Chapter 184: Mr. Ballon d'Or vs. the Messi Demon King
On the big screen in the theater,
first came Lionel Messi's bronze-ball highlights; under the camera he slid past flowers and leaves untouched… cutting through five and six opponents…
Frankly, watching the highlight reel alone, even Wu Lei would look like a world-class player for his single-leg plays.
Hearing the surrounding gasps, Xia Qi found it boring.
After Messi's reel came Cristiano Ronaldo's and then Xia Qi's.
In Xia Qi's highlight reel he seemed like a god descended to earth — killing gods, killing Buddhas — with a deadpan executive face. If shot in a dark Agence France-Presse style, it would have produced a truly tragic lone-star effect…
When the highlight reels ended, a pretty French presenter and guest Thierry Henry took the stage under bright lights.
Henry joked lightly with the guests; when he mentioned Xia Qi he said:
"Xia, I'm jealous. The Professor gave you more. If he'd made me a box-to-box forward back then, I think I'd have beaten Ronaldinho and Kaká long ago…"
A ripple of boos and then loud applause came from the floor.
After the opening remarks, the hostess handed Henry a white envelope.
Since the winners had already been published online, Henry didn't fake an Oscar-style suspense. He simply took out the card and read:
"Third place for the Ballon d'Or: Lionel Messi, 1,127 points."
The screen showed Messi's photo, score, club and nationality.
"Second place: Cristiano Ronaldo, 1,205 points."
"First place: Xia Qi, 1,365 points."
Although the number looks a hundred-plus points more than Cristiano Ronaldo's, it actually came down to only a few captain votes.
It was a razor-thin victory — the voting system puts a lot of weight on impression.
Xia Qi's win had to be thanked to that Bayern encounter; otherwise, Cristiano, who led Portugal to World Cup qualification for Brazil, might have taken a consecutive title.
In Ballon d'Or history Messi had won four in a row; Van Basten, Platini and Cruyff had three each.
Originally Cristiano might have had back-to-back wins ('08 and '13), but now, like Xia Qi, Ronaldinho and Kaká, each would own the award only once.
History had taken a turn.
Xia Qi came onstage to accept the trophy and gave his speech.
"Thanks to my parents, thank you to the Professor and the coaching staff, and my teammates…" As it was his first time, Xia Qi was a little nervous; everything was by the book, nothing flashy.
The Ballon d'Or ceremony also handed out awards for best male and female coach, the Puskás Award for goal of the year, the Fair Play award, Women's World Footballer, and other honors — eight in total.
Wenger received the best coach award. In his acceptance remarks the Professor sincerely told Henry: "Thierry, in my heart you and Xia are my favorites. It's just that back then at Highbury there wasn't as much space for you to move freely, whereas the Emirates is different — larger — so Xia has more space to operate.
"And as for you losing out to Ronaldinho and Kaká, might it be that your looks and temperament didn't match what the captains on the panel preferred?"
Thunderous clapping and laughter broke out.
...
The Ballon d'Or ceremony ended, and life went on.
The 2013–2014 FA Cup began — more precisely, the third round.
Freshly crowned Ballon d'Or winner Xia Qi led his teammates to a bloodless 3–0 win over North London neighbors Tottenham.
Turning to the Premier League matchweek 22, Arsenal beat Fulham 2–0 and kept rolling.
That night the Champions League quarter-final draw took place; Wenger flew to Zurich to attend.
Xia Qi and the others, as usual, gathered at Balotelli's villa.
UEFA invited German legend Lothar Matthäus and Dutch great Ruud Gullit as draw guests.
They stood on the left and right, each in front of a glass bowl labeled A and B. Between those two empty bowls sat another bowl filled with eight ping-pong balls.
Bowl A was host-first (home then away), B was away-first. Teams in A would play home first.
So Xia Qi and the others didn't want to be drawn into Bowl A. There were no easy opponents in the quarters; the real fight was over landing in Bowl B. Home-away order mattered.
UEFA rules meant the semis wouldn't be drawn separately, so the quarter draw was split into top and bottom halves.
First up was the top-half first tie. Matthäus, amid the group's mocking faces, walked to the middle bowl, stirred his hand in the balls, picked one, walked to the A bowl and opened the ball to read on camera: Manchester United.
Seeing old rivals Manchester United drawn into A, Xia Qi and the others snorted piggish laughs.
Balotelli passed a beer and clinked glasses with Xia Qi, then yelled at Gullit on TV: "Arsenal! Arsenal! Arsenal!"
Xia Qi and Kevin De Bruyne smiled at each other and drank.
If Balotelli hadn't shot his mouth off earlier, the struggling Manchester United might have been a decent draw this season.
But United had responded in pride and now the whole squad was united — not an easy opponent now.
Xia Qi winked at De Bruyne; the two agreed silently to pray the next ball wouldn't be the one in Gullit's hand.
Gullit opened a ping-pong ball and read the slip inside: Borussia Dortmund.
Balotelli howled in despair.
Xia Qi and De Bruyne raised their glasses.
Next was the bottom half's first tie — the team drawn there could only meet United or Dortmund in the final.
Last season Arsenal had faced Dortmund in the final.
Xia Qi suddenly had a strong premonition Arsenal would fall into the bottom half.
This time the two draw guests swapped positions, and Gullit drew for Bowl A.
Under the group's scornful faces, Gullit drew Barcelona — despite Pep Guardiola's Barcelona not having the same dream-trio dominance, they were still one of the teams nobody wanted.
But Murphy's law is everywhere — the more you don't want it, the more it happens!!!
Matthäus then drew Arsenal.
