Chen Yingxiong felt that perhaps he should apologize to Christine Cabella, because after thinking about it all night, he figured Cabella definitely hadn't liked it. She had been forced by him, forced by the situation. As his bodyguard, she couldn't let him embarrass himself in that situation, so she chose to endure it.

One piece of evidence should be quite compelling: from that kiss until he went to training in the morning, Cabella hadn't said a single word to him.

That was enough to show that she hadn't been willing.

So, that meant that he, Chen Yingxiong, owed Cabella a favor.

But how could he apologize to her?

Say, "I'm sorry, Christine, I kissed you, it wasn't my intention..."

That was too hypocritical, because Chen Yingxiong had had the idea of kissing Cabella's sweet lips a long time ago. It was just that he couldn't beat her, so he was afraid of suffering cruel retaliation afterward...

Just as Chen Yingxiong was agonizing over this all morning and then taking the car home, Cabella suddenly spoke to him.

The first thing she said was, "Please fasten your seatbelt, Mr. Chen." That meant she was going to accelerate.

The second thing was, "We're here, please get out of the car."

Even though it was only two short sentences, it was enough for Chen Yingxiong. Because she usually didn't say much anyway, and just the fact that she was speaking meant she was back to normal.

This made him both surprised and relieved.

It would have been too awkward if she had continued to be silent!

※※※

When afternoon training ended, Chen Yingxiong was blocked outside the training ground by reporters.

"Who was the woman who attended the club's Christmas party with you last night, Hero?"

"Is she your new girlfriend?"

The media had already published the photos, which naturally attracted a lot of male fans' envy and jealousy, while female fans were very disappointed.

The reporters planned to continue digging deeper, hoping to find out the identity of this beauty.

But Chen Yingxiong's answer was like throwing a bucket of cold water on them.

"That's my bodyguard, Christine Cabella. Haven't you all met her?"

"Uh..." A group of reporters looked at each other, recalling the scene they had seen yesterday in their minds, still unable to connect the stunning beauty with the usually unsmiling, cold bodyguard.

"That's impossible..." one reporter exclaimed.

"I don't get paid for lying to you." Chen Yingxiong shrugged.

With Cabella back to normal, he was relieved and more comfortable dealing with this topic.

"We had a family banquet yesterday, and everyone was required to bring a female companion, as you all know... I'm single, so I had to ask Christine," Chen Yingxiong explained.

The harsh truth made the reporters feel that continuing to hype this topic was pointless.

Because everyone knew about the female bodyguard thing. The reporters had already hyped it up once before. At that time, they weren't sure and thought that Chen Yingxiong and his female bodyguard must be having some kind of shady relationship behind the scenes. One reporter even wrote a female version of "The Bodyguard" based on his imagination and published it in the newspaper. As it turned out, it was all a big misunderstanding.

Christine Cabella and Chen Yingxiong had nothing but an employer-employee relationship.

So, the relationship between Cabella and Chen Yingxiong only existed at the level of rumors.

"This topic ends here." Chen Yingxiong wasn't sure if the media would continue to hype this topic, whether it would be good or bad for him. If it further stimulated Cabella... she was normal now, but that didn't mean she would be normal in the future.

So, the best way was to stop the reporters from hyping this up.

"Sorry to disappoint you all!" Chen Yingxiong raised his arms and squeezed out of the crowd of reporters.

But how could the reporters let him slip away so easily?

If we can't ask about women, we can ask about other things, like... the European Golden Boy Award!

"Hero! Congratulations on winning the European Golden Boy Award! What do you think about catching the last train?" one reporter asked loudly, trying to stop Chen Yingxiong.

He succeeded. After hearing this question, Chen Yingxiong stopped and looked back at him.

Because he heard the words "last train."

The so-called "last train" actually meant that Chen Yingxiong had won the award in the last year of the age requirement for the award. If he still didn't get the European Golden Boy Award this year, then even if he performed better next year, he would definitely not be able to get it. If that were the case, he would forever miss out on this award.

At the age of twenty-one, he was also the oldest player to win the European Golden Boy Award to date. Some media even ridiculed that he could no longer be considered a "golden boy."

Chen Yingxiong stopped, turned around and said to the reporters: "I should have won the award last year. Even just based on my performance in the first half of the year, it was enough to win the award. But I didn't, so winning this year is also good. Last train? I don't care. Anyway, if I didn't win the award, it wouldn't be my regret, but the regret of the European Golden Boy Award itself. I think *Tuttosport* made the right decision at the last moment, which makes me very gratified."

After dropping this arrogant remark, he turned and walked away. This time, no matter how the reporters called after him, he didn't look back or stop.

※※※

The next day, Chen Yingxiong's words were published in the media.

And they also specifically extracted the most sensational and eye-catching sentence as the title: "Not winning the award is not my regret, but the regret of the European Golden Boy Award!"

Many people paid for the newspaper just for this sentence, wanting to see what that big-mouthed Chen Yingxiong had said again.

