The Godfather of Football

"The winner of the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or is..."

When Pele was on the podium, he looked at the paper card in his hand and raised his head. The live TV camera gave him a close-up. The Brazilian legendary star smiled on his dark face, revealing a row of white teeth.

But the camera only stayed on Pele's face for a while, and soon the camera swept over the three candidates sitting under the podium, especially the close-ups of the expressions on their faces. Cristiano Ronaldo looked full of confidence, while Messi smiled calmly. Only Ribery looked very nervous and serious.

The camera quickly returned to Pele, and then the camera images of the three candidates appeared on the screen at the same time.

Although it sounds long, it is actually only a short one or two seconds, so after Pele smiled, he said to the microphone: "I believe that from now on, you can no longer say that I am a jinx!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole audience was in an uproar!

Cristiano Ronaldo, who originally looked tall, rich and handsome, appeared with his girlfriend. He immediately changed from full of confidence to being hit hard. Messi smiled and turned to Ribery beside him, but the Frenchman was still very nervous. Perhaps in his opinion, if Pele did not call out his name, it would not be true.

"... Frank Ribery, congratulations on winning the 2013 FIFA Golden Ball Award!"

As soon as Pele said this, the whole audience burst into extremely warm applause and cheers. Ribery's ferocious face was full of disbelief. He stood up from his seat, but quickly bent down and hugged Messi beside him tightly, then turned around. He seemed to be looking everywhere.

The three candidates were sitting in the first row. Ribery opened his mouth wide and blinked his eyes vigorously, looking very excited. When he saw Ye Qiu not far behind him, he ran back quickly, ran to Ye Qiu's side, and hugged Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon and others beside him.

At this time, his tears could not help falling.

"Go and receive the award, go and receive the award quickly!" Ye Qiu urged him loudly.

Ribery wiped the eyeballs from the corners of his eyes, walked down quickly, stepped onto the podium, and took the Golden Ball trophy from Pele's hands. He looked very excited, hugged FIFA President Blatter, Pele and UEFA President Platini, especially Platini, and hugged for a long time.

Standing in front of the microphone, putting the trophy gently on the podium, Ribery's tears fell again.

He can't be said to be a handsome man, and he even looks a bit ugly, but he has proved again and again with his football skills, his tenacity and hard work, his unremitting efforts, and his excellent team spirit that he is not inferior to anyone. He has conquered all the fans with his performance on the court.

Without accompanying him through the past few years, it is impossible to understand his mood at this moment.

In Tottenham Hotspur, he once reached the peak. He was once only one step away from the World Footballer of the Year, but injuries cruelly deprived him of this honor. Cristiano Ronaldo controversially took away his personal honor that originally belonged to him.

This is an extremely painful blow and setback for anyone.

But what is even more frustrating is that after returning from injury, his position in the team was replaced by his former little brother Messi. During the more than half a year when he was recovering from injury, Tottenham Hotspur not only successfully launched Gareth Bale, a talented rookie, but also successfully supported Messi to replace Ribery as the team's top star.

Ribery couldn't blame anyone for all this, because he knew very well that it was fate!

If he hadn't been injured, if he hadn't been injured that time, he wouldn't be like this now.

In the past five years, he has been eager to return to the peak of his career all the time. He has changed from a young man full of vigor and vitality to a semi-retired person who is over 30 and whose career is not as good as in his twilight years. He finds it difficult to challenge and replace Messi's position.

But even so, he is still loyal to his team and his professionalism. He uses laughter and jokes to hide the regret and frustration in his heart. He uses harder work on the court to stick to his persistence.

Five years later, he finally got the chance, and he finally had the chance to step onto this stage!

"I..." Ribery wanted to say something to the microphone, but couldn't say it, "... I'm sorry, I originally told myself that I was not allowed to cry whether I got it or not, but I am very, very disappointing!"

As soon as Ribery finished speaking, tears fell again, but the audience burst into an extremely warm applause.

With Ribery's performance, if he was not in Tottenham Hotspur, if he was not suppressed by Messi, he would have a better advantage in this selection, such as transferring to Real Madrid, but the Frenchman has always been loyal to Tottenham Hotspur.

"I still remember that five years ago, it was also here that I failed to win the World Footballer of the Year. At that time, our head coach, the person I respect the most in my life, Mr. Ye Qiu!" Ribery pointed at Ye Qiu in his seat with tears in his eyes, "He told me, Frank, I promise, I promise you, I will definitely help you win a World Footballer of the Year!"

"I never doubt anything he said, because without him, there would be no Franck Ribery!"

When he said this, Ribery lowered his head again and wiped away the tears in his eyes.

