"We hope the Golden Ball Award handles this matter properly."
Having said this, in fact, French Football has very little room to maneuver around Lu Yang.
They can’t let Lu Yang be completely out, yet they must respond to Lu Yang’s disrespect towards the Golden Ball Award.
"We can make him think he can enter the shortlist. But then, on the day of the ceremony... by then, the buzz and traffic have already been exhausted and it won’t matter how much he protests," someone suggested.
This seems to be the most reliable approach for French Football at the moment.
After the meeting ended, the Nike representative sought out Ah Ke’s representative: "Do you think things will go as smoothly as they imagine?"
Ah Ke’s representative nodded: "Of course. If they handle things beautifully this year, our company will increase our investment with them next year."
Nike’s representative said: "In that case, our company must speed things up. We can’t let you squeeze us out of the Golden Ball Award competition."
"Hahaha!"
Both of them laughed and turned around.
But after they turned, the smiles on their faces disappeared simultaneously.
That same evening, the Nike representative obtained the contact information of the head of the "World Footballer of the Year" award organization and called them.
"Great, thank you to Nike for the generous sponsorship, we will seriously consider your conditions... Um, okay... we’ll meet again later."
After hanging up, the FIFA award organizer said to the person next to him: "Sorry, buddy, it seems Ah Ke can’t exclusively name our awarding ceremony next year. You heard that call just now; it was from the head of Nike’s marketing department."
Beside the FIFA award organizer was the head of Ah Ke’s marketing department who had been very optimistic about the Golden Ball Award in the morning.
He looked somewhat regretful.
Indeed, Nike isn’t foolish.
Although he had released a smokescreen in the morning, from the other party’s proactive inquiries, he had guessed that the other party was also eyeing the World Footballer of the Year.
And indeed, that was the case.
The Golden Ball Award... has gotten into trouble!
If they don’t handle it well, their authority will substantially decline in the coming years.
By then, the World Footballer of the Year may have the upper hand in this aspect.
Ah Ke must plan ahead to maximize their benefits.
But Nike, being a top-tier company, also made the same judgment as Ah Ke, reaching out to the World Footballer of the Year awarding committee to arrange a backup plan.
Otherwise, if they wait until the Golden Ball Award truly declines to come knocking, they’ll find the exclusive naming rights have already been taken. Worse, the other party might have even signed an exclusive cooperation agreement.
The loss would be significant.
In fact, the method discussed by French Football today is indeed the only way, but they didn’t consider the harm it would cause to the fairness of the awards.
Whether Lu Yang acknowledges it or not, Lu Yang has now reached the "unofficial" standard previously set for the Golden Ball Award.
Lu Yang must enter the shortlist of thirty candidates.
Unless his performance in the next few matches is terrible.
But even a fool can see that with Lu Yang’s current form, he won’t perform poorly for the foreseeable future.
By then, French Football will find themselves in a dilemma.
If they go ahead with their original plan and cut Lu Yang from the thirty-person list, French Football will surely face a backlash.
This year’s Golden Ball Award might even be ridiculed as the "Water Ball Award."
However, if they give in to pressure and include Lu Yang in the thirty-person list, the award will still be clenched by Lu Yang.
The prestige of the Golden Ball Award will continue to slightly decline.
As Lu Yang continues to excel, the reputation of the Golden Ball Award will diminish further.
Essentially, the Golden Ball Award is already unable to prevent its decline, no matter how they handle it.
Unless they first keep a cool head this year, manipulate Lu Yang into the thirty-person shortlist, then spend a fortune to "curse" Lu Yang into an abrupt decline in performance over the next two to three years.
In this way, Lu Yang becomes a joke, and everything concerning him and the Golden Ball Award also turns into a laughable matter.
This is a possibility.
Although Lu Yang is the core of the National Team, he’s about to face a club transfer problem.
A transfer is akin to changing fortunes.
If handled poorly, his career might be directly ruined.
As long as some transfer traps are set for Lu Yang, the Golden Ball Award may still manage to escape smoothly.
Ah Ke and Nike might lend a hand to the Golden Ball Award on the transfer issue.
Yet they still have to worry about what happens if Lu Yang gets through this challenge.
Injury?
Injury may be the final safeguard for the Golden Ball Award.
Plus, Lu Yang has a history of major injuries, so theoretically, suffering another major injury isn’t impossible. However, the chance of this happening by natural means is slim, requiring artificial intervention, which carries significant risk.
Ah Ke and Nike might also give it a try for the Golden Ball Award, but... both plans require a certain cost and responsibility.
Very troublesome.
By contrast, infiltrating and nurturing a new award that can replace the Golden Ball Award would be much easier.
But over at the World Footballer of the Year committee, due to a sudden increase in sponsors wanting the naming rights for the next five or even ten years, they don’t know why but they understand how to elevate their value.
"Of course it’s not a problem, but since I’m here in person, with this attitude, we should have more rights than Nike in any case, don’t you think?" The Ah Ke representative chose to share the cake with Nike instead of insisting on swallowing it alone.