*Tuttosport*, which had learned about Chen Yingxiong's maverick personality, was not angry about this, because Chen Yingxiong had been in Serie A for more than a year, and the Italian media had already understood him and become familiar with him, just like they had understood and become familiar with Mourinho in the beginning. Their response was a very calm and detailed analysis of why Hero didn't win the award in 2008, but won it in 2009: "His performance in the first half of 2008 was indeed very amazing, but it lacked stability. The European Golden Boy Award is a comprehensive assessment of a player's performance throughout the year, not just a certain period of time. Otherwise, many young players could win the award. We know Hero is very dissatisfied with this, but it doesn't matter, he still has time and opportunities to prove himself. So his performance in 2009 was impeccable. Twenty-one goals in the first half of the year helped him surpass Zlatan Ibrahimović to win the Serie A Golden Boot. His performance in the second half of the year was still very strong. Second in the league scoring chart, first in the Champions League scoring chart... such a performance is enough to be elected as the European Golden Boy Award... In addition, we want to state that the European Golden Boy Award was initiated by us, but it is not selected by us alone. It is selected by a collective vote of thirty European media outlets..."

The media originally wanted to hype it up, but *Tuttosport* knew their colleagues' little thoughts very well, so they didn't give them a chance to climb up the pole at all.

Although Chen Yingxiong complained a lot about *Tuttosport* not giving him the European Golden Boy Award last year when he was interviewed by reporters, and said some things that made people feel very arrogant and shameless.

But after all, this award still belongs to him this year.

The European Golden Boy Award is not like the FIFA World Player of the Year or the Ballon d'Or, which have an awards ceremony.

*Tuttosport* neither has the appeal nor the financial strength to gather the stars in a tourist resort, and then invite the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to perform a symphony on the spot, and finally present the awards.

Their award ceremony is very simple—communicate in advance, and then go directly to the match venue to present the award to the winning player.

The club is still very formal about this award. After all, all the players who have been selected as European Golden Boy Award winners have now grown into world-class stars. The fact that their club has such a European Golden Boy Award winner is actually a kind of compliment to the club itself.

For many clubs, this is a good thing that they can't ask for.

Because a player who wins the European Golden Boy Award's value will definitely double.

If it weren't for the fact that Chen Yingxiong had only been in Naples for one season and was an unshakable core player for Naples, he might have had the opportunity to refresh his value again.

Some media analyzed Chen Yingxiong's value. When he transferred to Naples, the fixed transfer fee was 13 million euros, and there was also a floating clause, that is, if Chen Yingxiong won the Serie A Golden Boot, Naples would have to pay Zenit another 2 million euros.

As a result, Chen Yingxiong won the league's Golden Boot in his first season with the team, so Chen Yingxiong's transfer fee should actually be 15 million euros.

Now that he has won the European Golden Boy Award, it is conservatively estimated that his value is already 30 million euros. Of course, this is not just due to the European Golden Boy Award. He won the Serie A Golden Boot as soon as he landed in Serie A, and he is currently the top scorer in the Champions League. These have added value to him.

But the value of this thing, in addition to proving that Chen Yingxiong is becoming more and more famous, has no other effect, because Naples does not intend to sell him.

Like a house, when you don't sell it, it's just a house. A market value of one million is just a number and cannot be turned into real money.

※※※

On December 20th, the last league match before the winter break, Naples played against Chievo at home.

Before the start of this match, Chen Yingxiong accepted the European Golden Boy Award presented by *Tuttosport* in front of tens of thousands of Naples fans at the Stadio San Paolo.

The European Golden Boy Award trophy looks a bit similar to the Ballon d'Or. A golden football is placed on the base of the cup.

Chen Yingxiong raised the trophy in front of all the fans and showed it to the fans.

And the fans responded with applause and cheers—of course, how could the boos of the extreme fans be missing at this time?

The happiest people were the "Blue Giant Bear" fan organization located in an area of the west stand. They had already hung up their flags and slogans on the stand, pulled up their team, and everyone knew that they were Chen Yingxiong's fans.

Chen Yingxiong's winning the European Golden Boy Award naturally made them feel proud.

Perhaps encouraged by the European Golden Boy Award, Chen Yingxiong scored all two goals for the team in this match, helping the team beat Chievo 2:0 at home, and expanded his total number of goals in 2009 to thirty-eight goals. As a player who is only twenty-one years old, this achievement is very remarkable.

You know, the player with the most goals this year was Džeko, who played for Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, with a total of forty-five goals. The second place was Villa, who played for Valencia, with forty-three goals, and the third place was Messi of Barcelona, with forty-one goals.

But the number of goals scored by these people in various competitions includes various European competitions and... national team competitions.

Chen Yingxiong had no European competitions to play in the first half of 2009, and all his goals came from domestic leagues. At the same time, he had no national team matches. Every national team match day, while Džeko, Messi, and Villa were scoring goals for the national team, Chen Yingxiong couldn't even play a match, let alone increase his goal data.

Under such circumstances, Chen Yingxiong still scored thirty-eight goals, which shows his terrifying attacking power.

In a post-match interview with the media, he said that the European Golden Boy Award was just the beginning, far from the end.

"I hope that one day, this Golden Boy Award will become the Ballon d'Or." He shook the Golden Boy Award trophy in his hand and said to the reporters.

The next day, a reporter sighed in the media:

"...Two consecutive seasons as the top scorer in the Russian Premier League, winning the league's top scorer in his first season in Serie A, currently leading the scorer list in the Champions League with six goals, European Golden Boy Award winner, a total of thirty-eight goals in various competitions in 2009... All these achievements were only obtained by Chen Yingxiong before the age of twenty-two. Some people say that he has brought traditional centers back into people's field of vision, some say that he is a talented genius, and some people sneer at his personality. But I don't think it matters what others think to him, and he knows this himself, just like he said. The European Golden Boy Award is just the beginning, not the end..."

※※※

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