Chapter 557: Ballon d'Or Rankings Posted by Netizens, From

The Premier League officially released a 2019 highlight video featuring Tang Ye and Fan Daike in the Premier League.

La Liga officially released a 2019 highlight video featuring Messi in La Liga.

It is now November 26th, and the Premier League faction represented by Tang Ye and Fan Daike has officially gone to war with the La Liga faction represented by Messi.

Looking at the current odds leaderboard, the order remains Tang Ye, Fan Daike, and then Messi.

But the gap between Messi and Fan Daike is constantly narrowing.

The Ballon d'Or is, after all, a voting award; even if you are not a football fan and only play the lottery, you must consider the Argentine's international influence.

It is the same with Cristiano Ronaldo; although he did not achieve great results this year, his odds still rank fourth.

At this moment, Chinese fans became extremely nervous.

Can the great GGBond withstand the impact of Messi's influence?

Editor-in-Chief of "Mundo Deportivo": Barring accidents, Messi should win the award; TY currently does not possess the ability to compete with Messi for the Ballon d'Or.

"Marca" predicts the Ballon d'Or rankings: Tang Ye, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fan Daike, Messi.

Click click!

During the FIFA meeting, Sky Sports interviewed Clark, the FIFA Vice-President who was in attendance.

Besides being the FIFA Vice-President, Clark holds another identity: that of the Chairman of the Football Association.

"Mr. Greg, in your opinion, who will win the 2019 Ballon d'Or?"

"Well, a very difficult question."

Clark glanced at Infantino beside him, joked for a moment, then turned his head back: "I find it hard to choose, but in my view, the overall performance of TY and Fan Daike is better than Messi's. Of course, Messi has greater international influence; I admit that."

After Clark finished speaking, Infantino beside him obviously raised an eyebrow, though it was unclear what that raised eyebrow meant.

Actually, Clark had no intention of comparing Tang Ye and Fan Daike against Messi to determine superiority, but in the eyes of the reporters, Clark's answer implied that Tang Ye and Fan Daike were greater than Messi.

"Then what about TY and Fan Daike? Between TY and Fan Daike, who do you favor more?"

"Hmm..."

He seemed reluctant to answer, but Clark finally said: "TY."

Click click!

The reporters asked Clark the reason for this answer, then turned the camera to Infantino beside him.

"Mr. President..."

"Oh, I know what question you are going to ask."

"Haha!"

As soon as Infantino spoke, several high-ranking FIFA officials attending the meeting emitted their classic bourgeois laughter.

"I cannot answer this question directly, but... hmm, a few months ago I went to China to attend a meeting, and I believe Chinese football is developing rapidly."

Click click!

Match Preview: Champions League Group Stage Round 5, Manchester United hosts Shakhtar; the Red Devils aim to secure first place in the group ahead of schedule.

"442" Long Article: In-depth analysis of the 2019-20 Premier League situation.

It is "442" again, another very classic long article; this has almost become a task that "442" reporters tacitly undertake every year.

Whether for fans who understand football or those who do not, "442"'s articles are highly valuable because they can help fans predict the Premier League champion.

According to the analysis by the newspaper's experts, Mancheng remains dominant this season, but as for whether they can catch up to the two leading red teams later on... the experts' attitude is not optimistic.

It is not that the experts do not expect Mancheng to rise in the latter stage of the league; it is mainly that the momentum of Manchester United and Liwupu is too fierce.

If they fall too far behind early on, then even if Mancheng keeps winning consecutively later, there will be no chance to catch up to the top two.

Therefore, in the long article, the experts offered Mancheng a suggestion: directly shift focus to the Champions League and cup competitions, and merely stabilize within the top four in the Premier League.

Then comes the contest between Manchester United and Liwupu; here, the experts at "442" show a divergence of opinion.

Within the newspaper office, there are two factions; the first faction believes the Premier League champion this season will still be Manchester United.

Their reasoning is simple: apart from an injured Luke Shaw, the condition of other players within the Manchester United squad is good.

Furthermore, the most critical point is that this is Tang Ye's third season in the Premier League.

Compared to last season, Tang Ye's personal ability has not improved excessively, but his further familiarity with the league allows the player to deliver better match performances.

