Chapter 81 European Ballon d’Or Shortlist

Yin Jun scored a hat-trick and became the youngest hat-trick performer in the 11-year history of the Premier League. He was even just two days away from tying Alan Shearer's record of the youngest hat-trick performer in the English top league and became the country's youngest hat-trick player.

Before the team match day arrives, the most shocking news in world football.

At home, Chinese fans have gone absolutely crazy with joy.

Yin Jun's delay in getting a chance to play at Manchester United made many domestic fans worried. Later, when Yin Jun got a chance to play, fans began to worry that Yin Jun could not score goals and perform well at Manchester United.

However, Yin Jun shattered the clouds in everyone's hearts with his continuous highlight performance.

He first performed well in the Champions League, with 2 goals and 3 assists in 3 games, becoming the main contributor to Manchester United ranking first in the group after three rounds of group matches.

In the Premier League, although Yin Jun failed to score in the first two games, in the third game, he performed a hat trick that shocked the world, becoming the youngest hat trick performer in the history of the Premier League.

He even came close to breaking the record of the youngest hat-trick player in England's top flight held by England's legendary striker Alan Shearer.

Yin Jun's performance after joining Manchester United can be said to be true to the saying: after three years of non-flying, he will soar into the sky, and after three years of non-flying, he will become a blockbuster!

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Becoming the youngest player to score a hat trick in the history of the Premier League was not the most shocking thing about Yin Jun during this period, because the very next day, at noon on October 8, local time in Europe, a piece of news really shocked the world.

The football world was shocked.

According to news from Paris on October 8, 2002, local time in Europe, all editors and reporters of "France Football" magazine completed the "audition" through anonymous voting and finally officially announced the 50-person shortlist for the 2002 Ballon d'Or.

In this list, most of the players are players who play for major European clubs, and these players are pivotal figures in their respective clubs.

As the dominant player in the Premier League, although Manchester United lost all four players last season, there are still many players selected for this 50-man roster, including the top star Beckham, the main forward Dutch Ruud van Nistelrooy, and the England national team.

The team's defense backbone Rio Ferdinand, and midfielder Yin Jun, a talented young man from China!

As one of the top clubs in Europe, 4 people were selected for this 50-man roster, and the results are not too outstanding.

The La Liga giant Real Madrid has the most people selected for this 50-man roster. The Galacticos have Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo, Raul, Robert Kroos, Casillas, Makelele and other 7 people selected.

What really shocks and surprises people is Yin Jun’s selection!

However, considering that Yin Jun scored 5 goals and 1 assist in 3 games during the World Cup, he almost single-handedly defeated the later World Cup runner-up Turkey and advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup. There is also Yin Jun’s outstanding performance after joining Manchester United: Premier League 3

3 goals and 1 assist per game, 2 goals and 3 assists in 3 games in the Champions League, this is not so surprising.

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Yin Jun is not an Asian player selected for this 50-man roster. Japanese player Junichi Inamoto, who plays for Fulham in the Premier League, and South Korean player Seol Qi-hyun, who plays for Anderlecht, are also shortlisted.

These three of them are all players registered in the AFC who can be selected for this 50-man roster. They happen to be one person each from China, Japan and South Korea.

In fact, Yin Jun and the others were able to be shortlisted for this list thanks to changes in the selection rules of the European Ballon d'Or. This top award in world football, which was born 46 years ago, was originally only for Europe before 1994.

Players, it was not until 1995 that it was extended to players playing for European clubs.

If it had been 8 years ago, even a non-European player like Yin Jun would not have been selected for this list no matter how good his performance was.

According to the rules set by "French Football", 52 media reporter judges from Europe, each judge can list 5 names, and the players listed will receive 5-1 points in order of ranking. The points obtained by each player are accumulated.

The one with the highest score will win that year's "Golden Globe Award".

In other words, according to the current award rules, the theoretical maximum score for this award is 260 points!

Previously, the highest scorer in this award was Zidane. The French midfielder led the French team to win the World Cup in 1998 and received 50 of the 52 votes, with 45 votes for 5 points and 4 votes for 4 points.

There were 4 split votes and 1 3-point vote, resulting in a high score of 244 points!

According to this year’s award rules, the final voting will be held on December 18.

Although everyone knows that Yin Jun is unlikely to win this year's European Ballon d'Or, or even enter the top ten, his inclusion in the shortlist for this top football award, which is comparable to the World Footballer, is also a pioneer.

This was a first for a Chinese. When the news spread back to China, countless Chinese fans rejoiced and felt like it was the Chinese New Year.

In foreign countries, most football people are surprised that Yin Jun can be selected for this list, but they don't find it incomprehensible. On the one hand, Yin Jun's performance in the World Cup is indeed outstanding and can be called a phenomenon; on the other hand, Yin Jun's performance in the World Cup is indeed outstanding;

On the one hand, Yin Jun plays for Manchester United, which has a big enough platform, and he has really established a foothold at Manchester United just before the big list was released, and even shocked the world by performing a hat trick in the Premier League.

Becoming the youngest player to score a hat trick in the history of the Premier League. This undoubtedly created a strong impression in the minds of these 52 media reporters from Europe.

For a time, Yin Jun's reputation increased significantly.

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With the arrival of the national team match day, Yin Jun still stayed at Manchester United and did not rush back to China. Because the new Chinese national team has not yet been established.

Milu originally intended to continue to serve as the national team coach, but after some bargaining with the Football Association, he finally chose to give up.

So far, the position of head coach of the Chinese men's football team is still vacant, and the Football Association is actively looking for a target around the world.

Although the Chinese Olympic team was conducting qualifying rounds for the Athens Olympics during this period, Yin Jun was not called up by the head coach of the Chinese Olympic team despite Yin Jun's use of some tricks.

This also allows Yin Jun to stay at the Carrington training base to rest during the national team match day. This is very rare for him.
Chapter completed!