Chapter 525: Become the World Footballer of the Year From Today

The 2018 FIFA Annual Awards Ceremony kicked off on time at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The absence of Ronaldo and Messi certainly made the FIFA annual feast lack a bit of star flavor, but it did not affect the progress of the annual awards ceremony.

The host was the famous movie star Patrick Stewart, who had filmed the Star Trek series of movies. Before the annual best awards ceremony began, the big screen on the scene first reviewed the important moments of the Russian World Cup that ended two months ago.

The first selection item to appear was the annual best team, with a formation of 433. What was surprising was that the goalkeeper of the best team was De Gea from Manchester United. As soon as the result was announced, many goalkeepers looked depressed.

Manchester United's performance in the 2017-2018 season was not satisfactory, and De Gea's performance in the World Cup was also far below standard. Commentator He Wei frowned and said: "I guess this choice is very controversial!"

There is no controversy about the defenders, Marcelo, Van Dijk, Ramos and Arnold, Henderson, Wijnaldum and Modric in the midfield, Messi, Ronaldo and Li Qing in the forwards.

The eleven-man list of the best team of the year has all come out. Juli TV commentator Zhan Jun laughed and said: "Griezmann was shortlisted for the final three candidates for the World Footballer of the Year but was not selected for the best team of the year. It's really a bit confusing."

The implication is that this is a major controversy of the annual awards ceremony, even greater than De Gea's selection as the goalkeeper of the best team of the year.

In addition, France, as the runner-up of the Russian World Cup, did not have a single player shortlisted, which is amazing.

In the words of Tianchao 5 Channel commentator He Wei, there will be a lot of controversy at the FIFA annual awards ceremony every year, but this year's controversy is relatively large.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, who transferred from Real Madrid to Juventus for 100 million euros this summer, did not come to the Royal Festival Hall. Interestingly, the best team was led by two former teammates to receive the award. Marcelo received the award on behalf of Cristiano Ronaldo, while Alves received the award on behalf of Messi.

The second grand prize is the Puskas Award, which is the best goal of the year. The top three goals were all won by Li Qing. After playing three wonderful goals, Tianchao 5 commentator He Wei joked: "According to Li Qing's goal efficiency and quality, there will be more best goals in the future. I personally think that this award can be renamed the Li Qing Award!"

Commentator Xu Yang smiled and said: "This suggestion can indeed be applied to FIFA. Every goal of Li Qing is full of ornamental, and many goals of the year are world-class. In order to save trouble, it is indeed possible, haha..."

Of course, this possibility is impossible to become a reality, unless... Li Qing retires.

The goal of the year was finally elected as the best goal of the year. Li Qing's goal that passed five Argentine defenders in the 2018 World Cup in Russia also made those English fans sitting in front of the TV proud.

Amid thunderous applause from all the guests, Li Qing walked up to the podium and took the trophy for the best goal of the year from Ballack. He said with a smile, "I won't say anything about the acceptance speech. I believe I will have another chance to go on stage later. Then... I will finish it all at once, okay? Everyone here?"

"papappapappa——"

Accompanied by thunderous applause again, Li Qing smiled and walked down the podium.

He Wei, the commentator of Tianchao Channel 5, laughed and said, "This perverted little guy is really humorous. In addition to being nominated for the best team of the year and the best goal of the year, he was also nominated for the best male football player of the year. His competitors are Modric and Griezmann. According to Li Qing's super performance in 2018, I believe... no one can snatch the World Footballer of the Year from him..."

As He Wei talked eloquently, the award ceremony moved on to the best female football coach of the year.

The coaches shortlisted for the candidate list are Lyon women's football team Pedros, Sun Country women's football coach Takakura Mako and Dutch women's football coach Wegman. Pedros, who led Lyon women's football team to win the league championship and the Champions League championship in the absence of a major competition year, was elected.

Pedros, who received the award, made a speech for the award, and the broadcast screen was already eager to give Klopp, Deschamps and Southgate.

In fact, when the final candidate list came out, it was basically found that Deschamps missed the best men's football coach of the year. Klopp coached Liverpool to win all the championships in the 2017-2018 season. It feels like all football club coaches, so his opponents are Southgate and Deschamps, who led England and France to the World Cup finals respectively.

That's why Deschamps basically means out.

The champion is England, and Deschamps, who is also shortlisted for the best, is the head coach of France. As a defeated general, he is definitely not as good as the winning head coach, so before the award ceremony, countless media and fans felt entangled, not knowing who should be awarded the best men's football coach of the year.

According to convention, Southgate, who led England to win the World Cup in the year of the tournament, should be selected as the best men's football coach of the year, but Klopp led Liverpool in 2018 to tie Barcelona's record of six championships in the year set in 2009, which is enough to be on par with Southgate who led England to win the World Cup.

If we look at the difficulty of winning the championship, it is obvious that Liverpool has a higher chance of winning. First of all, there are only seven games in the World Cup, while Liverpool won the championship of various events in the 2018-2019 season after more than 50 games, and the degree of losing the championship is higher.

A media reporter interviewed Li Qing and asked him who was the best men's football coach of the year. Li Qing smiled and said, "Both of them are the best in my mind."

I don't know if Li Qing's words hit the mark. The best men's football coach of the year announced by the host Patrick Stewart turned out to be Southgate and Klopp at the same time.

He Wei, the commentator of Tianchao 5, exclaimed: "The 2018 annual best award ceremony is really surprising. If I remember correctly, this is the first time in the history of FIFA that two head coaches have been elected as the best head coach of the year at the same time."

"The championships won by Klopp and Southgate in the past 2018 are both very valuable and world-class. Giving up either of them is a loss. I think this is the best way for FIFA to take."

Commentary guest Xu Yang said in a deep voice.

The best goalkeeper is a new award established in 2017. This award is somewhat controversial. It was elected by Courtois, who transferred to Real Madrid at the last minute this year.

The Women's Player of the Year was led by Brazilian veteran Marta, who was shortlisted for the final list 12 times, and she finally won the sixth Footballer of the Year trophy in her career.

The five individual annual bests were settled, and the broadcast naturally gave Li Qing who was dressing up.

After a series of preparations by the host Stuart, the award presenter, FIFA President Infantino, came to the podium with the silver trophy. The entire Royal Festival Hall quickly became quiet. Infantino stood in front of the podium and looked at Li Qing, smiling: "I know this year's annual best award ceremony is very controversial, but... this award is absolutely not controversial, right?"

"Yes, sir!"

The guests said in unison.

"2018 Best Male Player of the Year -"

The atmosphere at the scene was ignited by Infantino. When the momentum died down a little, he said loudly: "Li Qing -"

The spotlight instantly covered Li Qing. He stood up with a smile under the gaze of hundreds of millions of fans, hugged and greeted his teammates, competitors Griezmann, Modric and coach Klopp, and then walked to the podium calmly. The little universe in his heart began to explode at this moment.

From today on, be the World Footballer of the Year!