Chapter 58 European Golden Boy Award

At 12 p.m. on December 11, the focus match of the 21th round of the Spanish Football League, Barcelona is about to take place at home against Sevilla.

Former Barcelona striker Saviola returned to Camp Nou for the first time this season to start against his old club and was welcomed by Barcelona fans when the player list was announced before the game.

Ronaldinho also showed the European Golden Ball Award he had just won to the audience before the game started.

Rijkaard, who has recovered from his illness, still used a 4-3-3 attacking formation:

The goalkeeper is Valdés, number 1;

The back line from left to right is No. 16 Sylvinho, No. 5 Puyol, No. 23 Oleguer and No. 2 Belletti;

The iron triangle in the midfield is No. 15 Edmilson, No. 18 Gabriel and No. 24 Iniesta;

The forward trident is No. 30 Messi, No. 10 Ronaldinho and No. 9 Eto'o.

Before this round of the league, Sevilla was the best defensive team in La Liga, conceding only 14 goals in the first 8 rounds. Barcelona was the team with the strongest attacking power in La Liga. It all depends on whether the spear is sharp or the shield is strong in this game.

In the 4th minute of the game, Ronaldinho gave Sevilla a head start. He took a corner kick from the left and it went straight to the front post. With a bang, the ball hit the near post and bounced out of the bottom line.

However, Sevilla immediately fought back, proving that they were not a weakling or a soft persimmon that could be bullied at will.

Sevilla broke the deadlock almost in the 10th minute. Sevilla passed the ball straight in the middle, Kanoute successfully beat the offside, broke into the right side of the penalty area alone, and faced Valdés' attack and calmly passed the ball to the empty space in the middle!

Fortunately, Oleger cleared the ball before Saviola could shoot.

After that, the two sides exchanged punches and kicks, and the game entered a stalemate. It was not until 30 minutes into the game that Barcelona gradually took control of the game and gained more offensive power.

In the 33rd minute, Marti made a mistake in clearing the ball with his head. Ronaldinho stopped the ball and broke into the penalty area from the left side and made a back pass. Eto'o's shot from 16 yards in front of the goal was blocked by the defender.

In the 35th minute, Ronaldinho made a clever back-heel pass, and Navas, who was returning to defense, could only foul Sylvinho who broke through to stop Barcelona's attack. Navas also received a yellow card package.

Afterwards, Ronaldinho took a direct free kick from a small angle 25 yards on the left side, but the ball was caught by goalkeeper Palop in front of the goal line.

In the 41st minute, Ronaldinho made a comeback and shot from 25 yards on the left, but unfortunately it went wide of the far corner.

In the 45th minute, it was Messi's turn to pass the ball from the left side of the penalty area, but it slipped past the goal. (Ricardo commented sourly: The pass must have gone astray...)

The two sides entered the halftime break with a 0-0 draw.

The performance in the first half showed that Sevilla coach Juande Ramos had studied Barcelona thoroughly: to strangle Barcelona, ​​one must first strangle the midfield.

He set the area for siege against Barcelona in the midfield, and ignored the assists from Puyol and other defenders. Because the Barcelona defenders' passes lacked a sense of direction, it gave Sevilla time to arrange their defensive formation.

But the midfield consisting of Gabriel Garcia, Iniesta and Edmilson was not given any chance to think or breathe.

Even though Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Messi were able to perform in the few opportunities they had, Barcelona had few real chances to score goals due to the lack of supply and performance from the midfield.

The two sides changed sides in the second half and the game started almost the same as in the first half. Barcelona first made a show of force and then went to Sevilla to respond.

In the 48th minute, Ronaldinho's father sent a free kick from the left into the penalty area, but it was cleared. Gabriel shot the ball from inside the penalty area, but unfortunately it went wide.

In the 52nd minute, Ronaldinho's father did not pass the free kick from 30 yards on the left, but shot directly. The ball went straight to the far corner, but unfortunately it was slightly higher than the crossbar again.

