Wu Lei won the 2023 Chinese Golden Ball Award, his fourth individual award. Journalist Yin Bo gave his opinion on the incident.
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Wu Lei won the 2023 Chinese Football Golden Ball Award, sparking a huge wave of ridicule on social media platforms. Even Wu Lei himself was a bit embarrassed to receive the award. He said that he really had thoughts of not winning the award after his Super Cup loss before the ceremony. Although he eventually went, his expression while standing on the podium was still quite awkward, with the joy and calmness of winning the award barely visible. As a matter of fact, this is not Wu Lei's personal shame, but the unbearable of the whole Chinese soccer.
This is the fourth time Wu Lei has won the Chinese Golden Ball Award, and the first time he has been there to receive the award. The first three times he won the award, Wu Lei played in the Spanish club, the trophy was sent by the organizers to Barcelona to award. The process of these four awards is a true reflection of the trajectory of Chinese soccer from prosperity to decline. I remember Wu Lei's first two awards, the first was the only player in the Chinese Super League to play in the top five European leagues. He was young, dynamic, energetic, and had a bright future, so his election was uncontroversial. The second time was the pinnacle of his overseas career, breaking through the gates of Barcelona to win the much-desired honor. However, the third time was a bit awkward. By then, Wu Lei had been marginalized by the Spaniards, sitting on the bench, and still managed to make the list three times. The decline of Chinese soccer talent and the decline of the river is evident.
And this time, the fourth time to win the award, it is obvious that it is no longer appropriate to describe it as a reluctance, and it may be more appropriate to say that it is to make up the numbers or to have to let Wu Lei come out to be the target. Public opinion ridiculed Wu Lei himself and the organizers. However, I checked, before the final results were announced, the first round of voting for the top three candidates were Wei Shihao, Wu Lei and Yu Hanchao. In other words, the organizers could only choose the Chinese Golden Ball winner among these three candidates. Wu Lei was at least a mainstay of the last Chinese Super League championship. Wei Shihao's place in the top three hinges on his outstanding performance against Thailand in the national soccer preseason on the eve of the voting. It's fair to say he's played so well all year. 37-year-old Yu Hanchao is also a surprise inclusion in the list of candidates thanks to his goal in the FA Cup final. If you don't pick Wu Lei, you'll only get more abuse from the fans, be it Wei Shihao or Yu Hanchao?
As you can see, it's not that Wu Lei personally had to grab this veritable honor, or that the organizers intended to pull the general out of the cripple, but rather that the Chinese players could have chosen so much material for the organizers and the fans, that the mud really couldn't stick to the wall, even if the jury was replaced by you and I. What to do?
The Chinese Golden Ball Award is not an official award, but an award set up by the media. When Chinese soccer was founded, it was not at its peak, but it was far from the trough. With the blessing of the golden dollar bubble, it even gave people an illusion of a bright future. The original intention of the media to set up this award was to mimic the choices of FIFA's World Footballer of the Year and Europe's Ballon d'Or awards, seeking a balance between official and private awards that would reflect the development of Chinese soccer from different angles. In order to support the progress of local players and coaches, the Chinese Golden Ball Awards specifically limit the scope of the awards to the local area, excluding foreign aiders and foreign coaches. The motivation is definitely good, but it is also a result of self-restraint. At present, Chinese soccer is dependent on a breath of fresh air, and the positive role of the national football team is basically negligible. The all-important league relies on clubs with a home complex of fans to keep it going, and any furnished clubs rely on foreigners and foreign coaches for support. Therefore, after excluding foreigners, we should choose the "best". We should not expect anything.
So, let Wu Lei go. It may even be hard to find candidates for Wu Lei in the next draft early next year. If this award wants to continue, either liberalize the restrictions on foreign aid and foreign coaches, or simply change it to Youth Future Stars. It seems to be a sign of things to come that the team winners in this selection were not clubs or national teams, but rather the footloose Village Super. In short, such awards can only really convince the public if the chosen industry is prosperous or at least normal. The current Chinese soccer is not worthy of the term "Golden Ball".
