chen Xiaoliang's surprise, Messi was very interested in his training and games and asked him many questions.
Naturally, Messi also answered many questions from the three people.
For example, next year's World Cup will be his last World Cup, but he has not thought about retirement. He thinks he can still play, but it is unlikely that he will go to West Asia or North America to retire.
If one day I can't play anymore, I will just retire, or return to Argentina and retire at Newell's Old Boys.
The sisters have been with Chen Xiaoliang for a long time, and they know what things in a team cannot be known by the outside world, so no one asked questions about the things going on in the Paris team, especially the much-talked-about conflict between Mbappe and Neymar.
However, Messi told Chen Xiaoliang that after he came to the team , he learned that Paris coach Pochettino wanted to satisfy Tottenham's penalty clause and bring Chen Xiaoliang to Paris in the last stage of last season, around May this year.
But later, as Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea , Barcelona and other top teams all intervened, Pochettino, who failed to win the Ligue 1 championship last season, was under too much pressure to lead the team. He could not take the risk of waiting for Chen Xiaoliang's transfer and missing other targets. So in June before the summer window opened, he signed the free agent Liverpool midfielder Wijnaldum for free as quickly as possible.
Therefore, there was once a possibility that Chen Xiaoliang could become Messi's teammate.
The quirky Erica asked Messi a question, who did he vote for for the Copa Award.
Messi smiled sheepishly and slightly awkwardly.
He added each other's contact information and sent them a picture.
The three of them took a closer look and found that it was the content of the latest issue of the Golden Globe Awards magazine which would be published the next day. It listed the voting results of all 25 Golden Globe Award winners who were eligible to participate in the Golden Globe Awards.
Each person can vote for 3 players, the first one gets 5 points, the second one gets 3 points, and the third one gets 1 point.
Messi's top three are Pedri, Nuno Mendes and Chen Xiaoliang.
For Ronaldo, it is Greenwood, Nuno Mendes and Chen Xiaoliang.
Messi did not explain and made a helpless expression. Chen Xiaoliang could fully understand that Messi voted for Pedri because of Barcelona, and voted for Nuno Mendes because he was a player of Paris Saint-Germain.
The same goes for Ronaldo, Greenwood is his teammate at Manchester United and Nuno Mendes is his Portuguese compatriot.
But what is even more surprising is the four German Golden Ball winners.
The votes for three Bayern legends, Beckenbauer, Rummenigge and Matthäus, were all from Musiala, Chen Xiaoliang and Wirtz.
There was no Pedri in sight.
Sammer, who has played for both Bayern and Dortmund and is now a consultant for Dortmund, voted for Bellingham, Chen Xiaoliang and Musiala.
The first place among all the Ballon d'Or winners who participated in the selection was given to compatriot Pedri, who was the first to win the award in 1960, Spaniard Luis Suarez, followed by Chen Xiaoliang and Gravenberch.
It is already a rare achievement to get second or third place on these "human relations" tickets.
But what was surprising was that Chen Xiaoliang ranked first in all the subsequent votes.
This includes:
Denis Law, the 1969 Ballon d'Or winner and Scotland and Manchester United legend, named Chen Xiaoliang first, followed by Pedri and Nuno Mendes.
The winner in 1986 is Ukrainian Belanov;
The winner in 1987 is Gullit from the Netherlands;
The three winners in 1988, 1989 and 1992 are Dutchman Marco van Basten;
The winner in 1991 is Papin of France;
The winner in 1993 was Italian Baggio;
The winner in 1994 is Bulgarian Stoichkov;
The winner in 1998, Frenchman Zidane, his top three were Chen Xiaoliang, Pedri and Greenwood;
The 1999 winner, Brazilian Rivaldo, had slightly different choices, namely Chen Xiaoliang, Pedri and Saka;
The 2000 winner, Portuguese Luís Figo, as a retired player, did not have the same concerns as Ronaldo and voted for Chen Xiaoliang, Nuno Mendes and Pedri;
The 2001 winners are Owen from England, Chen Xiaoliang, Bellingham and Greenwood;
The winner in 2003 is Czech Pavel Nedved;
The winner in 2004 is Shevchenko from Ukraine;
The 2005 winner is Ronaldinho from Brazil;
The 2006 winner is Italian Cannavaro;
The 2007 winner is Brazilian Kaka;
And the 2018 winner, Croatian Modric.
Seeing the three people watching carefully, Messi added:
"Before the ceremony just now, Modric and I were chatting and he specifically mentioned that he called Zidane to discuss how to vote for the Copa Award.
No Real Madrid player was selected, so the club did not give him any instructions, but he was worried that voting for you would cause controversy once the ballots were announced. After all, Pedri has more media support for the Golden Boy Award, and as an active player, he has more concerns than retired players.
But Zidane told him that those people from Serie A and the Premier League chose to vote for him, and even those Brazilians were ready to vote for him. Modric felt relieved after hearing this.
Although……"
Messi paused here.
"Although Cristiano Ronaldo asked him to vote for his club teammate Greenwood first, as a vote for Manchester United, in the end Modric still gave you first place, Greenwood second place, and Pedri third place."
