The End of a College Love Story

The first time Torres won the Ballon d'Or, he wept in Zurich.

Van Persie was grinding his teeth.

Clearly, he was closer to Huang Kaiwen, yet Torres was the one who won the Ballon d'Or.

Van Persie did not believe there had been no backroom dealings.

He felt it was not because of the goals, but because he had missed the UEFA Champions League final.

Still, there was always next year.

Van Persie decided that when the first snow of 2013 fell, he would stand outside Huang Kaiwen's house. If Huang Kaiwen refused to coach the Netherlands National Team at the 2014 World Cup, he would die right in front of him.

As long as they won the World Cup, the Ballon d'Or should be pretty much guaranteed.

Sigh.

Puyol still had not been discharged from the hospital.

And that guy had retired, so it would not be easy to boost his presence anymore.

In that short span of time, Van Persie sighed more than a dozen times.

Winning this thing in the future versus winning it now really was not the same. After all, injuries and form were impossible to predict for professional players.

Maybe missing this chance meant missing it forever.

Now, he had finally discovered a downside.

When Huang Kaiwen won the Ballon d'Or before, he at least had no particular thoughts about it and could take it in stride.

But now that Torres had won it, Van Persie felt like he would not be sleeping well anytime soon.

On the flight back to Milan, Van Persie was still in low spirits.

Ramos said, "Kevin, if you don't recover soon, the Italian Football Federation will have to change the rules for collecting championship medals."

"I'll do my best!" Huang Kaiwen said with a smile.

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