This can be seen from the Premier League matches in October and November; the attacking midfielders of the other 19 Premier League teams basically only have the share of being dominated by GGBond.

Then there is the second faction, which is more conservative. In their view, Manchester United and Liwupu are evenly matched.

Therefore, their viewpoint is that if Manchester United wants to strive for the Champions League title, then the Premier League champion this season belongs to Liwupu; conversely, if Manchester United focuses on the league, then Liwupu can only take second place this season.

Additionally, the experts analyzed the pattern of the race for the top four in the Premier League this season.

At the end of the article, the experts gave their prediction for the Ballon d'Or.

1. Messi.

2. Tang Ye.

3. Fan Daike.

【Shoddy newspaper, purely a shoddy newspaper; I announce that I am blacklisting this newspaper.】

【Something feels very wrong; this expert predicts injuries for Manchester United players but does not predict injuries for Liwupu players—isn't this purely a double standard?】

【Feels like a spy sent in by Liwupu.】

【Tang Ye is greater than Messi!】

【Mainly, 20 years old is too young; I favor Messi.】

【Messi's performance in major tournaments is poor; if you compare his Champions League stats with GGBond's, Messi's Champions League goals are not even as many as GGBond's.】

Twenty years old is too young, but in the eyes of Tang Ye's die-hard fans, this is not a problem at all.

Young age, great power!

……

Carrington Base.

At this moment, the Manchester United players were preparing for their next match.

Winning against Shakhtar in the fifth round would lock in first place in the group, allowing Manchester United to be freed from the Champions League group stage.

Therefore, the next match was extremely crucial for Manchester United!

"Rod."

Tang Ye suddenly realized something and blinked his eyes. During warm-ups, he found Rodri: "If we win against Shakhtar and then give up on the sixth round, wouldn't that allow Lille to win one more match?"

Tang Ye looked into Rodri's eyes: "If Lille wins in the sixth round, wouldn't they push Dortmund down below them?"

Tang Ye's meaning was that if Manchester United went all out to prepare for Shakhtar and then directly gave up on the sixth round against Lille, Dortmund's hopes of advancing would be extinguished immediately.

"That's how it is."

"But we're just not going all out; we're not saying we'll surrender directly."

Rodri knew Tang Ye hoped for Dortmund to advance, so he also spoke on the same side: "Even if we don't go all out, we should still be able to beat Lille, right? I feel they aren't strong. It feels like apart from Paris, other teams in Ligue 1 aren't very strong."

"Haha."

Tang Ye laughed out loud: "You say Paris is strong because we lost to Paris last season?"

"Haha, I don't know, maybe so, but Paris is indeed very strong."

Rodri used his hand to push Tang Ye's back, and the two of them started running faster.

Before training began, Ten Hag first explained the arrangements for tomorrow's match to the players.

Tang Ye was arranged to rest on the bench; Dembélé was also on the bench.

Because the interval between the two matches was truly too short, Ten Hag chose a more cautious starting lineup.

Does it feel like Manchester United's second string can also handle Shakhtar?

Actually, it doesn't matter either way.

If they fall behind when the time comes, they can just put the starting players on the field.

A tiny Donetsk Shakhtar—Ten Hag didn't believe they could take down Manchester United!

【You have triggered a temporary mission】

【Mission Objective: Win the 2040 European Ballon d'Or】

【Mission Reward: Unknown】

Here it comes again; one month before the Ballon d'Or rankings were announced, Tang Ye received his temporary mission.

Why did the temporary mission not specify a time limit?

This was because the time limit was already written in the objective: it was the 2040 European Ballon d'Or; any other year would not do!

In the canteen after training ended, Tang Ye picked out the things he liked, sat in his seat, and wore a deeply worried expression.

"Tom?"

Dembélé tapped Tang Ye's back and sat down beside him: "What's the situation?"

"Uh... I don't know how to say it."

Tang Ye placed his fork aside; since he wasn't very hungry, he wasn't in a rush to start eating.

As the players arrived at the canteen one after another, the seats around Tang Ye were quickly filled.

"Tom doesn't seem very happy."

Rodri said. Rashford rubbed Tang Ye's hair: "Your yellow dye has completely faded; aren't you going to dye it back?"

"I feel black looks better right now."

"Haha, you change too fast."

