January 17, 2024, FIFA headquarters, Zurich, Switzerland.
On the left side of the first row are three male players: Chen Xiaoliang, Haaland and Mbappe. On the right are Bombati from Barcelona women's football team, Oberdorf from Wolfsburg women's football team and Beth Mead from Arsenal women's football team.
Obviously, they are here to win the prize.
The storyboard director behind the live broadcast camera seemed like a die-hard fan of Chen Xiaoliang. Even when FIFA President Infantino was speaking nonstop on the stage, the camera would still cut to Chen Xiaoliang's lovable face from time to time.
This year's awards ceremony is not as suspenseful as the Ballon d'Or in October last year, because the time range for the Ballon d'Or selection is based on seasons. In the 2022-23 season, Chen Xiaoliang has won the treble, and Messi has won the World Cup, so the suspense was left to the last moment.
At the FIFA awards ceremony, which is held on an annual basis, Messi won the seventh World Footballer of the Year trophy in his career as early as February 2023 by winning the World Cup.
Therefore, at today's awards ceremony, people knew very early that the final crown would be worn on Chen Xiaoliang's head.
When you have made outstanding achievements in a field that has attracted worldwide attention, you will naturally be recognized and respected by everyone, regardless of skin color, race, language, or culture.
When entering the venue before the meeting, Chen Xiaoliang had already enjoyed this honor.
When he walked in from the main entrance of the synagogue and was about to enter, almost everyone turned their eyes to him and automatically moved to the sides, subconsciously making way for him in the middle path leading to the synagogue.
In this situation, even if a few individuals may not be willing in their hearts, they have to succumb to the herd mentality under the strong atmosphere and automatically step aside.
Chen Xiaoliang kept waving and nodding to express his gratitude to the many celebrities and dignitaries on both sides, including Zidane, Maldini, Laporta, Guardiola, and even Klopp, who did not have a smile on his face.
He walked straight into the venue and sat in his seat under the guidance of the etiquette attendant.
After a bunch of opening remarks, Infantino invited the famous Schmeichel and the 2022 World's Best Women's Football Goalkeeper, Mary Earps of Manchester United Women's Football Team, to present awards to the two best goalkeepers of the year, Ederson of Manchester City and Froms of Wolfsburg Women's Football Team.
The second award ceremony subsequently caused some minor controversy and a small commotion among the guests on the scene.
The five Puskas Award candidate goals were played on the screen in turn, namely:
In last season's Champions League, Haaland faced his former club Dortmund. He received a pass from Cancelo with the outside of his right foot and blocked the ball into the goal with the outside of his left foot.
Kwa scored a military-style goal by repeatedly changing direction and deceiving the goalkeeper in the face of four-man defense in the Atlanta penalty area;
When Chen Xiaoliang faced Chelsea in the Champions League last season, he was dragged and pulled by Enzo and Jurgen Klopp. In the end, the two fell down because they couldn't pull him up, and Chen Xiaoliang shot a tank-like advance into Kepa's near corner;
In last season's Women's Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, Caroline Graham-Hansen, a Norwegian player of the Barcelona women's football team, received the ball from the right, cut inside, shook off two defenders, and shot a goal into the far corner with her left foot from outside the penalty area just 3 minutes and 11 seconds into the game.
These four goals were gorgeous, technical, violent and elegant. Everyone has their own preferences and there is nothing wrong with that. But when the last video was played, there was an immediate buzz of discussion at the scene.
That was Chen Xiaoliang's goal in the final moments of the Champions League final, when he dribbled past six Manchester City players and assisted Pellegrini to score the winning goal.
According to the Puskas Award selection rules, the final winner is the scorer, so this goal naturally went to Pellegrini.
The selection rules for the Puskas Award are different from other awards. FIFA will upload 10 selected wonderful goals to its official website in November every year, and then fans from all over the world will vote for more than a month. In the end, the one with the highest votes will be elected.
The goal with the highest number of votes was naturally the most exciting, important and most breathtaking goal of all, the winning goal in the Champions League final.
Roma's No. 7, Pellegrini, who became captain again after Chen Xiaoliang left the team, stood up amid applause and walked towards the stage.
