Chapter 317: Chapter 75: Golden Ball Award Rankings! The Fourth Superstar in World Football! How a Legend Is Forged! The Shock from China

They had also clearly gotten the list early and announced it to the public a little later.

First, the stars ranked 21st to 30th were announced.

"Quick, look! Benzema is at the bottom of the rankings."

"Ribery is 28th, and he’s tied with Barça’s Yaya Toure. He probably only got one vote."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Everyone at Dortmund was quite impressed with Foyelner’s reasoning abilities.

"Dzeko is here, 21st place, also tied with several others."

"What about Wang Shuo?"

"Holy shit, Wang, you made the top 20!"

"Awesome! That’s totally Ronaldo-level treatment!"

"I remember Ronaldo got 11 votes back then, tying for 12th."

"Yeah, it was 12th place."

"That’s different. 2004 was a European Cup year. Remember how well Portugal did? Ronaldo got such a high rank because of the Portuguese national team’s performance."

"True. I think it’s already amazing for Wang to get into the top 20 in his first year."

"Who could argue? It’s the top twenty for the European Golden Ball Award!"

"To be honest, there’s no real suspense for this year’s Golden Ball Award. The only thing I care about is Wang’s ranking."

"Now that I see Dzeko at 21 and Ribery at 28, I can relax."

"The best in the Bundesliga, is that what you mean?"

"Haha, that’s right, that’s right!"

Listening to his teammates’ chatter, Wang Shuo also went online to check websites and forums in China.

He found that all the major portal sites had immediately reposted the news, with tons of fans leaving comments below.

There were also posts on the forums.

Almost everyone was talking about Wang Shuo making the top 20.

This filled Wang Shuo with an unprecedented sense of Achievement!

’This is the European Golden Ball Award!’

’Even if it’s just the top 20, that’s still a huge success!’

The wait was agonizing.

Soon, Bild immediately updated with the next list: ranks 11 through 20.

And this time, when the page opened, the first thing everyone saw, right at the top of the list, was none other than Wang Shuo.

"11th place!"

"Oh my god, he actually ranked 11th!"

"That’s incredible!"

"He beat Fabregas and Torres, as well as a whole host of famous players like Giggs, Henry, Fabiano, and Fran."

"Wang, you actually ranked 11th!"

Although Wang Shuo was sitting upright and appeared outwardly calm and unfazed by the honor...

...in reality, a monstrous wave was crashing through his mind.

He himself had never expected to rank 11th.

At the very beginning, he thought just making the top 30 would be a victory.

Even being at the bottom would have been a success.

But when he didn’t see his name on the list for 21-30 just now, he had slightly raised his expectations, thinking that a ranking in the teens would be good.

He really hadn’t expected to be 11th.

"How many votes did I get?" Wang Shuo asked aloud.

"Don’t know. They’ve only released the rankings so far, not the specific vote counts. They’ll probably announce it all together at the final stage," Foyelner replied.

Wang Shuo nodded.

He couldn’t calm the turmoil in his heart.

’Who could stay calm?’

’This is 11th place for the European Golden Ball Award!’

’My god, it’s unbelievable!’

Wang Shuo’s phone started blowing up with text messages and QQ messages, all from friends congratulating him.

There was also a call from his parents back home.

Over the phone, Wang Shuo could hear Jiang Pengju’s cheers. He must have been shouting over there, and Wang Shuo could faintly make out what he was saying: "Coach Gao, did you see that? Wang Shuo is ranked 11th for the Golden Ball Award, did you see it?"

"A player from our China, in his first time being ranked for the European Golden Ball Award, shot straight to 11th place!"

"11th place!"

While Wang Shuo was on the phone with his parents, the list of the top 10 was also announced.

But this list didn’t have specific rankings.

Clearly, France Football Magazine wanted to save the suspense for the very end, especially for the upcoming award ceremony.

Unlike the FIFA awards ceremony, the European Golden Ball Award ceremony only invites the award recipients.

From the looks of it, Real Madrid and Barça were the biggest winners; out of the 10 stars, they accounted for 6.

If you also counted Eto’o, who had transferred from Barça to Inter Milan, that made it 7.

The remaining 3 were all from the Premier League: Manchester United’s Rooney, Chelsea’s Drogba, and Liverpool’s Gerrard.

At that moment, Wang Shuo thought of Arsenal.

’Poor Gunners, do they really have no one to show for it?’

’Messi is definitely the winner!’

The only suspense now was whether Barça would sweep the top three.

Meaning, Messi, Harvey, and Iniesta.

Fortunately, France Football Magazine didn’t keep people waiting for too long.

After noon, they officially announced the final results.

Messi beat out Ronaldo and Harvey to win the 2009 European Golden Ball Award.

Barça failed to sweep the top three, with Iniesta ranking 4th.

Eto’o was 5th, and Ibrahimovic was 7th.

But the absurd thing was, in the summer of 2009, in order to get Ibrahimovic, Barça had actually traded Eto’o plus cash to sign Eevee from Inter Milan.

Things in the transfer market were always so unpredictable!

Finally, the vote counts for all 30 players were published.

Wang Shuo had received 23 votes!

He beat Torres by a single vote.

It had to be said, that was a really close call.

Wang Shuo guessed that he had probably also benefited from UEFA’s series of promotions and hype-building recently.

Otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to rank so high.

But no matter what, for him, to make it into the top 30 of the European Golden Ball Award for the first time and go straight to 11th place was definitely a joyous occasion worth celebrating!

More importantly, this recognition was also a great source of motivation.

Wang Shuo now believed more firmly than ever that with the help of the Ball God System, he would definitely be able to keep making Breakthroughs.

’One day, I hope that the name at the very top of the European Golden Ball Award’s 30-man list will be mine!’

He could do it!

And he definitely would!