"Where's Ronaldo? Why can't I see him?" Chen Xiaoliang looked carefully several times and asked in confusion.
Messi explained that the Copa Trophy judges can choose to abstain from voting, regardless of the reason.
Sir Bobby Charlton, the 1966 winner, suffers from Alzheimer's disease and his family believed he was unable to make a fair assessment, so they abstained.
The winners in 1975 and 1977, Blokhin and Alan Simonsen, did not give a reason;
Platini, who won the title three times from 1983 to 1985, was unable to vote because he was restricted from participating in football affairs.
George Weah, the winner in 1995, is now the president of Liberia and no longer involved in football affairs;
There is also Ronaldo, the winner in 1997 and 2002. He may have given up participating in the subsequent selection because he gave the first place to Ukrainian goalkeeper Andrei Lunin of his team Valladolid in the 2019 selection, which was contrary to everyone's expectations and caused great controversy.
In terms of the total score, 18 out of 25 judges voted for Chen Xiaoliang first, and he finally got 107 points.
And Pedri is 2nd with 33 points;
Bellingham 3rd, 27 points;
Musiala 4th, 20 points;
Nuno Mendes 5th, 16 points;
Greenwood 6th, 11 points;
Wirtz 7th, 8th points;
Saka 8th, 2 points;
Grafenberch 9th, 1 point.
The last candidate, Jérémie Doku, did not score.
"If it weren't for all those social conventions, would you have been able to get full marks?" Thiago asked, seemingly understanding.
Messi and Chen Xiaoliang both smiled at him but said nothing.
Football has never been just about winning or losing on the field, it has always been full of human relationships.
Seeing that it was already 11 o'clock, the elderly pizza shop owner and 9-year-old Thiago began to yawn. Messi and Chen Xiaoliang, who had been busy all day, also felt a little tired.
It's time to say goodbye.
Chen Xiaoliang asked the last question.
Although he wanted to avoid it, he couldn't, and it was very important to him.
Perhaps apart from Messi, there are few players in the world who can answer this question better.
Mbappe, a name that no one in the world of football can ignore, actually won the first place among all the Golden Ball judges in the 2018 Copa Award and won the award unanimously.
That year he emerged out of nowhere in the World Cup and helped the French team win the World Cup in a way that shocked the world.
In the face of absolute strength and achievements, human relationships can only take a back seat.
Chen Xiaoliang wanted to know how a superstar like Messi, who was entering the later stages of his career, felt about having a new superstar like Mbappe on his team.
Because he also really wanted to know how Pellegrini, Mancini, Patricio and others viewed him.
Messi thought about it, and although he is not good at speaking or preaching, he left a sentence worth remembering:
“I have met many young people, and I myself was a young person myself.
It didn't take me too long to understand that while it's not good to be without personality, it's also not good to have too much personality.
Strange animals are protected, but strange people are isolated.
An overly flamboyant personality is magnified under the spotlight, and once the outside world catches one of the handles, public opinion will rise up to attack.
It’s like if a dog is barking at the entrance of the village, other dogs will also follow suit, but they don’t know why they are barking.
Until then, you will have to pay the price for your own character.”
One dog barks at its shadow, a hundred dogs bark at the sound. There is a similar ancient saying in Hongguo.
Chen Xiaoliang thought about Messi's words.
He didn't mention Mbappe at all, but it seemed like he mentioned every word.
Messi patiently helped Thiago get dressed, and the driver had already arrived at the door of the pizza shop in the nanny car.
The boss, who had been waiting for a long time, finally plucked up the courage to speak and asked to take a photo with Messi to put in the store as a honor.
Messi readily agreed and invited Chen Xiaoliang to join them. The boss was overjoyed and excited, and quickly called out to the waiter who was peeking in the back kitchen to come out and take a photo together.
"Three, two, one."
Helena took a photo for everyone with her boss's phone, and Messi waved, got in the car and left.
He only left one sentence to Chen Xiaoliang: "I hope to see you again next year, but on the list of Golden Globe Awards."
This is a true legend, a person that Chen Xiaoliang respects.
It’s a pity that the people you meet in the crowd will eventually be returned to the crowd.
I hope I'll have the chance to see him again in the future.
The sisters held each other's arms, while Chen Xiaoliang walked beside them. The three of them strolled back happily and comfortably, and returned to the hotel after more than 20 minutes.
After entering the house, Reese and David had not returned yet. Chen Xiaoliang knew that these two old guys probably would not come back tonight.
The three of them said good night to each other, and Chen Xiaoliang returned to his room.
Although I was very tired, I couldn't fall asleep after taking a shower and lying in bed.
I opened my phone and saw more than a hundred congratulatory text messages.
Parents, relatives, teammates at Roma and Rangers, club staff, owners Dan Friedkin and Dave, agents like Mendes and Raiola, and even legends like Sir Alex Ferguson sent their congratulations.
And my high school classmates...
On social networking sites, Kane, Ibrahimovic, Vlahovic, Vardy and others liked the award-winning photos posted on their homepages by the staff of Riise's team.
Ibrahimovic also left a message: I think among all the speeches in the video, mine was the best.
