Fox in the Penalty Area

On Saturday, May 9th, the final round of the Premier League kicked off at the same time.

"!!! Holly!!! Holly!!!"

Matthew Cox's roar echoed in the room, and then the pause button was pressed, which stopped abruptly.

Bobby Klein put down the remote control in his hand and glanced at the frozen frame on the TV screen. It was the scene where Hu Lai turned around and ran to the stands after scoring a goal. He turned to the camera and was frozen. There was a hint of ferocity on his expression.

Then he glanced at the other people in the room.

"I believe that you have watched the video of this goal too many times in the past two days. The voting button for this goal appeared last on the website, but now it has the highest number of votes. In the fan voting session, This goal has been a complete victory, and there is no suspense. But everyone also knows that the selection of the best goal of the season needs the unanimous approval of our expert judges... Therefore, some people disagree that this goal is selected as the best goal of the season ?"

After several other people in the room looked at each other, they nodded: "No problem, this should be the best goal of the season."

"Fine. Then on to the next award - player of the season."

As a former England international, a well-known star, and the host of Sky TV's famous football program "When the Season is in Progress", Bobby Klein was invited by the Premier League to be the best player, best goal and best team of the season. The selection committee is in charge of the review.

Although the Premier League is not over yet, various selections have already begun. After all, the best of a season will not change because of the performance of a game.

Unless several candidates perform very closely.

"Unlike the voting for the best goal, the voting for the best player is very close. Currently, in the fan voting, Marvin Stones is temporarily ranked first, and Hu Lai is ranked second." Klein introduced, "Although Stones is not as good as Hu Lai in terms of personal goals, he has 10 assists while scoring 24 goals. Hu Lai has 30 goals and 3 assists. To be honest, the two of them The performances of the season were very good, so one of them won the best player of the season from the reporter association, and the other won the best player of the season from the players union."

Just yesterday, the English Press Association (FWA) announced the winner of their Player of the Season award. English native striker Marvin Stones, who plays for Manchester Athletic, won the player of the season award voted by professional journalists in England. This is the second consecutive season he has won this honor.

Earlier today, the Premier League Players Association (PFA) also announced the results of their player of the season selection. Hu Lai, who scored 30 goals for Leeds City and helped Leeds City lead the league scorer list, won this honor for the first time.

At the same time, he is also the first Chinese player and Asian player to win the best player of the season in the Premier League.

After one season, there will be three best player awards in the Premier League, which are the best players officially selected by the Premier League-that is, the awards that Klein is currently leading the judges to select; voted by the English Journalists Association Player of the Year; and Players' Union Player of the Year as voted by Premier League players.

Although they are all the best players, it does not mean that there is only one best player, and it is even rare for one of the three best players to take over all of them. After all, the selection parties have different starting points and consider different factors, which will eventually lead to different best players being selected.

The best player award of the Premier League Players Union is voted by the Premier League players. This best represents the status of the award-winning players in the minds of their peers. Being able to win this best award means that his performance has convinced his opponents. As the saying goes, "peers are enemies", and most of the players are competitive. It is naturally not easy to recognize that a certain person is the best of the season.

Hu Lai has done it this season. Considering that this is his first full Premier League season, it is even more difficult.

The best selection of the English Association of Journalists is the analysis and selection of sports journalists from a professional perspective. This best award often represents the opinions of experts. The selection is not too influenced by emotion and influence, but more technical factors. This time the reporters did not choose Hu Lai, but chose Stones, perhaps thinking that Stones not only scored 24 goals - not much less than Hu Lai in terms of goals - but also 10 times Assists, made a total of 34 goals for the team. Whether it is the comprehensiveness of ability or the contribution to the team's tactics, it is stronger than Hu Lai, a pure shooter.

So the reporters ended up voting for Marvin Stones.

There are rumors among the fans that based on the theory that "peers are enemies", they believe that the players' union's best selection has more gold content. But some people feel that the opinions of experts are more authoritative. As a result, there are usually supporters of the respective awards arguing over who is the best.

But in fact, it is difficult to say which of these two awards is better than the other. After all, the starting point is different. No matter who wins the award, it only means one thing-they are all top-performing players in this Premier League season.

Different from the selection by the Players Union and the Press Association, the official selection of the Premier League generally invites retired Premier League stars to serve as judges, and at the same time, fans vote, so the entertainment attribute is slightly more obvious, but it is still a very important annual award.

The official best of the Premier League does not necessarily have to be consistent with the best of the Players Union and the Journalists Association, so there will be a situation where the three best belong to three players.

But that's hardly the case with this season's best selection. That's because Houley and Stones are both very good and outstanding, and it's hard for other candidates to compare with them.

"So now it's easier—Stones, or Holly?" Klein asked.

Unlike the situation where the best goal of the season was unanimously recognized by everyone, at this time in the small office of the Premier League headquarters building, there were differences of opinion.