The people present were all decent people, and despite the discussion they still gave warm applause, but the large number of fans watching the live broadcast online could not sit still.
【When I voted, I voted for Xiaoliang! 】
[Although he did score the goal, 99% of the credit goes to Chen]
[I think the Puskas Award can make an exception for Chen Xiaoliang and change the rules so that they can win the trophy together]
…
For a while, there were people complaining, crying out for injustice, and speaking out one after another.
However, Chen Xiaoliang's attitude was immediately shown to audiences around the world, and the director even focused the camera on him for a long time.
Before Pellegrini went on stage, he went to the first row to greet Chen Xiaoliang. Chen Xiaoliang stood up and happily hugged him, and they patted each other on the back.
The Roma captain's thank you speech later also quieted down the fans who were still complaining:
"I told the organizer that the ball should not be counted on my head, or at least Chen's name should be written on it. The staff also contacted Chen, but he firmly disagreed."
"He didn't say the specific reason, but I think all of us in that Roma team knew in our hearts that we were a team and that we only cared about winning and not each other."
"It was undoubtedly a great goal. Chen could have tried to shoot it himself, but in order to win, he chose to pass it to me."
"Although the organizer wrote that I was the winner, I think this ball should belong to that Roma team and to everyone on the field at that time."
After saying that, Pellegrini pointed at Chen Xiaoliang in the audience, and then they both raised their hands and patted their hearts to express their empathy.
The fans' comments immediately became:
[What a pretense! Chen Xiaoliang will get 82 points, and the remaining 666 will be for Pellegrini]
[Even if people see this ball 100 years later, they will know what is going on, but the fact that football is a team sport is indisputable]
[Are the players tamed by Xiaoliang so high-class? 】
…
After evaluating Puskas, the next is the Coach of the Year.
This award is also a foregone conclusion. In years without international competitions, whoever wins the Champions League will almost certainly take this position, not to mention winning the treble.
Mourinho, who led Roma to win the treble, and Hilardes, the head coach of Barcelona women's football team, who won the Women's Champions League double, won the awards respectively.
It was just that Mourinho was unable to attend the event because his wife was ill and hospitalized. He only recorded a thank-you video, which was received by the Paris Saint-Germain club staff.
The next step is the best team of the year.
The first 11 players of the women's football team were on the field, mainly players from the UEFA Champions League final opponents Barcelona Women's Football Team and Wolfsburg Women's Football Team, plus Beth Mead from the UEFA Champions League semi-finalists Arsenal Women's Football Team and Chelsea Women's Football Team midfielder Reiten, etc.
As for the men's football team, the same formation as last year is 3-3-4:
Goalkeeper Ederson (Manchester City)
The back three: Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ruben Dias (Manchester City), John Stones (Manchester City);
Midfielders Rodri (Manchester City), Chen Xiaoliang (Manchester United), De Bruyne (Manchester City);
Forwards Dybala (Paris Saint-Germain), Haaland (Manchester City), Kwa (Manchester United), Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
This is also the first time that both Messi and Ronaldo missed the FIFA Awards Ceremony. Even Dybala and Kvart, who seem to be able to replace Messi, have indeed won much more team honors than Messi in 2023.
Not to mention that throughout 2023, except for losing to Roma, Manchester City players almost crushed all teams at other times.
This made many fans who were unwilling to give up completely let go and shouted that their youth was completely over.
In the final session, the best men's and women's football players were awarded by FIFA President Infantino himself.
The World Footballer of the Year was awarded to the core of the Barcelona women's football team, Bombati. During the 299 days when two-time Ballon d'Or and two-time World Footballer of the Year Putlas was seriously injured, it was she who led the Barcelona women's football team to regain the Women's Champions League.
The three candidates for the World Footballer of the Year are Mbappe, Haaland and Chen Xiaoliang.
In 2023, these three players scored 50 goals and 17 assists, 63 goals and 8 assists, and 38 goals and 36 assists respectively. Judging from the data, these are the results of the ancient greats in the "WM formation" era.
But there was only one winner in the end.
Infantino: "The winner is Chen Xiaoliang, the best football player of 2023 officially selected by FIFA!"
