China Football Daily front-page headline, in bold—Tang Ye wins the 2020 and 2021 Ballon d'Ors, claiming three Ballon d'Ors in six years as a professional.
France Football—The winners of the 2020 and 2021 FIFA Ballon d'Ors were Manchester United midfielder Tang Ye.
This special Ballon d'Or ceremony had indeed drawn the attention of many fans and journalists, as was evident from the timing of the news releases.
After Tang Ye won the 2021 Ballon d'Or, he made an obvious hint during his speech on stage. From that moment onward, newspapers began continuously reporting on Tang Ye's double Ballon d'Or triumph.
In the end, newspapers such as The Sun, Mundo Deportivo, The Daily Mail, and China Football Daily released their Ballon d'Or reports even faster than the official France Football outlet!
Looking at the release times, one could imagine reporters from every newspaper crouched in front of their televisions watching the livestream.
CCTV-5 had no other programming after the Ballon d'Or ceremony. Just look at what they had scheduled afterward.
Good lord, Channel 5 was planning to replay the recording of the Ballon d'Or ceremony three times straight, making fans watch it over and over so they would firmly remember the sight of Tang Ye winning the Ballon d'Or.
Holding two Ballon d'Ors, Tang Ye gave his acceptance speech.
What was noteworthy was that a considerable portion of Tang Ye's speech was devoted to Utrecht and Erik ten Hag.
Clearly, in Tang Ye's heart, the first year of his professional career had been the most important one.
Fans familiar with Tang Ye all knew that his year at Utrecht had been the starting point of every change in his life.
Without that year at Utrecht, there would be no Tang Ye today.
Then there was Erik ten Hag...
Hiss... Objectively speaking,