"That year, I was just a bricklayer on a construction site. It was him who brought me from a small French city to London. It was him who gave me the opportunity to step onto the stage of the Premier League when no team was willing to take me in. It was also him who trusted me, encouraged me and supported me again and again."

"There are many things I have never said to anyone, but today I want to say that I am proud and honored of my career. Even if I don't get this award today, even if I never have the chance to get it in my life, I will feel satisfied, proud and proud, because I have the best and most outstanding head coach and a group of the best teammates!"

"Thank you to everyone at Tottenham, Mr. Ye Qiu, Messi, and all my teammates. I don't know what to say, and I have no way to express my gratitude to you. I think the only thing I can do is to repay you with better and more outstanding performance on the football field."

After Ribery finished speaking, he won another round of extremely warm applause from the audience. After the Frenchman walked down the podium, he immediately hugged Messi who stood up. The two of them showed the Golden Ball trophy to the camera together, and several Tottenham players who came to the scene also came down at their invitation, gathered together, and let the reporters take pictures.

The entire award ceremony began to come to an end, and more reporters and media walked up to interview Ribery and Tottenham players. The entire Zurich Opera House suddenly became a mess.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Tottenham Hotspur has become the top player of the World Footballer of the Year, or the later FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony. In the past six years, Tottenham Hotspur has won five awards, of which Messi has won four and Ribery has won one.

From this report card, it is easy to see that Tottenham Hotspur is the undisputed top giant in today's football world, even the star-studded Real Madrid is far inferior.

But these are not the most important things. The most important thing is that many people predict that in the next few years, Tottenham Hotspur will continue to maintain this dominance over world football, because they not only have a group of outstanding superstars, but also a group of amazing talented new stars.

All of this has become the consensus of the outside world on Tottenham Hotspur!

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Ribery won his first FIFA Ballon d'Or in Zurich, which immediately became a festival for the British and French media. After the French superstar returned to London, he did something that made all Tottenham fans proud, that is, he followed Messi's move and donated the Ballon d'Or trophy to the museum at Stratford Stadium.

Although Tottenham's rise has only been less than eight years, the team's museum has already listed trophies on various fronts. Although the number is not enough to compete with those century-old giants, in terms of quality, a few Champions League trophies are enough to make Tottenham proud.

Perhaps stimulated by the FIFA Ballon d'Or, after Ribery returned to Tottenham, the team ushered in the 22nd round of the Premier League, away challenge Swansea, and scored twice, helping Tottenham to finally beat Swansea 3:1.

Chelsea's performance recovered in this round. With Hulk's hat trick, they defeated Moyes' Manchester United 3:1 at home.

Today's Red Devils Manchester United can be said to be a broken drum. Moyes' team has now fallen to the eighth place in the Premier League. Even after the Christmas devil schedule, they have not made much improvement and recovery. This has also made everyone very disappointed with Manchester United and Moyes, and believed that Moyes has entered the countdown to his dismissal.

Some people even speculated that the League Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur is likely to be Moyes's life-saving battle.

In other words, if Tottenham Hotspur cannot be defeated, Moyes is likely to be directly dismissed.

The Sun, which has always been omnipresent in finding out information, published an exclusive news, saying that Manchester United has contacted Moyes's successor in advance. It is said that Dortmund's head coach Klopp is closest to Manchester United, and another is Juventus' head coach Conte, but Manchester United officials have denied all these rumors.

Although Ye Qiu was not very satisfied with Moyes, he also disagreed with the practice of Manchester United management contacting other head coaches only half a year after signing a six-year contract with Moyes, and contacting other head coaches only halfway through the season was obviously not respectful enough for Moyes.

Things should be viewed from both sides. Moyes's coaching is indeed not very good, but Manchester United's lineup is indeed problematic.

However, even though Ye Qiu gave some support and encouragement to Moyes when he was interviewed by the media, he did not show any mercy on the court. In the League Cup semi-final, Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United 1:0 away, and Hazard scored the winning goal for Tottenham Hotspur.

In the fourth round of the FA Cup, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Coventry City of the English League 4-0. Mitrovic started the game, but his performance was only average. On the contrary, Januzaj performed very well, and Neymar scored twice. Tottenham Hotspur's rotation lineup performed quite well.

In two consecutive cup games, Ye Qiu played with a full substitute lineup, while the main lineup was waiting for the challenge from Pellegrini's Manchester City. Manchester City is currently aiming for the cup, so they sent all the main players to play in the previous two cup games.

This is also the strategy of many Premier League teams at present, such as Newcastle, Arsenal, West Ham United and other teams, and even Manchester City and Liverpool, which have better bench depth, all attach great importance to the cup, because Tottenham Hotspur dominates the Premier League and is in a stable state. If they want to win the championship, they can only make a breakthrough in the cup.