Chen Xiaoliang first shook hands with Mbappe and Haaland on his left and right, then stood up, turned around and waved to everyone in the hall, then walked onto the stage, shook hands with the male and female hosts and Infantino, and took over the silver trophy that symbolized the highest honor and looked a bit like an ice cream cone.
"Although I may have known it in advance, it still feels incredible to think that it was the great Messi who stood here to receive the award last year."
"Last year was so amazing and I went through so many things. I want to thank my teammates, coaches and all the staff at Roma and Manchester United. As Lorenzo (Pellegrini) said just now, in the world of football, any honor should be attributed to the collective. Without the other 10 teammates on the field, without the substitutes off the field, without the coach, without the management, without the investors and without the fans, none of this would be possible."
"Of course, thanks to Kylian (Mbappe) and Erling (Haaland), I always watch your videos and say 'wow, look what they did'.
"And then I was thinking, I wonder if you two will watch my videos?"
At this moment, the whole audience burst into laughter. Mbappe, who was sitting in the audience, smiled slightly, obviously not excited, while Haaland on the side grinned like a little baby who was nearly 2 meters tall, and nodded while pointing at Chen Xiaoliang on the stage.
"In the end, there is nothing else to say. The players just need to play well and we will see you next year."
See you next year. After Chen Xiaoliang said this, the anchors of the live broadcast rooms of sports channels in various countries all agreed that this was Chen Xiaoliang’s declaration that he had already booked the title of World Footballer of the Year next year.
Moreover, after winning the 2022-23 Ballon d'Or, UEFA Best Player and Champions League Best Player for his superb performance last season, he won the FIFA World Footballer of the Year today. Not considering the Globe Football Award hosted by the Dubai Sports Authority and the Ballon d'Or awarded by Turin Sports, Chen Xiaoliang has already won all the most mainstream personal awards.
If we have to count the league awards, including Serie A MVP and Italian Football Association's Best Player, Chen Xiaoliang is only missing two league awards: Premier League Best Player and English Football Association (PFA) Best Player.
Given his and Haaland's current performance, these two awards are destined to be decided only between them. Whoever wins the Premier League title this season will get them.
After that, the number increases from 0 to 1.
Second Ballon d'Or, second World Footballer of the Year, third, fourth... until retirement.
But his goals go far beyond this.
But he still needs time, a lot of time.
After the award ceremony that day, Chen Xiaoliang could not leave. According to the event schedule, he had to participate in an interview and video recording arranged by FIFA the next day, take a set of award-winning makeup photos, and leave his autograph at the FIFA headquarters.
Although he failed to come back, in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final on the evening of the 18th, Ten Hag deployed a formation between 4-4-2 and 4-2-4, with Cesco and Benzema starting as double strikers, Ganacho and B Fee as wingers on both sides, Casemiro taking a rest, and Milinkovic-Savic and McTominay as defensive midfielders.
In the end, Manchester United won the second round 1-0 with a goal from Benzema after Luke Thomas' cross and Cesco's header was saved by Maignan before the end of the first half.
The team also entered the League Cup final with a total score of 3-1 in two rounds.
Their opponents were Arsenal, who defeated Manchester City 7-5 on penalties after a 4-4 tie in the two legs in the other semi-final.
The League Cup final will be held on the evening of March 3.
This is certainly good news, but the team also has bad news.
After De Gea was injured, he was diagnosed with a rib fracture. Initially, the team doctor recommended conservative treatment and rest for about three months to recover. However, a week later, during the follow-up visit, pleural effusion was found, so it was decided to perform a drainage operation and fix the fracture site.
As a result, it will take at least three and a half months to recover. Even if he returns in late April, facing the final stage of the league and possible semi-finals and finals of various cup competitions, he will not be able to play as he has missed half a season and is in no shape, which is equivalent to being written off for the season.
Manchester United had already been tracking Brentford goalkeeper Raya and Portuguese Super League Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa for a long time before this.
Compared to 28-year-old Raya, 24-year-old Diogo Costa is more in line with the club's long-term strategy for signings.
However, the former is asking for 40 million pounds, and the latter is from a black shop like Porto, who said they would only sell him if his 75 million euro buyout clause was activated.