Rashford went to get his food while Tang Ye leaned back in his chair, seemingly lacking any appetite.

"You want to win the Ballon d'Or too much."

Dembélé sighed: "Actually, think about it; you definitely play better than Messi... Actually, I feel there's nothing to worry about, and thinking so much about it now is useless anyway."

"It's hard to say," this comment came from Rodri; the Manchester United defensive midfielder refuted Dembélé: "Nothing is certain right now; you can't just wait with the mindset that you will definitely win the award."

Rodri was only a few years older than Tang Ye, yet he was much more mature than the master.

For such an important award, if Tang Ye kept holding the mindset that he would win it and waited with that mindset for three or four months...

It would be fine if he got it in the end, but if he ultimately didn't win, Tang Ye's mindset would probably explode directly.

Therefore, Rodri's meaning was that they shouldn't think about this Ballon d'Or matter for now; if they really won it when the time came, they could treat it as an extra celebration.

It sounded easy, but doing this was quite difficult.

"Alright, actually I don't care too much. But I have to care."

Tang Ye's words were somewhat self-contradictory: "Actually, when I won the Premier League title before, I thought there might be a Ballon d'Or. But no one said anything back then, so my mindset was okay; whether I got it or not didn't matter."

"Now everyone says I can win the Ballon d'Or, so what if I ultimately don't get it? That would be too embarrassing, damn it."

It was true that Tang Ye pursued some trophies, but he hadn't reached Cristiano Ronaldo's level of near-obsession.

But the current situation was that fans and even the people around him had piled pressure onto him, saying how important the Ballon d'Or was and how likely he was to win it.

The significance of the Ballon d'Or itself wasn't that great, but because so many people revered it, it had become the most important individual award for a player.

If one wanted to receive the praise of Tang Tang Qiuwang from the mouths of fans, then a Ballon d'Or trophy was indispensable.

"Hmm."

Rodri raised his eyebrows, while Ashley Young beside him showed surprise.

"I think this statement makes a lot of sense. But you can't decide what fans will think."

"It's fine, forget it, forget it."

Shaking his head, Tang Ye picked up his fork: "I can't think about this matter right now, can't think about this matter."

"..."

Dembélé and Ziyech each placed a hand on Tang Ye's shoulder, hoping this gesture would bring him some comfort.

Ggbond was now under immense pressure, little different from during the Asian Cup final before.

The Sun's front-page headline: An English fan organization submits a report letter to FIFA.

"The penultimate Copa América was held in 2016; according to regulations, there should be a four-year gap between each edition of senior national team tournaments, yet the South American teams held another Copa América in 2019."

"Fan organizations believe this is unreasonable, so Messi's goals and assists from the Copa América should be excluded when determining the Ballon d'Or," reported a journalist from The Sun.

To ensure their favorite players won the Ballon d'Or, fans online could be said to have racked their brains.

Although the timing of the Copa América was problematic, Messi's goals and assists in the tournament were factual, and the event itself had received FIFA's approval, so attempting to exclude those data was truly unrealistic.

Since there was no European Championship in 2019, it couldn't be that only Tang Ye enjoyed the benefits of national team matches!

With one day remaining before Manchester United's match against Shakhtar, tens of thousands of fans battled in the comment sections on Twitter.

Just then, a user named "smith7231kk" posted a photo on their account, which immediately caught the attention of nearly every football fan and sports newspaper.

It was a printed sheet of paper with black text written in both English and French.

【fifaballond【or2019】 (2019 FIFA Ballon d'Or)

1. C. Ronaldo, 421 points.

2. Tang Ye, 416 points.

3. Messi, 399 points.

4. Fan Daike, 281 points.

5. Mané, 123 points.

Unlike most fans' predictions, in this photo, C. Ronaldo surpassed Tang Ye and Messi to rank first.

It felt somewhat inconsistent with the actual situation this year, yet the paper in the photo appeared far too realistic.

The Times' front-page headline: Ballon d'Or rankings leaked early? A netizen posts a "leaked photo" of the 2019 Ballon d'Or rankings on Twitter.

Mundo Deportivo's front-page headline: 2019 Ballon d'Or rankings leaked early; C. Ronaldo wins the Ballon d'Or?

