Chapter 1 The Photos and Videos on the Red Carpet

Although Zhou Yi had already entered the Grimaldi Forum, photos and videos of him on the red carpet were still being frantically circulated on the Chinese internet, and everyone was enthusiastically discussing his first red carpet appearance.

"You can't tell it's his first time at all, he's not nervous at all. I'm reminded of his first appearance in the Bundesliga, he wasn't nervous either... Is Zhou Yi's nickname 'Not Nervous'?"

"It's the first time I've seen Zhou Yi in formal wear. I used to find it hard to imagine Zhou Yi, such an unserious person, wearing formal wear, but I didn't expect him to look so handsome in it!"

"Looking at his smile, it's simply captivating! At first glance, I thought it was a movie star walking the Oscars red carpet!"

...

Whether male fans or female fans, they were full of praise for Zhou Yi, with hearts in their eyes.

In the past, comments about being "handsome" had never appeared on Zhou Yi, but this time, whether it was the rare formal attire that added points, or the halo of being in the top three for the European Player of the Year...

The red carpet event for the stars continued, and Messi and Ribery both appeared one after another. The screams at the scene continued, with the loudest screams when Messi appeared.

Seeing this scene, the Chinese reporters at the scene couldn't help but mutter: "Messi's influence is still the greatest, the cheers are not on the same level as Zhou Yi's just now..."

"What are you afraid of? Fortunately, this time it's a vote by reporters, not a vote by national team coaches and captains, otherwise I wouldn't even come to report – Zhou Yi would definitely be playing second fiddle."

"Even if he doesn't get first place, being in the top three is historic... I mean the FIFA Ballon d'Or, being in the top three shows that Zhou Yi is already one of the top three figures in world football in terms of popularity..."

On the internet, however, Chinese fans were not very concerned about the subsequent red carpet stars. Everyone began to look forward to the final awards ceremony.

But no matter how concerned they were, they still had to patiently wait for all the procedures to be completed.

After the red carpet session, everyone entered the conference hall, sat down, and waited for the Champions League draw to begin.

The Champions League group stage draw for the new season is the focus of everyone's attention every year, and this year is no exception. It is also in China, because of Zhou Yi, that everyone is more concerned about the final awards ceremony.

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Before the start of the Champions League group stage draw, a review short film of last season's Champions League final was played on the big screen at the scene. The short film reviewed Dortmund's Champions League trophy journey last season in the form of an art gallery, and Zhou Yi appeared in it many times.

Chinese fans watching the live broadcast were very happy - with such performance, doesn't he deserve the European Player of the Year?

The last shot of the short film was the moment when the entire Dortmund team lifted the Champions League trophy.

After the short film was shown, McNeill, who had led Scottish Celtic to win the Champions League trophy, walked into the draw ceremony venue holding the trophy.

Then the Champions League draw ceremony officially began.

The first draw guest was Portuguese legendary star and Champions League ambassador Luís Figo. UEFA Secretary General Infantino was the host of the Champions League draw, and he first introduced the rules of the draw: Thirty-two teams are divided into four levels and evenly divided into eight groups. Teams from the same league will not meet in the same group.

At this time, Chinese fans also began to temporarily shift their attention from the awards to the draw ceremony. Anyway, this process has to be experienced, so it's better to take a good look. They also wanted to know which group Dortmund would be assigned to this season. Last season, Dortmund was assigned to the group of death, but they unexpectedly turned the group of death into "someone else's group of death", took the lead in breaking through, and went all the way to win the Champions League. In this way, the group of death seems to have given Dortmund good luck...

Everyone believes that Dortmund, as the defending champion, will definitely be a seeded team.

But the result was not the case.

According to UEFA's grading rules, they rank the thirty-two teams according to their European战积分 (Ouzhan Jifen) (European competition points) over the past five years. The top eight teams are the seeded teams, and the ninth to sixteenth teams are the second-tier teams... and so on.

So even if Dortmund won the Champions League last season, they have only participated in three seasons of European competition in the past five years, so their European competition points are not enough to hide, so they failed to become one of the top eight teams, so they missed out on being a seeded team.

The dignified defending champion has become a second-tier team, and there is a possibility of being assigned to the group of death again...

This rule made the Dortmund club quite dissatisfied. Before coming to Monaco, Watzke talked about this rule in an interview with the media, believing that it was unfair to the defending champion, and that this equal distribution method would also make the level of Champions League seeded teams uneven, and some teams would inevitably make up the numbers. As long as you participate in the Champions League steadily, you can become a seeded team by relying on your qualifications.

Watzke believes that the league champion and Champions League champion of last season should be seeded teams, regardless of their past European competition points. Only such rules deserve the name "European Champions League".

After all, it is the Champions League, not the "European Competition Points League".