Moreover, Livakovic's performance as the goalkeeper after De Gea was injured was impeccable, so Van der Sar was not willing to spend a huge amount of money to buy another goalkeeper when he already had such an excellent goalkeeper.
Besides, De Gea is just injured, not dead. After he returns to the team after recovering from injury, the 32-year-old goalkeeper still has enough strength to compete with Livakovic for a goal.
But the team only has two goalkeepers at the moment. If anything happens to Livakovic again, only the old goalkeeper Heaton, who is about to turn 38 and is difficult to be reused, can be used.
We must find an experienced and capable second goalkeeper like Dubravka and Bartran did last season.
Van der Sar acted very quickly. He asked his scouting team to find a player who had been his old rival, and started loan negotiations with the other club. Things went very smoothly.
It will be officially announced soon.
After finishing his award-winning work, Chen Xiaoliang finally returned to Manchester on January 19. He has not trained well in the past few days, but Ten Hag is not worried about this.
He was not afraid that Chen Xiaoliang would slack off, because such a thing would never happen to such a football fanatic. He was just afraid that Chen Xiaoliang would be too tired and suffer an injury due to overwork, so he regarded the few days in Zurich as a vacation for him.
However, even when he is away, the extra training team will still proceed as usual under the leadership of Kva and Cesco.
Manchester United had difficult games in the next week, but the results were all good.
On January 21, Manchester United played against Brighton at home. All the main players were on the field, and only Benzema and Milinkovic-Savic who started in the previous game were replaced, and Chen Xiaoliang and Casemiro returned to the starting lineup.
Brighton, who reached the knockout stage of the Europa League, recovered very well after the winter break and defended very well against Manchester United's onslaught at Old Trafford.
Ecuadorian left-back Estupiñan, Paraguayan attacking midfielder Enciso, and Scottish center forward Evan Ferguson are all rumored to be being spotted by several teams in the BIG7 due to their excellent performances. It is expected that in the summer window, there will be high-priced transfers for Kaoru Mitomata, Caicedo and others.
In the end, it was Benzema, who replaced Cesco in the 70th minute of the second half, who was tripped by defender Veltman when making a lob pass in the penalty area and won a penalty in the 79th minute. At the insistence of Chen Xiaoliang, Benzema took the penalty himself and won 1-0 with some difficulty, defending the 3 points at home.
Compared with Manchester United's difficult goal, there were two major upsets in this round. Liverpool, playing away, was tied 2-2 by Nottingham Forest, and Manchester City, also playing away, was tied 1-1 by Wolves.
Manchester City, in particular, seemed dissatisfied with losing to Arsenal in the League Cup. Guardiola rotated many players who he thought performed poorly. He even put Haaland, who had only scored one goal in the last three games, on the bench and let Alvarez start.
The team led by one goal until the 88th minute. In the 89th minute, Wolves winger Amada Traore counterattacked on the right, overtook Akanji and passed the ball to the middle. With the follow-up of Korean striker Hwang Hee-chan, young player Rico Lewis scored an own goal, catching Ederson, who had just won the best goalkeeper award, off guard. As a result, he inexplicably lost 2 points.
After 21 rounds, the two Manchester teams once again tied for 57 points, with Manchester City continuing to rank first with a goal difference of 1.
Four days later, after lunch, the team took a bus to Wigan, which is also in Greater Manchester, to play an away game against Wigan Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup.
This former Premier League team was relegated from the Championship last season and is currently hovering in the middle of the English League One. The total value of the entire club is less than 15 million pounds.
Ten Hag sent out all substitutes, and even let Chen Xiaoliang, the darling of thousands of sponsors, stay in Carrington to shoot commercials and did not play with the team.
Facing such a weak team, the substitutes and the young players who participated in the first-team training fought hard and won 6-0.
In the 17th minute, Lindelof headed in a corner kick from Eriksen.
In the 24th minute, Greenwood received a cross from young player Zidane Iqbal, dribbled the ball forward, cut inside from outside the penalty area and scored with a long shot;
In the 39th minute, Greenwood intercepted Bennett's ball in the frontcourt, broke into the penalty area and shot into the near corner, scoring another goal;
Ten Hag was very satisfied with the form he showed in training and cup games, but the resistance to his playing did not come from the club, but from off-field factors, especially "political correctness".