"I think Stones should get the best. His double-double performance in goals and assists this season is really amazing!"

"I think Hu Geng is the best of the season. Although the assist data is relatively small, it is because the two teams have different tactical positioning and requirements for the two of them..."

"I don't think it's caused by different requirements... Obviously, Hu is really not good at playing for his teammates..."

"Not good? Are you sure? His step-on-the-foot assist for Kamara against Tramed could have been named assist of the season - if we had the award..."

"It's just an occasional flash of inspiration, and it has no reference value... It's like if you only look at the highlights, any player is the king of the ball, but it may not be necessary to consider it in a long season..."

"What about the overall strength gap between Leeds City and Manchester Athletic? In terms of the ability of players in the midfield, Manchester Athletic is definitely better than Leeds City. Everyone has no objection to this? So when the strength of the teammates is not as good as Manchester Athletic. Hu Lai can score 30 goals, isn't that more indicative of his strength?"

"I don't agree. Athletic Manchester's midfield strength on paper is indeed better than that of Leeds City. But Kabanka's injury this season has greatly affected their offensive organization, so Stones' goals are not as good as expected. But despite the In this way, he still scored 24 goals and 10 assists, isn't this performance better?"

"But his performance did not bring Manchester United the league title, and Hu's 30 goals may make history. I think in terms of importance and influence, Hu deserves to be the best player of the season. !"

"Stones' goal helped Athletic Manchester win the FA Cup. Isn't the FA Cup the honor of Athletic Manchester this season?"

"We're talking about the Premier League season, not the cup. Obviously the Premier League title is more important than the FA Cup..."

"So do you look down on the FA Cup, which has a longer history? You must know that before the establishment of the Premier League, the FA Cup was the supreme football honor in the world..."

The judges in the room had a heated debate, and it was obvious that no one could convince anyone, and it was almost impossible to draw a conclusion in a short period of time.

Until Klein coughed.

Hearing him cough, the other judges all shut up and cast their gazes at the celebrity invited by the Premier League.

As the main judge, Klein's opinion is the most important, and he also has "one vote to decide" in the best selection.

After all, the external publicity said that it was the best one selected by celebrities, so of course he should be responsible for this result. These judges are only providing him with reference opinions, and he has to make the final decision.

"Gentlemen, I want to remind you of one thing that you have overlooked: In addition to being the best player of the players union, Hu Lai also won the best young player award of the season selected by the players union. The player who won both Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season awards from the Players Union this season is Athletic Manchester's Kendor Kabunca, the Brazilian super-genius who is as famous as Meli Banega."

When Klein said this, he paused for a moment, and changed into another tone: "Of course, I'm not saying that our official selection of the best should be consistent with the results of the players union. I just want to remind everyone that since Since the players union began to select the best young player award, only two people have achieved the achievement of winning these two honors in one season. And Kabanka won the official season in the season he did it. "

The judges looked at each other, and then someone asked: "Then Mr. Klein, who do you think should win the official best of the season?"

Klein pointed to the frozen figure on the TV screen behind him: "I vote for him."

※※※

"The 2025-2026 season of the Premier League is coming to an end. Although the league champion has not yet been decided, and the league's top scorer is also theoretically possible to reverse, for Hu Lai, he has already received two big gifts in advance-yesterday In the morning, the Premier League Players Union PFA announced their Player of the Year winners. Chinese player Hu Lai won the best player voted by the players. At the same time, he also won the Players Union’s Young Player of the Year Award... He is also After Kendor Kabanka, the second player to win both honors in one season...

"And this afternoon, the Premier League officially announced the best goal of the season. The best goal of the season was the lore goal scored by Hou Lai against Tramed. He also and teammate Ismail Kamara and Pete Williams were selected into the best team of the season together... At the same time, Hou Lai also won the Premier League's official player of the season!"

Speaking of this, the voice of the newscaster became high-pitched and excited.

Then Hu Lai appeared on the screen, with three best trophies in front of him, and he was being interviewed by reporters.

"...I didn't expect to be recognized by so many of my peers, after all, I scored so many goals from them...Ha! I'm kidding! It's great to be recognized by my peers, it's a big deal for me I am also very happy to be officially recognized by the Premier League. But I think this is not an award for me alone, but for the whole team of Leeds City, because as we all know, I am a player who can only score goals. My teammates pass the ball to me and support me from behind, then I can't actually score a few goals..."

Hu Lai appeared on the screen with a smile on his face, a sincere attitude, and modest words, but he would not make people think he was hypocritical.

Seeing such a son, Xie Lan was filled with joy and pride, and then said to her husband: "These three trophies can always be brought back and put on display?"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Hu Lixin nodded again and again. He now thinks that his wife should be a dragon, and he likes those shiny things on mobile phones more and more.