Instantly the room erupted in wails!!!
Bad news: opponent is Barca (the strong No. 2).
Good news: away first, home second.
The final draw read:
Top half: Manchester United vs. Dortmund, Real Madrid vs. Chelsea
Bottom half: Barcelona vs. Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atlético Madrid.
Looking at this draw, if UEFA hadn't meddled, who would believe it?
The top seed Real Madrid and No. 2 Barcelona were placed in different halves so they couldn't meet until the final, and every round now had talking points.
Quarter-final selling points: Real Madrid vs. Chelsea = Mourinho avenging his former club. Mourinho's ego felt that his impressive Real Madrid performance only led to dismissal because he was deemed conservative; he felt wronged and this tie had great promotional value.
Also Barcelona vs. Arsenal was a standout tie; it might even be hotter than Real vs. Chelsea.
In the semis,
you might see Real vs. Dortmund = clash of football's new and old forces. Real vs. Man United = Ferguson revenge story.
Arsenal vs. Atlético = near-big-club domestic clash, or Barcelona vs. Atlético = Spanish domestic war.
If the final turned out Real vs. Barcelona it would be like Mars colliding with Earth — exactly the outcome UEFA most wanted, a Kobe vs. LeBron equivalent.
Man United vs. Barcelona would also sell well — Barca's revenge tale.
You could say UEFA had crafted storylines for each round; every match had a promotional hook...
After the draw,
British media howled. The only "good" quarter draw looked like United — a scrap between mediocre sides. Whoever advanced would be normal, but in the semis they'd face the unstoppable BBC (Bale–Benzema–Cristiano), and advancing to the final would be tough.
They thought Arsenal and Chelsea were even weaker than United and might both lose in the quarters.
But Xia Qi and Arsenal didn't see it that way. This season, Suarez had joined Barca making MSN already paired; Barca had become extremely strong — but Xia Qi and Wenger believed they still had a shot.
Despite the pessimism,
Arsenal started serious preparations.
But before the Champions League quarter they had a Premier League match.
In matchweek 23, the Arsenal who claimed they had a chance vs. Barca were held 2–2 at home by visiting underdogs Southampton.
Frankly, Xia Qi played like shit — that is human inconsistency. Flowers don't bloom forever; AI would be different — no emotional fluctuations, no fatigue, consistent output.
In poor form, Xia Qi traveled with the team to Barcelona.
At the airport before departure, in an interview with British media he said: "Don't be so pessimistic. Don't forget we beat them twice last season in the Champions League quarters.
"Of course MSN is very strong this season — the most potent attacking trio. If Lionel Messi hadn't been injured for two weeks this season they'd have even more. But don't forget we're not weak either; we strengthened the holding midfield. Gustavo can play in this match so I can be closer to goal and help more."
Though Xia Qi tried to reassure others, he felt heavy inside.
Only he knew his own situation!
He couldn't "switch to AFK mode" — he might be the team's biggest weak point.
Xia Qi could only hope to explode in the match like he had against Bayern.
...
Barcelona, Spain.
Looking at the busy streets outside the hotel, Balotelli closed the window and sighed:
"Hope it's quiet tonight."
Xia Qi laughed: "You sleep like a pig; thunder wouldn't wake you. Why bother?"
Kevin De Bruyne made coffee, handed a cup to Xia Qi and added: "Barça fans shouldn't be as low as Bayern's were. This is one of football's sacred places, La Masia kids have their pride."
"Pride my ass! We beat them twice last season," Balotelli spat defiantly.
Xia Qi, seeing his arrogance, turned serious: "Mario, this season Barca's front three, MSN, have scored 93 goals so far. At this rate they'll reach a terrifying 134 by season's end.
"That's the combined tally of our four frontmen, and most of those goals came without me at my best lately. So if chances appear, you must seize them — don't zone out. This match depends on you and the tiger."
"Don't worry. You carried me before; now I'll carry you…"
Hearing Balotelli slap his chest, the room erupted in laughter…
In the afternoon Wenger led the squad to the Camp Nou pitch to suit themselves to the surface.
Pitch to pitch, differences matter.
FIFA doesn't strictly standardize field length and width, so club grounds vary.
Grass stiffness, slipperiness, the distance of stands from the pitch...
These details can become decisive.
After dinner in the hotel meeting room Wenger gave final tactical instructions.
His plan boiled down to two points: first, find ways to split the MSN trio, and second, use high-press to disrupt tiki-taka and wrest possession.
Simpler: run! Keep running!
After the meeting,
Xia Qi and the others returned to their rooms. They each had singles, but bedtime was far off. With a match the next day nobody wanted to schedule anything, so they all piled into Xia Qi's room to watch TV and shoot the breeze.
Barcelona is in Catalonia and has its own language.
Luckily Sky TV is available throughout Europe; otherwise they might as well be deaf.
Sky Sports aired the Champions League quarter previews.
As expected, Mourinho's revenge-over-his-former-club narrative was the week's hot topic.
Watching Mourinho declare he'd take a result away at the Bernabéu, Xia Qi and the lads laughed.
Chelsea's second-phase project hadn't gone smoothly; that's no secret in the Premier League. With internal and external troubles, Chelsea only stalled thanks to the magic of Juan Mata and others.
If they could beat a rampant Real Madrid under such strain, then football truly is round.
After reviewing Real vs. Chelsea, the program switched to previewing Xia Qi's match.
They labeled it: "Mr. Ballon d'Or vs. the Messi Demon King."
The pundits said fans hoped Xia Qi and Messi would have a moment of on-field conversation… (END CHAPTER)
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