In the 53rd minute, Sevilla was close to scoring again. Adriano broke into the penalty area from the left and made a low cross. Saviola rushed over and shot from 7 yards in front of the goal, but unfortunately it hit the post and went wide of the near corner.

In the 60th minute, Rijkaard replaced Messi with Larsson. However, not long after this substitution, Sevilla changed the score first! After all, three times the limit...

In the 63rd minute, Sevilla attacked with a very similar attack pattern to that 10 minutes ago. Adriano broke into the left side of the penalty area and made another low cross. Saviola succeeded in getting to the front point again and shot from 5 yards in front of the goal!

This time the ball hit the near post, but did not bounce out of the field but bounced to the far point. Kanoute easily pushed the ball into the empty goal from 3 yards in front of the goal.

After this goal, both sides made substitutions at the same time. In the 65th minute, Sevilla replaced Saviola with Fabiano to increase the running and pressure in the frontcourt; Rijkaard replaced Gabriel Gabri, who was almost invisible in this game and seemed to be a little injured, with Li Qi to increase the vitality of the midfield and frontcourt.

Li Qi, who can also play in midfield, was very excited when he came on the court. As soon as he came on the court, he intercepted Sevilla's pass and passed it directly to Ronaldinho's father on the left.

Unfortunately, Ronaldinho's father's attempt to pass was blocked by the opponent's full-back Marti and the ball was blocked at the bottom line, resulting in a corner kick.

However, it was this corner kick that Barcelona equalized the score.

In the 66th minute, Ronaldinho's father took the corner kick he had won from the left side. The strong rotation of the corner kick caused Marti to make a mistake in clearing the ball with his header at the front point, and it turned into a header pass...

The ball turned towards the far corner and was easily stopped by the unguarded Eto'o with his chest 3 yards in front of the goal, and then he headed the ball into the net.

This is the 13th league goal of the African Cheetah this season! Helping Barcelona tie the score!

In the 70th minute of the game, Rijkaard made another adjustment and used his last substitution, replacing Edmilson, who was repeatedly broken through by Adriano in this game, with Van Bronckhorst, hoping to overtake the score while consolidating the defense.

However, shortly after the substitution, Barcelona finally overtook the score in the 78th minute. Li Qi, who was very active after coming on as a substitute, once again intercepted Sevilla's pass in the middle and passed it directly to the middle of the opponent's defensive zone 3...

After stopping the ball, Larsson passed it back to Ronaldinho's father on the left wing without hesitation. The Brazilian elf received the ball and dribbled into the penalty area. From 16 yards in front of the center goal, he took a low shot into the lower right corner. The ball went cleanly through the goalkeeper's fingers and into the net.

This was Ronaldinho's 10th league goal of the season, and this goal also completely sealed the victory!

At the last moment, Li Qi intercepted the ball again and made a long pass to the left side of the penalty area. After being pulled out of the baseline by brother Larsson, the score of the game was fixed at 2-1. Barcelona reversed Sevilla at home.

With this victory, Barcelona also tied the club's longest winning streak record set in the 11/1955 season and maintained for nearly half a century with 56 consecutive wins.

Barcelona scored 11 goals and conceded only 34 goals in these 4 consecutive victories. Both offense and defense were at a cosmic level. The 11 consecutive victories also set the record for the most consecutive wins in all European leagues and European competitions this season.

Rijkaard said after the game: "In the first half, our offense lacked depth and Sevilla blocked all our passing routes. The second half seemed more satisfactory... Regarding the winning streak, it was just a sign. The important thing is that we continue to move towards victory."

In the next round, Barcelona will visit Cadiz on December 12. Players such as Deco and Max will be able to return, which will greatly alleviate the pressure of Barcelona's lack of midfield players.

If they win again, Barcelona will break the record of the ancient gods that has been dusted for half a century. It can be imagined that Rijkaard will have a very happy Christmas.

However, before the next round of the league starts, Barcelona will face the draw for the Champions League round of 16.

Before the draw ceremony for the Champions League round of 12 on December 16, early in the morning on the third day after the game, Ricardo Liqi received congratulatory text messages from his parents, brother Sarafina Julian and a group of friends: Congratulations, the new European Golden Boy!

