In fact, two weeks ago, a major event sparked widespread discussion among Chinese media and fans - UEFA announced the list of three finalists in Europe's best players, and as a representative of Chinese football, Zhou Yi was among them. He, Messi and Ribery entered the final on-site voting session together.

For Chinese football, it is of course a major event for Zhou Yi to be among them. Because there has never been a Chinese player who has reached this level before. Not to mention Chinese players, there is no one among Asian players, and Zhou Yi is the first one.

At first, everyone thought it was the Golden Globe Award, but later they found out that they were the best player in Europe.

This award is a little unfamiliar to Chinese fans. In our traditional impression, the two most famous annual awards in international football are also the peak of players' personal honors. They should be the "World Footballer" of FIFA and the "European Golden Ball Award" held by French Football.

What is the best player in Europe?

It sounds like it is not valuable and has a high moisture content. Is it because the Chinese media habitually puts gold on their players' faces and brags about it?

Chinese media quickly launched popular science and told everyone that this award is actually very awesome - the predecessor of the best player in Europe should be strictly speaking the "UEFA Club Best Player of the Season" awarded before the Champions League draw ceremony every year.

Chinese fans must have an impression of this. Every year before the group draw ceremony of the new European Champions League season, the best of the season will be awarded, including the best player, the best forward, the best midfielder, the best defender and the best goalkeeper. However, many people think that is the best in the Champions League, but in fact it is not, but the overall selection of all European club players, including the comprehensive evaluation of the player's performance in the club league, domestic cup, UEFA Cup, the Champions League, and even the national team competitions - yes, yes, the national team competitions are also included. For example, Zhou Yi is not a player of the European national team, but because he plays in the European team, his performance on behalf of the Chinese national team will be included in the selection reference.

In fact, this will have nothing to do with the Champions League, but because the reference value of the Champions League is too large, especially in non-season years, the performance in the Champions League can almost determine the results of these best awards. Over time, it gives people the impression that these best are the best in the Champions League.

One thing that can prove that is not the case - the award was established in the 1997-1998 season, and the first European Club Best Player winner was Brazilian striker Ronaldo who played for Inter Milan that season. He had never participated in the Champions League that season. He participated in the League Cup, helping Inter Milan defeat Lazio in the final and win the League Cup. In the final, the pendulum extraordinary goal became an eternal classic.

Since Ronaldo, those who can win this award are those who have participated in the Champions League, and even those who have won the Champions League championship - only the best player in the 2002-2003 season is an exception. Juventus, who he represents, lost to AC Milan in the Champions League final, but Buffon won the best player with his stable and outstanding performance. He won the best player as a goalkeeper, and Buffon is worthy of being the top goalkeeper in Europe.

After resolving the misunderstanding of this award, it will be easy to understand that this award is actually very important - in fact, it is not impossible to say that it is the official version of "European Footballer" of UEFA...

However, due to historical reasons, "French Football" has a long history of Golden Ball Awards. The World Football Masters' selection led by FIFA also started as early as 1991. Compared with them, the first European Best Player Selection held in 1998 is too young and lacking authority. In particular, this award has to be split into various positions, and its importance and topicality are not as good as the "only" World Football Masters and Golden Ball Awards.

But after 2010, this situation changed.

In 2010, FIFA cooperated with "French Football" to merge the World Footballer and the Golden Ball Awards, becoming the FIFA Golden Ball Awards. UEFA felt that it was too unhappy to have no voice in this year's selection, not to mention that FIFA and "French Football" had a mess. Sneider, who won the club's honorary triple crown and led the Dutch national team to the final of the World Cup in South Africa, lost to Messi in the FIFA Golden Ball Awards, and did not even make the final candidate list, which means that he was not even the top three in the voting session. Messi's teammates in the club, the midfield core Xavi, who helped the Spanish national team win the World Cup championship historic World Cup championship, and his partner Iniesta also lost to Messi. Messi's winning caused an uproar in the media and everyone questioned the authority and professionalism of the FIFA Golden Ball Awards.