In the 42nd minute, it was another corner kick. Eriksson kicked an inwards ball from the left. Maguire headed the ball in the middle but missed it. Instead, the ball landed at the feet of Anthony who was wandering on the right side of the penalty area. Anthony shot without aiming and the score difference was widened to 4 goals.
After scoring the goal, Maguire, who had put on the captain's armband again because captain and vice-captain Chen Xiaoliang, Bruno Fernandes, and third and fourth captains Casemiro and De Gea were not on the field, went up to celebrate with Anthony. He also stroked his hair back and said, "I headed the ball well, it's for you."
Anthony didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but when he thought about how he scored blindly, he could only say, "Old Ma, you are right. I hope you can score directly later without passing it to me."
In the 60th minute of the second half, Ten Hag simply replaced Eriksen with Ibragimov, who was only 16 years old in more than two months .
Because of his young age, when facing a low-level team that plays aggressively, once he encountered physical confrontation, this young player, who was born into a fighting nation but has dual British citizenship, still suffered a lot despite his full fighting spirit.
However, God always favors those who work hard, and opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. In the 70th minute, the 15-year-old and 318-day-old young player knocked on the opponent's door with a direct free kick at the top of the penalty area and scored his first goal in an official match representing Manchester United's first team!
At the same time, he also broke the youngest goal scorer record of 16 years and 25 days set by Sean Cato on September 3, 2011 for the amateur team Barrow Town.
In the 77th minute, the 18-year-old teenager, last season's club's best young player, Menou scored the final goal through a counterattack after receiving a through pass from Ganacho.
Three days later, Manchester United travelled to Hounslow, a borough outside London, to challenge Brentford away.
The Bees, currently ranked 15th this season, are slightly worse than expected before the season, but they still caused considerable trouble to Manchester United, which had fielded all its main players, by sticking to their home ground.
In this campaign, Chen Xiaoliang returned to the starting lineup as central midfielder, with Kva, Cesco and Rashford as the three strikers, and Casemiro and Milinkovic-Savic teaming up as double defensive midfielders for the first time.
Brentford goalkeeper Raya was very eager to leave the team and join Manchester United. This game was like a large product trade show. He frantically saved Manchester United's shots. He saved Chen Xiaoliang's long-range shot three times alone.
Other players have the same mentality.
As the purchasing power of the Premier League becomes increasingly abnormal, the middle and lower-level teams have been buying players from the four major leagues, selling the good players to the BIG7 teams at a premium, and then processing and adding value before reselling them. This has become a tried and tested strategy.
Leicester City, which had already won the championship, contributed a number of main players such as Kante and Mahrez. Later, Brighton sold Caicedo and Kaoru Mitoma and made a net profit of 100 million pounds. Not to mention Leicester, which was relegated last season, still received a league share of 100 million pounds. After selling Tielemans, James Maddison, Ndidi, Luke Thomas and others, it made a net profit of 100 million pounds and got rid of the burden of high-paid players.
Then they bought some cheap, easy-to-use and cost-effective players from the lower teams in the four major leagues and the Championship. This season, they are ranked second in the Championship, only behind another relegated team, Southampton, and are looking set to return to the Premier League.
Therefore, for a team like Brentford that aims to avoid relegation, any player with some ability in the team wants to work hard to perform and then become the next Kante or the next Caicedo.
In this game, in addition to Raya, Brentford's two wingers Mbemo and Shadna were desperate to dribble the ball through.
Especially the 22-year-old German winger Schade, who left Freiburg, which was fifth in the Bundesliga last season, and insisted on staying in Brentford, a mid-table team in the Premier League, after the loan period expired.
But the reality is that when he was ranked 5th in the Bundesliga, no one was interested in him and he was not given a chance. When he was ranked 9th in the Premier League, he was the main winger. When he was ranked 5th in the Bundesliga, his value stagnated. After coming to the Premier League one year, his value doubled to 20 million euros, and he was also called up to the national team to play two friendly matches.
If he continues to work hard, he will marry a model, join a wealthy family, and reach the peak of his life.