Therefore, in this game at Stratford Stadium, Manchester City did not show their best form throughout the game. Pellegrini is not good at rotation, and this season is also his first time, so he still played with the main lineup, but was suppressed by Tottenham Hotspur throughout the game.

In the end, relying on the goals of Ramsey and Messi, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Manchester City 2:0 at home.

Although it suffered a defeat in the league, Manchester City defeated the opponent with a score of 9:0 in two rounds in the League Cup semi-finals and successfully advanced to the League Cup final. If the current situation of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, who have one less round of League Cup, is based on the situation, the opponent encountered in the final is likely to be Tottenham Hotspur.

Three days later, in the 24th round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Hull City 1:0 away with Lewandowski's goal. This is also Tottenham Hotspur's 23rd consecutive victory in the Premier League this season, because there is one less round of the league.

In the middle of the week, all other competitors began to take a breather after the January schedule, but Tottenham Hotspur had to participate in a supplementary match of the League Cup semi-finals, and defeated Moyes' Manchester United 2:1 at home, completing a quadruple kill of the Red Devils.

This game was played very dangerously. After Tottenham Hotspur intercepted Giggs in the first half, they counterattacked and Pogba scored a goal, but in the second half, the team made a mistake in defending a corner kick, and Vidic headed the ball to equalize the score for Manchester United.

After that, Moyes' team began to counterattack, while Tottenham Hotspur was beaten a little embarrassed. Ye Qiu replaced three players in one breath. Finally, in the 87th minute, Eriksson passed the ball to Stroman, and Tottenham Hotspur scored the winning goal.

Moyes praised Stroman's performance after the game, and believed that the Dutchman not only made great contributions in the offense, especially in the first half, he planned a counterattack after stealing Giggs and broke Manchester United's goal. His contribution on the defensive end was also quite obvious, and he was elected the best player of the game.

After the game, the Red Devils fans used Stroman to ridicule and mock Moyes, believing that Manchester United had intended to introduce Stroman in the summer, but because of Moyes's indecision and more attention on Fabregas and others, the team missed Stroman. Now the Dutchman is here for revenge!

As for his almost transfer to Manchester United, Stroman denied it, saying that he had contacted Tottenham Hotspur as early as January 2013. As for Manchester United, he has never received any contact from Manchester United.

After being defeated by Tottenham Hotspur in two rounds, and losing all four matches this season, Moyes' Manchester United lost all face in the strong dialogue. After the game, almost all the Red Devils fans shouted and asked Moyes to resign.

But Moyes refused to resign voluntarily. He said he would continue to insist, and he believed that Ferguson's first season as Manchester United coach was also unsuccessful, but his later achievements were obvious to all.

But even if Moyes brought up Ferguson, he still couldn't convince the fans and management.

Moyes' resignation was obvious after the battle with Tottenham Hotspur!

After the League Cup semi-final, Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Everton at home. Drogba scored the only goal for Tottenham Hotspur and defeated the opponent 1:0, but Everton performed better in this game.

Four days later, Tottenham Hotspur challenged Newcastle away. This time, Tottenham Hotspur showed its best form. Messi not only had a shot after dribbling past four opposing players in the front of the penalty area, but also scored twice. Vidal and Lewandowski each scored a goal. Tottenham Hotspur defeated Newcastle 4:0 away.

Three days later, Tottenham Hotspur played with a half-main and half-substitute lineup and beat Liverpool 2:1 at home.

This game was won very dangerously. If Tottenham Hotspur had not played at home, and the team had penetrated Liverpool's goal twice in the first half of the first half, it would be difficult for Tottenham Hotspur to get out of it unscathed, especially in the second half, when Tottenham Hotspur played very awkwardly and was scored by Gerrard.

But no matter what, no matter how dangerous and embarrassing the game was, Tottenham Hotspur relied on tenacious defense to beat Liverpool 2:1 at home and successfully advanced to the FA Cup quarterfinals.

After the FA Cup, Tottenham Hotspur had another tough battle, away to Southampton.

But Tottenham Hotspur still did not show a good state in this battle. Lallana scored a goal at the beginning of the game, but Tottenham Hotspur equalized the score, but then lost the ball again. In the end, it was the second half with the goals of Matic and Ribery that narrowly defeated Southampton 3:2.

Immediately afterwards, Tottenham Hotspur looked very tired and out of shape in three games, including a 1:0 away win over Norwich, a 1:0 home win over Cardiff, the first round of the Champions League round of 16 knockouts, and a 2:0 away win over Olympiacos.

The opponents were not strong. If Tottenham Hotspur was in good shape, it could completely dominate the scene, but Tottenham Hotspur gave people a passive feeling in these games, and the scene did not show the team's strength.

And Tottenham Hotspur's poor state also gave Manchester City, the opponent of the League Cup final, more hope.