Check Dongqiu Di hot discussion: Foreign netizens release leaked Ballon d'Or rankings; C. Ronaldo first with 421 points, Tang Ye second with 416 points. (75,251 comments)

【Is this real or fake?】

【This photo looks kinda real, damn it; the overall tone is pale, feels like it was indeed secretly snapped?】

【??????】

【I'd accept it if you said Messi was first, but C. Ronaldo being first is a bit weird, isn't it? His performance this season wasn't that great...】

【Damn, is my Ggbond second again?】

It wasn't just domestic fans who believed it; many foreign fans believed it too.

C. Ronaldo ranking first was indeed strange, but the photo looked so genuine that even some players believed it.

"Holy shit? Ronaldo? (Oh my god, Cristiano Ronaldo)"

On the way back, Rodri stared at his phone: "Is this real or fake? Something feels off."

C. Ronaldo's ranking was higher than both Tang Ye's and Fan Daike's, yet the Portuguese player's performance compared to the other two could be said to be on an entirely different level, at least looking at 2019.

Yet now they were saying C. Ronaldo was first.

What the hell was going on?

"Hiss... I feel like it's real."

Tang Ye widened his eyes: "The clarity is so poor; it's obviously secretly photographed... Someone inside must have leaked it."

His tone sounded calm, but in reality, Tang Ye felt extremely disappointed inside.

Because if this photo was indeed real, he would once again miss out on the Ballon d'Or by a narrow margin.

Last year he trailed C. Ronaldo by several dozen points; this year, he was behind by only single digits.

This was too absurd.

Tang Ye now only felt that the God of the European continent was targeting him, causing him to miss the Ballon d'Or for two consecutive years.

"No, no, no, don't rush, Tom."

Rodri signaled for Tang Ye to calm down and carefully scrolled through the comment section.

But the fans in the comments had already been brainwashed by this photo; the more Rodri read, the more he felt the photo was real.

Beep-beep!

"Hey, Rod, let's go!"

The vehicle behind honked its horn, and Tang Ye quickly signaled for Rodri to move forward.

Hum—whoosh!

The car slowly drove forward, but at this moment, Rodri's mind was no longer on driving.

"Is this actually real or fake?"

"Hey, Rod!"

Tang Ye shouted for Rodri to focus on driving, while he himself fastened the seatbelt he hadn't worn before.

Tang Ye wasn't in the habit of wearing a seatbelt, but the current situation forced him to do so.

"Oh, oh, my bad, my bad."

Rodri put away his phone, thinking as he drove: "Actually, I feel it should be fake; Messi being first is possible, but Ronaldo being first isn't very realistic. Didn't Juventus only reach the Round of 16 last season? That's how I remember it."

"Thinking about this now is useless, Rod."

The car rode smoothly, and Tang Ye relaxed, undoing the seatbelt across his chest and clasping his hands behind his headrest.

"Phew..."

Letting out a long sigh, Tang Ye was probably the one suffering the most right now.

He could already imagine the despair on the fans' faces when they learned he hadn't won the Golden Ball Award!

"Damn..."

His expression looked somewhat pained.

"I really don't get it; I definitely scored more than 400 points this season, so why are they insisting I only got 400? I just feel these voting things are unreliable; how can the results be accurate with so many people voting? Hiss..."

"Hmm?"

Rodri froze for a moment, then turned his head only to discover that Tang Ye's eyes were already somewhat red.

Since Tang Ye had spoken so casually just now, Rodri had thought he had already made peace with the situation, but now it seemed his previous assumption was completely wrong.

GG Master had been critically hit!

"Hey, it's fine, it's fine; Fomo, don't rush to worry. There's still a week before the results come out. Trust me; I feel this must be fake."

"It only looks real; they haven't even said..."

Before Rodri could finish speaking, the phone in Tang Ye's pocket suddenly rang.

"Hmm?"

His expression still somewhat grim, Tang Ye reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

The phone number was unfamiliar, but the international country code was visible.

+33

"From France?"

Tang Ye frowned; because he had previously spoken with Dembélé, he knew that +33 was the code for France.

"Do you know anyone in France?"

Rodri asked, while Tang Ye answered the call.

"Hello? (English)"

"Hello, hello, Tang Ye."

"This is France Football; are you available right now?"

(End of Chapter)