Cannavaro wore a sharply tailored suit and looked every bit the Italian heartthrob.
When he stepped onto the stage, the entire venue erupted in warm applause.
Pique, who had just gone up to receive his place in the Best XI, was sitting in the second row. When he saw Cannavaro take the stage, he lightly patted Iniesta on the shoulder in the row ahead, as if to say, Buddy, it's locked up.
Messi was sitting right next to Iniesta. Seeing what Pique had done, he also smiled and reached out to pat Iniesta on the thigh. There was still a trace of bitterness in his eyes, because he had hoped to be the one to end the Yang Yang era.
But either way, having his teammate Iniesta win was still better than letting Yang Yang continue to monopolize the award, right?
Iniesta was even more nervous. He took a deep breath, smiled faintly at the two teammates beside and behind him, then turned back toward Cannavaro onstage. He felt that his fate was in Cannavaro's hands.
Someone once said that Italian players were born models.
And that really wasn't wrong. In Serie A, it was hardly unusual for players to moonlight as models; it was almost a traditional custom. Even the Italy National Team would shoot photo spreads for Italian fashion brands before every major tournament.
Players such as Cannavaro, Pirlo, Buffon, and Nesta were all darlings of the major fashion brands, not to mention attacking stars like Inzaghi and Vieri, who already possessed tremendous popularity.
Even a "moron" like Balotelli had been imbued with a distinctive, unconventional sense of fashion.
That was Italy, the fashion capital.
But it had also honed Italian players into versatile talents. So after Cannavaro took the stage, he showed no stage fright at