From the Man Behind the Football King to the Football King

Chapter 507 The Big Three Gather for the First Time

Two days later, on the afternoon of October 23, Bruno and Mourinho appeared together at the Palladium Theatre in London. Tonight, the 2016-2017 FIFA Awards will be held in this theater.

At the 2016 FIFA Awards held at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland earlier this year, although Bruno was selected for the final three-man list of the World Footballer of the Year and was selected for the Team of the Year, Bruno did not go to the scene to receive the award. The reason given by Bruno was that Manchester United would play in the League Cup semi-finals in a day.

Now, Bruno actually still doesn't want to go to the scene, because he knows very well that he is still unlikely to win this year's World Footballer of the Year, despite his near-perfect performance.

However, because FIFA held the awards ceremony in London, it only takes an hour by private jet. If Bruno doesn't go to the scene again, it is clear that he will not give face to FIFA and Ronaldo.

So, although he was reluctant, Bruno still went to London and appeared at the awards ceremony at the Palladium Theatre.

When he arrived at the scene, Bruno was immediately happy because he found that Yosi was also there. You know, this guy didn't attend the FIFA awards ceremony in the past two years.

It can be said that this is the first time that Bruno broke the monopoly of the two heroes on the Golden Ball and the World Footballer of the Year. After the world football officially entered the era of the Big Three, the Big Three gathered together.

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With the release of the awards, there were no unexpected situations.

After winning the World Footballer of the Year in 2016 at the beginning of the year, Ronaldo once again won the World Footballer of the Year in 2017.

For such a result, people have long expected it. After all, in 2017, Ronaldo's performance was indeed very good.

In the past less than ten months, Ronaldo scored 48 goals for Real Madrid and the Portuguese national team in various competitions, helping the Galacticos win the La Liga, Champions League and Spanish Super Cup, and also led the Portuguese national team to win the Confederations Cup.

The most important thing is that Real Madrid won the Champions League this year. This is the first time in 26 years since the Champions League was reformed in 1992 that a team has been able to defend the title.

In the previous 25 seasons, many teams were very close to defending the title, but they all failed in the end.

For example, from 1993 to 1995, AC Milan reached the finals for three consecutive years, but they only defeated Barcelona to win the championship in 1994, and lost to Ajax in the previous and next two seasons.

From 1995 to 1996, Ajax won the 1995 Champions League, but in the final a year later, they lost to Juventus in a penalty shootout and failed to defend the title.

But Juventus soon became the next team to fail to defend the title, and they finished second for two consecutive years in 1997 and 1998.

At the turn of the century, Valencia became the runner-up in 2000 and 2001.

Next is Manchester United. The Red Devils led by Ferguson, with the help of the twin stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney, have created a record of 25 consecutive unbeaten Champions League games, and no team has been able to break this record until now. However, they only won the Champions League in 2008, and lost 0:2 to the cosmic team Barcelona in the 2009 Champions League final.

This year, Real Madrid, known as the king of the Champions League, finally broke this curse and became the first team to successfully defend the Champions League in 26 years.

In fact, after entering the 21st century, it is very difficult for a team to reach the Champions League final for two consecutive years. In the past 17 years, only Valencia, Manchester United and Real Madrid have been able to do so.

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Although Cristiano Ronaldo won the World Footballer of the Year as expected, his advantage is not very obvious according to the published voting results.

According to data from the FIFA official website, among the four major voting groups, Cristiano Ronaldo's number of votes is the first, but he is not far ahead of Bruno behind him.

As for the captain of the national team, Ronaldo received 8.11% of the votes, Bruno received 7.69%, and Yosi received 2.1%.

In the voting for the head coach of the national team, Ronaldo received 8.52% of the votes, Bruno received 8.01%, and Yosi received 1.97%.

In the media, Ronaldo received 8.42% of the votes, Bruno received 7.75%, and Yosi received 2.43%.

In the final fan vote, Ronaldo received 8.91% of the votes, Messi received 8.31%, and Yosi received 1.55% of the votes.

In terms of the total votes, Ronaldo received 33.96%, Bruno received 31.76%, only 2.2 percentage points ahead of Bruno.

This has a lot to do with Bruno's personal performance in 2017 being not inferior to Ronaldo, and even better.

In the first ten months of 2017, Bruno played 55 games in all competitions on behalf of Manchester United and the Portuguese national team, scoring 60 goals and providing 34 assists, helping Manchester United win six championship trophies including the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League, Community Shield and European Super Cup, and also helped the Portuguese national team win the Russian Confederations Cup.

It can be said that Bruno's personal performance in 2017 was even better than Ronaldo's, but he failed to participate in the 2016-2017 Champions League, which became the key factor for him not to beat Ronaldo.

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This is Ronaldo's fifth time to win the World Footballer of the Year (FIFA Ballon d'Or) after 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016. He also surpassed Yosi and became the player who won the most World Footballer of the Year in history.

Of course, Ronaldo also has to thank Bruno for winning the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2015, otherwise he would just tie Yosi's record.

In the selection of several other awards, the World Footballer of the Year was won by Dutch female football player Martens, who defeated Venezuelan striker Castellanos and American female football player Carli Lloyd to win the award.

The candidates for the best men's football coach of the year are Allegri, Mourinho and Zidane. Allegri led Juventus to win the Serie A title last season and also reached the final of the Champions League. Mourinho led Manchester United to win the Premier League, Europa League, League Cup, FA Cup, Community Shield and European Super Cup in 2017, while Zidane led Real Madrid to win the Champions League and La Liga double last season and the Spanish Super Cup.

The final result was as expected. Real Madrid coach Zidane defeated Allegri and Mourinho and won the 2017 Best Men's Football Coach Award.

Dutch women's football coach Wegman won the Best Women's Football Coach Award, and Giroud won the 2017 Puskas Award. Celtic fans won the Best Fan Performance Award, and Francis Cone won the Fair Play Award.

In the selection of FIFA's annual best team, Buffon, Alves, Bonucci, Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Toni Kroos, Bruno Fernandes, Messi, Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo were selected.

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