The equally young Luke Thomas was put in a very bad situation by Shad's breakthrough, but fortunately Casemiro helped him defend and he was able to barely defend it.
In the past, once Casemiro moved to the side, Chen Xiaoliang had to retreat slightly. Neither Eriksen nor B Fee were good at close defense, while McTominay and Fred had very poor positioning ability.
But now it’s different. The addition of Milinkovic-Savic allows Casemiro to expand his sweeping area with confidence.
Standing at 191 cm tall and weighing 76 kg, Milinkovic-Savic, with his muscular body, is not afraid of confronting anyone in close combat and dares to kick the ball at the front of the penalty area.
At the same time, as an all-around midfielder, he can also make an accurate long-distance pass when switching from defense to offense to help launch a counterattack in the midfield and frontcourt.
Therefore, although Brentford launched a fierce attack in the first three games, Manchester United kept retreating and gave the opponent corner kicks, but they managed to defend it with the resilience of their defense and individual combat capabilities.
In the 51st minute of the second half, Chen Xiaoliang received the ball on the left side outside the penalty area in a positional battle. After pretending to pass the ball, he broke through to the left rib, passed the opponent's right midfielder Damsgaard, and faced the right center back Pinnock who was defending, and passed the ball forward to Kwa who came in from the left.
After passing the ball, Chen Xiaoliang rushed towards the goal, forming a double-team situation with Cesco who was also advancing. This prevented Raya from diving completely towards the near post, and in the end he was hit by Kva in the near corner.
0-1, Manchester United broke the score balance.
After scoring this goal, Chen Xiaoliang added another assist, and his Premier League statistics this season became 23 goals and 13 assists.
Henry in the Sky Sports live studio couldn't help but say that Chen Xiaoliang is likely to break his only "double 20" record set in the 2002-03 season, with 24 goals and 20 assists.
At the same time, 20 assists is also the record for the most in a single season in Premier League history, but De Bruyne also made 20 assists in the 2019-20 season, and the two tied for the top spot.
In second place is the unnamed former Real Madrid and Arsenal player with 19 assists.
Henry said: "I once told De Bruyne that even if he could tie my assist record, he would need to score 24 goals to catch up with me."
"I thought my record could last another 20 years, but if he continues at this pace, Chen will probably set a new Premier League single-season assist record before May, and he only needs to score one more goal to catch up with me..."
"Maybe he can complete this before the next game..."
Ferdinand also added: "Maybe after the end of this season, your title of the best foreign player in Premier League history will be replaced by someone else."
Carragher was unhappy: "Rio (Ferdinand), you have to respect a legend like Henry. Even though Chen broke the record this season, he only spent one season in the Premier League. I don't think he is good enough to be compared with Henry."
Gary Neville immediately hit back: "Yes, yes, the great Henry the Great, we must respect the brilliant achievements he made at Arsenal. It's just... eh? How many points is Liverpool behind Manchester United now? Oh? It's 6 points!"
"6, what does this number 6 remind me of?!"
Everyone (except Carragher): "Hahahaha!"
The fans all knew that this was a response to Liverpool's 7-0 victory over Manchester United last season, when Carragher took out a can of 7-Up and drank it for a long time in the live broadcast room.
The two were still bickering in the live broadcast room when the score was rewritten again.
In the 53rd minute, less than 2 minutes after the previous goal, Chen Xiaoliang received Cesco's header outside the penalty area and passed the ball back. It was a standard routine, standard action, and standard ending.
A powerful 31-meter shot without stopping, the ball drew an inward spin, turned a semicircle to the right, and then came back, hitting the upper right corner of the goal.
Raya tried to save the ball three times, but failed on the fourth attempt. Faced with such an arc, he moved his body slightly to the left, but his subconscious told him that the ball would go out of bounds.
Finally, he watched the ball fly into the goal along the blind corner, knelt on one knee and let out a long sigh.
Henry in the live studio also sighed. He didn't expect that his words would come true as soon as he opened his mouth, and it was realized immediately...
0-2, the process was thrilling but the ending was safe, Manchester United won five consecutive league games.
However, there has been another qualitative improvement in the system of the new World Footballer of the Year.