Best Frenemies

After the FIFA awards ceremony ended, it was nearly midnight.

Su Dong and the others left the Zurich Opera House and returned to their hotel. They did not go to bed, but instead went straight into the second half of the celebrations, heading to the hotel bar to celebrate Su Dong winning the World Footballer of the Year award once again.

This was already his fourth time winning both Footballer of the Year awards.

"Congratulations, brother!" Rony said, affectionately draping an arm around Su Dong's shoulders. "The score is one-four. Just you wait!"

Messi gave a helpless, bitter smile from the side. "Be content. I'm still at zero-four."

They were all close friends, and it was rare for them to have a chance to gather like this. Especially over the past two or three years. Forget meeting up—sometimes they could barely manage a long phone call. They were all extremely busy.

Su Dong went without saying. His schedule was packed every day, with sponsor events squeezed into every available gap. Rony and Messi were no better. At their level, they had very little time they could truly control themselves.

Once the season began, they were busy with training and matches every day. Where would they find any time of their own?

So, whenever they managed to get together, they were all genuinely happy.

Kaka and Xavi were familiar with them too, but they did not have as much to talk about. After staying for a while, they left.

Lucio had refused from the start. There was a generation gap between him and these young men.

Only Su Dong, Rony, Messi, and Iniesta stayed until the end.

They moved from the bar to the open-air balcony and looked down at Zurich's beautiful night scenery. It gave them a familiar yet hazy