On December 12, Italy's Turin Sports Daily announced the winner of this year's European Golden Boy Award selected by the newspaper: Barcelona and Italy national team's talented midfielder Riccardo Ricci was elected.

This is the first annual individual award Li Qi has won since his debut: he was selected as the European Best Newcomer in 2005.

The Golden Boy Award is the title of the Golden Ball Award for people under 21 years old. Li Qi's advantage in winning this award is not actually obvious. His score of 137 points is only 6 points more than the second place Messi, and only 10 points more than the third place winner Rooney. Of course, this may also be because Li Qi and Messi are teammates in the club and shared some of the votes.

Similar to France Football's European Ballon d'Or, Turin Sports' European Rookie Ballon d'Or is mainly awarded to young players under the age of 21 who play for European clubs.

The votes were submitted by more than 30 European sports media, and the selection adopted the Ballon d'Or scoring system. Ultimately, Turin Sports Daily was responsible for counting the votes and awarding the Rookie Ballon d'Or.

The European Golden Boy Award was founded by Turin Sports Daily only three years ago. The first Golden Boy was Rafael van der Vaart who played for Ajax at the time. Last year the award was given to Rooney.

Li Qi won the award mainly because of his outstanding performance in the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands. He not only led the Italian youth team to win the championship, but also won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards of the competition; of course, Li Qi's status as an Italian player also added points.

In addition, although Li Qi's performance in the club is not as impressive as Messi's, he has also been given stable substitute opportunities this season, and has contributed 2 goals and 3 assists in limited playing time. Therefore, his performance is not worse than Messi, whose playing time was affected by the lack of a Spanish passport at the beginning of the season.

At the national team level, Li Qi's performance is much better than Messi. Not only did he get the chance to start, but he also had 2 goals and 1 assist.

Compared with Li Qi, Messi played for the national team for the first time in the friendly match between Argentina and Hungary on August 8 this year, 17-2. However, he was sent off with a red card just 1 seconds after coming on as a substitute. Although this did not hinder Messi's future in the national team, it did reduce Messi's points in this selection...

In addition, Italian youth team coach Casiraghi gave Li Qi a very high evaluation in a public interview: "Li Qi is the cornerstone of the team. He is active in defense and has excellent skills. In particular, he has a maturity that does not match his age and an ability to read the game far beyond his peers... Yes, he has the ability to change the situation in an instant."

Italy national team coach Lippi also likes Li Qi very much: "Li Qi not only has excellent skills and awareness, but also has the attributes of a versatile player. He can play in multiple positions on the field and can make outstanding contributions..."

In addition, in this selection, in addition to Li Qi, Messi and Rooney who took the top three places, Podolski, Fabregas, Ronaldo and others ranked 4-6.

Massimo Franchi, editor-in-chief of Turin Sports Daily, will then make a special trip to Barcelona to present the award to Li Qi and invite Messi to attend the award ceremony to be held in Turin later.

……

"Hey, I'm sorry, Messi, I stole another award from you... But there's a high probability that this award will be yours next year... I will definitely pass the ball to you more on the court!" The award-winning Ricardo muttered the truth that perhaps only old Li Qi would know.

Seeing the sexy congratulatory message sent by Chiara, Ricardo with a pig face no longer cared about the friendship between teammates. He was just looking forward to Chiara, who had just finished her period, to come to Barcelona to provide logistical support at the weekend. Oh no, it was to celebrate Ricardo's award!

But thinking of Chiara, Ricardo thought of the messages and phone calls he received in the morning, and couldn't help frowning:

"Oh... By the way, we also need to discuss the Christmas schedule... Sarafina and Julian have also sent invitations... I just need to be able to use my shadow clone..."

"Besides, the fall semester will end next week, and I still need to discuss the first draft of the paper and the optimization of the code with the professor. Should I be able to pass it smoothly?"

"Yeah, these past two weeks have been so busy..."

……