I Am Scouted by Real Madrid-Chapter 491 - 1: Building Momentum

"Will Chen become the new Ballon d’Or winner?"

"Last season he helped the team win the league championship and the King’s Cup."

"And the Champions League, league, King’s Cup Golden Boot, and also the European Golden Boot, made it into the La Liga Best XI, Best Midfielder in La Liga, Best Player of the Season. Becoming the new Ballon d’Or winner should not be a problem, right!?"

"But what about Sneijder? I think Sneijder deserves the Ballon d’Or more; he helped Inter Milan win the Triple Crown, and his season stats were excellent."

"This is a World Cup year! There’s never been a Ballon d’Or winner who wasn’t a member of the championship team in a World Cup year."

"I think the Ballon d’Or winner will emerge from either Xavi or Iniesta. Of course, I favor Iniesta more; I think his performance is better."

The rebranding of the Ballon d’Or was officially confirmed on July 1st; FIFA and French Football magazine reached an agreement to merge the World Footballer of the Year and Ballon d’Or into one. After the merger, the name ’Ballon d’Or’ will be retained, while other individual awards conferred by FIFA will remain unchanged.

The new Ballon d’Or will be awarded on January 10, 2011, in Zurich, Switzerland, and the partnership will last at least five years.

People have turned their focus to this ’new’ award, and naturally, the first recipient has garnered much attention. Clubs with players hopeful of winning the Ballon d’Or have started to make efforts.

For instance, at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo publicly expressed his support for Chen Zhong during an interview.

Real Madrid Club has clearly decided to ’push’ Chen Zhong as the main focus, given his match data which is in a class of its own; even Messi falls slightly short.

Other players like Sneijder, Xavi, Iniesta have no way to compare to Chen Zhong in terms of statistics.

If they were compared to Messi, they could argue that Messi is a forward, since last season Messi mostly appeared on the front line.

But compared to Chen Zhong?

They and Chen Zhong are all midfielders!

This point is very frustrating: how does a midfielder score so many goals?

Forwards have a natural advantage in award selections because of their good stats, yet now Chen Zhong, a midfielder, has posted forward-level goal statistics, even top-tier forward data, record-breaking stats—how can that not be astonishing?

From both personal data and personal honors, Chen Zhong has the advantage. After all, in club competitions, Chen Zhong has virtually won all personal awards; within Real Madrid Club, whether it’s goals or assists, he’s the best, having won four Golden Boots.

European Golden Boot, League Golden Boot, Champions League Golden Boot, King’s Cup Golden Boot.

He also made it into the Champions League Best XI, was the Best Midfielder in the Champions League, and Best Player and Best Midfielder in the league.

On club honors, he helped the team win the league championship, King’s Cup, and reached the semifinals in the Champions League, becoming one of the top four teams in the Champions League.

In these matches, Chen Zhong delivered "dominating" performance.

This is already a dreamlike season for an 18-year-old player.

When compared with other hot candidates for the Ballon d’Or in terms of collective honors, Sneijder stands alone as the Triple Crown winner in a broad sense and also a World Cup runner-up.

Iniesta, Xavi, and Messi all have the rather trivial Spanish Super Cup title at the club level. However, Iniesta and Xavi have their advantage, which is winning the Hercules Cup as World Cup champions, and in a World Cup year, there’s never been a situation where a World Cup-winning player hasn’t won the Ballon d’Or.

This is also why many people firmly believe Iniesta and Xavi will win the award.

However, although Chen Zhong lacks national team data in his collective honors, La Liga has already become the top league in the world by gathering multiple Ballon d’Or winners in 2010, alongside Chen Zhong’s outstanding personal data.

Among the five most-discussed possible winners in fan groups and media: Iniesta, Sneijder, Messi, Chen Zhong, Xavi, Chen Zhong ranks quite high.

Cristiano Ronaldo also has a group of "die-hard fans" supporting him. But now that Cristiano Ronaldo has openly voiced his support, a portion of votes will certainly go to Chen Zhong; of course, some will remain firmly behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese also received assurance from the club: if he can deliver phenomenal performance in matches, the club will fully support him in winning the Ballon d’Or.

Although the new season hasn’t started yet, the new Ballon d’Or selection is still based on the natural year system.

Whether the five hot candidates can increase their chance depends on their performance in the first half of the new season.

In this regard, Sneijder and Chen Zhong will face certain tests—with Barcelona being the most stable.

After all, Barcelona’s coach is Guardiola, and the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic seems to have become a foregone conclusion.

Many believe last season’s Barcelona mainly faltered due to internal issues. After solving the Ibrahimovic problem, they are bound to return to the peak.