Chapter 900 Best of the Season
On Saturday, May 9, the final round of the Premier League kicked off at the same time.
"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI!!! Hu Lai!! Hu Lai!!!"
Matthew Cox's roar echoed in the room, and then stopped abruptly when someone pressed the pause button.
Bobby Klein put down the remote control in his hand and first took a look at the frozen scene on the TV screen. It was the scene where Hulay turned around and ran towards the stands after scoring a goal. His profile was facing the camera, frozen. There was a hint of ferocity in his expression.
Then he glanced at the other people in the room.
"I believe you have watched the video of this goal too many times in the past two days. The voting button for this goal appeared last on the website, but now it is the one with the highest votes. In the fan voting session, This goal has won the game, and there is no suspense anymore. But everyone also knows that the selection of the best goal of the season requires the unanimous approval of our expert judges... Therefore, some people do not agree with this goal being selected as the best goal of the season. ”
Several other people in the room looked at each other and nodded: "No objection, this should be the best goal of the season."
"Good. Now on to the next award - Player of the Season."
As a former England international, a well-known star, and the host of Sky TV's famous football program "The Season", Bobby Klein was invited by the Premier League to serve as the best player, best goal and best team of the season. Presided over by the selection committee.
Although the Premier League is not over yet, various selections have already begun. After all, the best performance in a season will not change based on the performance of one game.
Unless several candidates perform very closely.
"Unlike the voting for the best goal, the voting for the best player is very close. Currently in the fan voting, Marvin Stones is temporarily ranked first, and Hu Lai is ranked second." Klein introduced, "Although Stones is not as good as Hulay in terms of personal goals, he scored 24 goals. At the same time, Hu Lai had 30 goals and three assists. To be honest, both of them performed very well this season, so one of them won the Player of the Season award from the Journalists Association. A Players Association Player of the Season award."
Just yesterday, the English Press Association (FWA) announced the winner of their Player of the Season award. English native striker Marvin Stones, who plays for Manchester United, won the Player of the Season award voted by professional journalists in England. This is also the second consecutive season he has won this award.
Earlier today, the Premier League Players' Association (PFA) also announced the results of their Player of the Season selection. Hulay, who scored 30 goals for Leeds City and helped Leeds City lead the league standings, won this honor for the first time. At the same time, he is also the first Chinese player and Asian player to win the Premier League Player of the Season.
After a season, there will be three best player awards in the Premier League. They are the best player officially selected by the Premier League - which is the award that Klein is currently leading the judges to select; voted by the English Journalists Association. Player of the Year; and Players Association Player of the Year vote by Premier League players.
Although they are all the best players, it does not mean that there is only one best player. Even among the three best players, it is rare for one person to win them all. After all, the selection parties have different starting points and consider different factors, which will ultimately lead to different best players being selected.
The Premier League Players Association's best player award is voted for by Premier League players. This best represents the status of the winning player in the minds of his peers. Being able to win this best means that his performance impressed his opponents. As the saying goes, "comrades are enemies," and most players are competitive. It is not easy to recognize someone as the best player of the season.
Hu Lai has done it this season, which is even more difficult considering this is his first full Premier League season.
The best selection of the England Journalists Association is an analysis and selection by sports journalists from a professional perspective. This best award often represents the opinions of experts. The selection is not so much driven by emotion and influence, but more by technical factors. This time the reporters did not choose Hulay, but Stones, perhaps thinking that Stones not only had twenty-four goals - not much less than Hulay in terms of number of goals - but also ten times Assists, creating a total of thirty-four goals for the team. Whether it is the comprehensiveness of his abilities or his contribution to the team's tactics, he is stronger than Hu Lai, a pure shooter.
So reporters ultimately voted for Marvin Stones.
There are rumors among fans that based on the theory of "peers are enemies", they believe that the players' union's best selection is more valuable. But some people feel that the opinions of experts are more authoritative. So there are usually supporters of the respective awards bickering over who is the best.
But in fact, it is difficult to say who is better than the other between the two awards. After all, the starting points are different. No matter who wins the award, it only means one thing - they are all the top players in this Premier League season.
Different from the selections of the Players Union and the Journalists Association, the official selections of the Premier League generally invite retired Premier League stars to serve as judges, and also open voting by fans, so the entertainment attribute is slightly more obvious, but it is still a very important annual award.
The official best of the Premier League does not necessarily have to be consistent with the best of the Players Union and Journalists Association, so there will be a situation where the three best belong to three players.
But this is unlikely to happen in this season's best selection. This is because Hulay and Stones are both very good and outstanding, and it is difficult for other candidates to compare with them.
"So now it's easy - Stones, or Hulay?" Klein asked.
Unlike the situation where the best goal of the season was unanimously recognized by everyone, at this time, there were differences of opinion in the small office in the Premier League headquarters building.
