Chapter 454: Chapter 124: Ballon d’Or Final Rankings! Fighting to Remain Unbeaten! Six-Finger Salute Celebration!

"Okay." Mael smiled and waved, saying, "Bye-bye, let’s talk later."

"Bye!"

...

"Messi wins the Golden Ball again! Mael receives the Puskás Award + 10th place in the Golden Ball! This is the youngest top ten in the history of world football!" — Spain’s "Marca"

"Arsenal’s young general scored a goal passing several players on December 31st, winning the Puskás Award, with 20+ goals and creating 30+ goals in the first half, which also put him in the top ten for the Golden Ball!" — UK’s "The Guardian"

"A strong challenger to Messi and Ronaldo? At this year’s Golden Ball Award ceremony, Mael stole the spotlight and once again made bold claims to win all awards!" — Italy’s "All Sports"

"First since Henry! Mael is the first Arsenal player to enter the top ten of the Golden Ball since Henry left!" — UK’s "Football Record"

"Still too green compared to Messi and Ronaldo, the player needs to win a league title and a Golden Boot and show competitiveness in the Champions League to hope to enter the ranks of competitors; otherwise, he’s far from Javi and Iniesta." — Spanish veteran Camacho

"Mael’s sharp gaze (with photo), the player’s desire for the Golden Ball, within 5 years, does he have a chance to realize his dream?" — China’s "Live Stream"

"I first got into the top 10 for the Golden Ball in 2000, I was already 23 years old then, for 7 consecutive years I entered the top 10 but never won, Mael will help me and Arsenal fulfill our dream and win this honor." — Henry’s social media comment

After the Golden Ball Award ceremony ended or, from the moment it began, messages on various social media platforms have been pouring in incessantly.

Many times, when fans see an interesting report and think about coming back to read it later, it’s already pushed to the bottom by other reports and can’t be found again.

This is the current heat!

And the heat and attention of the day were mostly focused on the top three of the Golden Ball..... the battle between Messi and Ronaldo needs no mention, it’s always a hot topic, especially during the annual awards.

As for Golden Ball third place Javi, he attracts more with a kind of tragic aura.

The career of the Spanish star doesn’t have much time left, and if he doesn’t get it this time, there’s almost no hope in the future, which will be a major regret in his career.

Apart from the hot discussion of the top three of the Golden Ball, the next focus is on Mael, who won the Puskás Award and entered the top ten of the Golden Ball.

His actions have broken many records in a row, taking the ’youngest’ records for many awards.

"Mael’s Twitter followers skyrocketed by three million overnight! He is about to reach 20 million fans on Facebook and Twitter, and surpassed two million on Instagram!" — "London Evening Paper"

"It is rumored that 18-year-old Mael is one of the major shareholders of Instagram, which grew rapidly after going online and has partnered with Mael many times for fast growth." — UK’s "Daily Mail"

"Is Instagram going to be acquired by Facebook? The price for this deal might reach 1.5 billion US Dollars.... If Mael truly is a shareholder of Instagram, he would become the youngest billionaire among athletes!" — "The Wall Street Journal" (U.S.)

"Rumor! There were other rumors claiming that the recently emerged ’Football Record’ also has Mael’s shares, but an 18-year-old young man, an athlete, wouldn’t possess this kind of investment vision. Refuse to be misled by rumors." — France’s "L’Equipe"

"Suspected romance exposed? It is said that Mael entered a suit store for a date with two women the day before the Golden Ball ceremony, staying for about half an hour before leaving." — "Sun" (with photo)

"Recently encountered some troubles, Sheffield United’s charity event has been put on hold." — McCabe’s social media

"Damn." — Mael’s social media

...

Amidst rampant external news and persistent heat, Mael focused intently on preparing for the rest of January’s schedule.

No matter how the public opinion ferments, it’s all external matters. Only by consistently performing at a high level on the field and working hard to improve his abilities off the field can he achieve his goals.

"Earlier, I underestimated other stars. If we evaluate by skill level, players of Messi and Ronaldo’s historical caliber certainly have several Level 4 skills and maybe one or two Level 5, or close to Level 5 capabilities."

This was the speculation Mael made after participating in this award ceremony, assessing their performance and data.

Perhaps not entirely accurate, maybe with some team support, but no matter the case, some abilities they’ve displayed at times are undoubtedly close to the Level 5 human limit.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have long annual achievements of 60+ or even 70+ goals, with explosive moments achieving an annual 91-goal feat.

Of course, Mael also wouldn’t underestimate himself. His current comprehensive ability is definitely close to theirs.

As long as he gradually fills more weaknesses, gains more Level 4 and has about two Level 5 skills, he’s confident that his performance will surely overshadow the duo at their peak!

This notion is also reflected in the data, his current performance is certainly better than theirs at the same age.

In fact, in the history of football, for players under 21 years old, apart from Ronaldo and the ancient King of Football Pele, there are almost no competitors for him.

And he surely won’t possess the attributes of a fragile player, certainly won’t stop here, so completely surpassing Ronaldo and Pele is just a matter of time.

Now few people even compare him to Ronaldo anymore, which is a good testament. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Pop! Pop...!"

On January 15th, when Mael returned to the Korni Training Base, preparing for the final day’s pre-match training before the away game against Swansea, as soon as he entered the locker room, he was hit by two salutes.