There were too many messages, and Chen Xiaoliang was unable to reply to them one by one, so he had to reply to a few particularly important ones first, such as his boss Dan Friedkin and Sir Alex Ferguson, and then thanked everyone on WeChat Moments and social media.
But he still called someone:
"Sister Shen, are you asleep?"
"Little Brother Chen, how can I sleep? I've been waiting for you for a whole day, knowing that you would call me!"
"Oh, don't mention it. I'm exhausted..."
"You are so ungrateful. You won such a big award, why don't you celebrate it properly?"
So Chen Xiaoliang shared with Shen Mengyu everything he had seen and heard that day, and especially mentioned the time when he met Messi while taking a walk in the evening.
The two chatted for a while and talked about Putlas. Shen Mengyu said that she watched her games more than Messi. As the core and soul left foot of Barcelona, Putlas scored 33 goals and 19 assists this year. Not only did she win the La Liga, she also defeated Chelsea to win the Women's Champions League.
Shen Mengyu believes that she can win the Golden Globe Award for the second or even third time in a row.
Whether in terms of football skills or appearance, Putlas is the best business card for promoting European professional women's football.
In recent years, European women's football has developed very rapidly, especially the major giants, who have begun to invest heavily in the development of women's football.
However, unlike the top five leagues for men's football, the leading league for European women's football is the French Ligue 1, and Lyon of Ligue 1 can be called the king of European women's football.
After winning the Women's Champions League twice in 2011 and 2012, they completely monopolized the event in the five years from 2016 to 2020.
Compared with Ligue 1, the level of women's football in La Liga and Bundesliga is also relatively high, but there is a huge gap between the strong and the weak.
For example, the Barcelona women's football team may not only hardly lose a game in a season, but it is also very likely that the goal difference will be more than 100.
In recent years, the development of women's football in the Premier League has been rapid, but the overall level of the Scottish Premier League where Shen Mengyu is located is relatively average and can only be regarded as a mid-level league in Europe.
One day, she also wants to be like Chen Xiaoliang, make a name for herself in Glasgow, and then go to a bigger league to improve herself.
After a night's sleep, Chen Xiaoliang went to the gym early the next morning for more training.
The stars who had stayed in the hotel left one after another and returned to the club, while the celebrities and legends also checked out and left.
Like the sea after the tide recedes, the banks of the Seine have returned to their former glory.
However, Chen Xiaoliang's teammates failed to continue their good performance of three consecutive victories. They were unexpectedly defeated 0-1 in Bologna at noon, which made Mourinho so angry that he accused some players of not being worthy of being in the starting lineup in the post-match press conference.
At this time, Chen Xiaoliang and his sisters were having lunch at Guy Savoy, which has been rated as the best restaurant in the world four times.
Now with the Copa Award, Chen Xiaoliang is the most popular figure wherever he goes in Paris.
But it's not just the team's loss that's bothering him.
In the evening, the group was preparing to fly back to Rome, but they couldn't get in touch with Reese and David. They finally received a text message from Reese, but he said, "I just came out of the police station, nothing happened, I'll tell you the details when I get back to the hotel."
This made Chen Xiaoliang lose all mood for eating.
After finishing my meal with the sisters, I hurried back to the hotel, only to see two old guys, covered in dust, sitting in the living room drinking alone.
Upon closer inspection, we found out that after relaxing in Pigalle, they each chose an opponent and prepared to go to the hotel for a "one-on-one duel" overnight.
As a result, it turned out that one of the players in the next room was so skilled that he was able to beat ten people alone. Because the noise was too loud, other guests complained to the police, which attracted the Paris police, who raided the house and knocked on every door to search.
In Paris, although "selling" is legal, "buying" will be fined. If caught, you will have to pay a fine of 1,500 euros to get away.
If minors or harmful drugs are involved, criminal prosecution will be required.
Ribery and Benzema were implicated in a similar case just ten years ago.
But Riise happened to be a retired former famous player and now an agent. The police suspected that his "one-on-one" fight was related to the "group fight" of the player next door, so they took him back to the police station for an overnight investigation.
Finally, Riise found Rafaela Pimenta, the extremely strong female partner and indispensable right-hand man of super agent Mino Raiola, and used her connections to convince the Paris police that the two had nothing to do with the player who "beat ten people", and paid 3,000 euros to settle the matter.
Although this "business" is legal in Germany and many European countries, the mainstream view of secular morality is still disgusted and resistant.
Helena and Erica walked away without saying a word.
Chen Xiaoliang asked them sarcastically: "Now that the money is gone, have you two accomplished anything?"
David shook his head, speechless.
Reese sighed, and a trace of grievance appeared on his naturally ferocious-looking face.
"Will it get out?" Chen Xiaoliang asked again.
Reese hastened to assure him: "No, Pimenta has taken care of it, and the Paris police won't reveal a word."
Chen Xiaoliang thought: Damn, I actually owed that fat guy Raiola a favor for no reason. This fat guy will definitely not help others selflessly, and he will definitely ask for it back at a high price in the future.
"You better find some charity endorsements right now to cleanse your souls."
"Okay, Boss..."
The two old guys nodded repeatedly like children who had done something wrong.