"I think Stones should win the best. His performance of double-double in goals and assists this season is really amazing!"
"I think Hu Geng can be called the best of the season. Although his assist data is relatively small, this is because the two teams have different tactical positioning and requirements for them..."
"I don't think this is caused by different requirements...It's obvious that Hu is really not good at playing for his teammates..."
"Not good at it? Are you sure? The ball he stepped on to assist Kamara in the game against Tramed could have been named the best assist of the season - if we had this award..."
"That's just an occasional flash of inspiration, with no reference value... Just like if you only look at the highlights, any player is the best player, but it may not necessarily be considered comprehensively during the entire long season..."< br>
"What about the overall strength gap between Leeds City and Manchester Athletic? In terms of player ability in the midfield and frontcourt, Manchester Athletic is definitely better than Leeds City. No one has any objection to this, right? So when the strength of teammates is not as good as Manchester Athletic, Hu Lai can score thirty goals, doesn’t this further illustrate his greatness?”
"I don't agree. Manchester Athletic's midfield and frontcourt are indeed better on paper than Leeds City. However, Kabangka's injury this season has greatly affected their offensive organization, so Stones's goals are not as good as expected. But although Even so, he still scored 24 goals and had ten assists. Isn’t this performance better?”
"But his performance did not bring the league title to Manchester United, but Hu's thirty goals may have made history. I think in terms of importance and influence, Hu deserves to be elected as the best of the season." ! ”
"Stones' goal helped Manchester United win the FA Cup. Isn't the FA Cup an honor for Manchester United this season?"
"We are talking about the Premier League season, not the cup competition. Obviously the Premier League title is more important than the FA Cup..."
"So do you look down on the FA Cup, which has a longer history? You must know that before the establishment of the Premier League, the FA Cup was the highest football honor in the world..."
The judges in the room started a heated debate. It was obvious that no one could convince anyone. It was almost impossible to come to a conclusion in a short time.
Until Klein coughed.
Hearing him cough, the other judges shut their mouths and looked at the celebrity invited by the Premier League.
As the chief judge, Klein's opinion carries the most weight, and he also has "one vote to decide" in the best selection.
After all, the external publicity said that he was the best selected by celebrities. Of course, he must be responsible for this result. These judges only provide him with reference opinions, and it is he who makes the final decision.
"Gentlemen, I want to remind you of one thing that you have overlooked: In addition to winning the best player of the players union, Hulay also won the best young player award of the season selected by the players union. And the last one can win in a The person who won both the Players' Association's Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season honors this season is Manchester Athletic's Kendall Kabangka, the Brazilian super genius who is as famous as Meli Banega."
When Klein said this, he paused for a moment and changed his tone: "Of course, I am not saying that our official best selection should be consistent with the results of the players union. I just want to remind everyone that since Since the Players Association began to select the best young player award, only two people have achieved the achievement of winning these two honors in one season, and Kabangka won the official season best in the season he won."
The judges looked at each other, and then someone asked: "Mr. Klein, who do you think should win the official best of the season?"
Klein pointed to the figure frozen on the TV screen behind him: "I vote for him."
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"The 2025-2026 Premier League season is coming to an end. Although the league championship has not yet been decided, and there is a theoretical possibility of a reversal for the league's top scorer, for Hu Lai, he has already received two big gifts in advance - yesterday In the morning, the Premier League Players Association PFA announced their annual The winner of the best player, Chinese player Hu Lai won the best player voted by the players. At the same time, he also won the best young player of the year award from the players union... He is also the first player after Kendall Kabangka. Two players who won both honors in one season...
"This afternoon, the Premier League officially announced the best goals of the season. The best goal of the season was the winning goal scored by Hulay against Tramed. He also and teammate Ismail ·Kamara and Pete Williams were selected into the Team of the Season together... At the same time, Hulay also won the official Player of the Season selection from the Premier League! ”
At this point, the newscaster's voice became high-pitched and exciting.
Then Hu Lai appeared on the screen. He had three best trophies in front of him and was being interviewed by reporters.
"...I really didn't expect that I could be recognized by so many colleagues. After all, I scored so many goals for them...Ha! I'm kidding! I'm very happy to be recognized by my peers. This is very amazing for me. I am also very happy to be officially recognized by the Premier League! Yes. But I think this award is not for me alone, but for the entire Leeds City team, because as we all know, I am a player who can only score goals. If I don’t have my teammates passing the ball to me and supporting me from behind, Then I actually won’t be able to score a few goals..."
Hu Lai appears on the screen with a smile, a sincere attitude, and modest words, but he will not be considered hypocritical at all.
Xie Lan looked at her son like this, filled with joy and pride, and then said to her husband: "Can I get these three trophies back and put them on display?"
"Yes, yes, yes..." Hu Lixin nodded repeatedly. He now felt that his wife should be a dragon, and he liked collecting those shiny things even more. (End of chapter)