This matter did indeed arouse widespread discussion in the European media, but Chinese media and fans were more concerned about whether Zhou Yi could win the award, and did not pay enough attention to this area, so they ignored it.

Now that they see that Dortmund is not a seeded team, many Chinese fans in front of the TV are very surprised.

The TV broadcast swept to Zhou Yi and Watzke, and Watzke was talking to Zhou Yi about something.

No one knows what they are talking about, because both of them covered their mouths with their hands, and it is impossible to guess by interpreting lip language.

In fact, Watzke is complaining to Zhou Yi about this grading rule, which is still the same old tune he complained to reporters about.

"If we were a seeded team, we would have a high probability of avoiding being assigned to a group of death..."

Zhou Yi comforted him: "Don't worry too much, Mr. Watzke. I think it's a good thing to be assigned to a group of death."

"Ah?" Watzke didn't understand whether Zhou Yi was being sarcastic or serious.

"Weren't we assigned to the group of death last season? And it was said to be comparable to the group of death in 1999? What was the result? We won the championship. So I think the group of death may be a sign of our good luck?" Zhou Yi smiled.

Watzke looked at Zhou Yi in surprise, and felt that this kid's thinking was indeed different from ordinary people, and bad things could be said to be good things. This kind of self-confidence is really beyond the reach of ordinary people, especially in a twenty-two-year-old young man, it is even more rare. To be honest, even he, the CEO, may not be able to achieve Zhou Yi's level of confidence in Dortmund. After all, Dortmund lost Götze and Lewandowski this season, and the strength damage is actually greater than people think. Can Mark and Aubameyang support the vacancy after Lewandowski leaves? Can Mkhitaryan make up for the position left by Götze? These are hard to say...

Interrupted by Zhou Yi, Watzke had no time to continue to consider the matter of the seeded team, and the Champions League draw had already begun.

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McNeill and Figo assigned the seeded team Arsenal to Group F, Chelsea to Group E, Real Madrid to Group B, Bayern Munich to Group D, Barcelona to Group H, Benfica to Group C...

When Benfica was drawn, Watzke still snorted.

Obviously, he was very dissatisfied that Benfica could be a seeded team, while Dortmund could only be a second-tier team. A team like Benfica is only in a small league country like Portugal, so they often have the opportunity to participate in the Champions League, and their points are even higher than Dortmund, becoming a seeded team...

Another Portuguese team, Porto, was assigned to Group G, while Manchester United was assigned to Group A.

The draw for the first-tier teams in the Champions League is over.

The second-tier draw guest is Dutch legendary star Cruyff, and he and Figo are responsible for the second-tier team draw.

When the second-tier teams were drawn, many Chinese fans paid special attention, and Watzke and Zorc, who were sitting in their seats, also adjusted their sitting posture, meaning they were sitting upright.

Because Dortmund is in the second-tier teams.

The first team to be drawn was Marseille, who was assigned to Group B, together with Real Madrid. Then AC Milan was assigned to Group H, meeting Barcelona. Schalke 04 was assigned to Group E, in the same group as Chelsea.

This result made Chinese fans a little excited - Chelsea, where Sun Pan is located, and Schalke 04, where Yang Muge is located, were assigned to the same group, and there will be two Chinese derbies in the group stage alone!

Paris Saint-Germain was assigned to Group C. He Ying was bought out by Paris Saint-Germain this summer. He completely left Barcelona and became a member of Paris Saint-Germain.

In the second half of last season, He Ying performed very well after transferring to Paris Saint-Germain, which made the Barcelona club a little regretful that they had allowed the Paris Saint-Germain club to set up a priority buyout option in He Ying's loan contract...

At that time, they may have really not been very optimistic about He Ying's future in Barcelona, ​​thinking that it would be good to exchange it for a sum of money.

As a result, He Ying's performance was so good that Barcelona regretted it again.

But this time, regret is useless. After the end of the season, Paris Saint-Germain activated the priority buyout option and wanted to keep He Ying.

At this time, the only thing that could stop Paris Saint-Germain was the player's own will. If He Ying himself was unwilling to go to Paris Saint-Germain, then the priority buyout option would be useless.

So the Barcelona club sent people to lobby He Ying, painting a beautiful picture of staying in Barcelona's first team for him. But this time, He Ying refused Barcelona's lobbying directly without the slightest hesitation. He had made a mistake once before, and he didn't want to make another mistake.

In this way, He Ying became a member of Paris Saint-Germain. Playing in the French Ligue 1, which ranks at the bottom of the five major leagues, seems to be a low point for He Ying. But He Ying himself is looking forward to the start of a new journey. He is full of hope for the future. He firmly believes that with his own feet, even in Ligue 1, he can kick out a brilliant future!