Even Messi himself was embarrassed about him winning this award. The Catalan media felt that it was unreasonable not to give it to Xavi.

The Dutch media were angry that Sneijder was not even the top three.

After such a farce, UEFA led by Platini believes that they should respond to the voices of the masses and come out to maintain the fairness and authority of football selection.

However, "France Football" has cooperated with FIFA. The partnership will not expire until 2016, and the two parties can renew the contract. It is said that in order to obtain authorization from Amaury Media Group, the organizer of the Golden Globes, "France Football", Blatt paid Amaury Group 15 million euros.

Because they do not have the right to use the natural IP of the "Golden Globes", UEFA thought of the award for the best player of the UEFA season that they held for 12 years.

So in 2011, the original UEFA club best player selection was gone, and replaced by the "European Best Player" selection. The original method of sharing the best is also cancelled. Without the best forward, best goalkeeper, best midfielder, and best defender, there is only one best player left, representing the best player among the players who played for European clubs this season.

The difference between this award and FIFA's Golden Ball Award is that it does not use natural years as the time period to judge players' performance, but uses the season as the unit of time. Before each season begins, one of the best players in Europe in the entire season is selected.

In order to ensure the authority of the award, UEFA specializes in ESM - not to be confused with postal express delivery EMS, nor is it a European stability mechanism - cooperation. ESM is the abbreviation of the European Sports Media Alliance. This organization was established on June 9, 1989. It is a famous professional graphic sports media organization, composed of first-class sports media media in Europe. They have always been the selection agency for the European Golden Boot Awards and the best lineup each season. The agency is composed of fourteen top professional sports media, including Italy's "Sports Milan", Germany's "Kickers", Frankfurt Report, Spain's "Marca", Portugal's "Ball", England's "World Football", Russia's "Sports Express", Belgium's "Football Magazine", Turkey's "Feverland" and Denmark's "Lottery Intelligence", Netherlands' "Eleven Magazine", Telegraph and other famous media.

In China, Sports Weekly is also one of the members.

The authority and professionalism of such an institution are naturally unquestionable.

UEFA has brought the support of the European Sports Media League, which has also greatly increased the value of the freshman European Best Player. You should know why the European Golden Ball Award in "French Football" was always considered a more professional and more qualified award than the FIFA Football Master's selection? It is because of the different selection methods of the two, and the way that all FIFA FIFA member states voted, the Golden Ball Award uses the voting of European authoritative sports media reporters, which is even more convincing.

Now UEFA has done the same thing as "France Football". When the FIFA Golden Ball Award was controversial, the emergence of the European Best Player Award was naturally welcomed and recognized by the general public and professionals.

Some people even mistakenly regard this award as the successor of the European Golden Globe Award, which shows the professionalism of this award.

The players also regard this award as an important honor.

For example, in 2012, Iniesta was elected the European season's best player, Real Madrid star, and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo did not win the award. He directly showed his disappointment and was criticized for being uncharitable. If he didn't care about this award, would he be so obvious?

The allusion of the famous "Roman Three Votes" also happened in the first European season's Best Player. After Messi was elected the Best Player, Cristiano Ronaldo was ridiculed as "Roman Three Votes" because he only got three votes.

The best player in Europe is no longer a waste of money, but a well-known honor.

Zhou Yi, who was able to be a representative of Chinese players, was immediately different in history when he was selected into this final three-person list.

Before, everyone thought that he had outstanding personal abilities, but lacked the recognition of influential awards. Even if his supporters say that he is the world's top star, they will face the risk of being criticized. Now it won't.

This is an admission from the most authoritative European Sports Media League. Who dares to say that Zhou Yi is not the world's top player?

Chinese fans and media are naturally happy about Zhou Yi's selection, but at the same time they are also a little worried...

This is really strange. They are all included in the final three-person list. What else should I worry about?

What they were worried about was that Zhou Yi was selected this time, and he might be studying with the prince, but he was just going up to go and go there. In fact, he was not the one who won the award in the end!
Chapter completed!