host must win

As in previous years, the annual Lawrence World Sports Awards ceremony begins with a speech by the local mayor of the host city.So the guest speaker this time is the mayor of Barcelona, ​​and the speech is basically the same, introducing Barcelona and expressing welcome to the guests. Anyway, he said a lot of good things.

After the speech, there will be cultural performances. The Spanish side has prepared some distinctive cultural programs.Afterwards, the host of the party appeared on the stage, reviewing the world sports scene in the past year.The big screen at the scene played a highlight video about various sports competitions in 2006, which reproduced the outstanding performance of the athletes.

Among them, Yin Jun and Federer are the two most frequently appearing, which also implies the competition between the two, which will be the focus of tonight.

Then it came to the awarding session, and the best team award was presented first.

As the number one sport and also a team sport, football has always been the darling of the Best Team Award at the Lawrence World Sports Awards.Since the birth of the Lawrence World Sports Awards, the Champions League, the pinnacle of world football, has basically been a candidate for the best team award.And 2006 is the year of the World Cup, and the World Cup winner will also be a candidate for the Lawrence Best Team Award.

The other four teams competing with the two football teams are the New Zealand rugby national team, which has won seven consecutive championships in the three-nation match, the European Ryder Cup team that drew with the US team at Dublin K Golf Club, the F1 defending champion French Renault team, and The Spanish basketball national team that won the Men's Basketball World Cup for the first time.

………………

In terms of fame and influence, the Manchester United team, which has won this award three times, and the Italian team, which has won the World Cup four times, are undoubtedly the most powerful contenders for this award.Many people know in their hearts that the other four teams are basically just runners, and the real competition will be between Manchester United and the Italian team.

But who will be the ultimate winner is somewhat difficult to guess.

It is rare for the Italian national team to win the World Cup, but Manchester United won the Champions League for the fifth time in team history, and created seven crowns in 2006, which also shocked the world.The competition between the two sides can be said to be evenly matched, and it is difficult to distinguish between them.

However, Manchester United relied on their near-perfect performance in 2006 to finally beat the Italian team and won the best team award at the Laureus World Sports Awards for the fourth time in history.After all, there is one World Cup champion every four years, but with so many giants in Europe, only Manchester United can win all the championships that can be won theoretically within a year.

The magic of the Seven Crowns can be seen from this!
This also makes Manchester United the first individual or team to win four awards since the birth of the Lawrence World Sports Awards.

You know, this year is just the eighth award ceremony of the Lawrence World Sports Awards!

Manchester United CEO David Gill, as the representative of Manchester United, took the stage to receive the trophy.

………………

Then came the Para Athlete of the Year award to German Martin Bressanler.

It is worth mentioning that FC Barcelona was awarded the Sportsmanship Award for its strong support to UNICEF. They have already received the Fair Play Award from FIFA for this.

This is actually a very interesting thing.

Everyone knows that Barcelona's chest has always refused commercial sponsorship, but in today's highly commercialized professional football, chest advertising can easily exceed tens of millions of euros in revenue every year. Will Barcelona not be tempted?
The answer is, heartbeat, more heartbeat than anyone else.

Laporta once tried to attract investment on the chest advertisement, but the result triggered protests from fans and the media. They thought it was detrimental to the club's tradition, so they rejected the chest advertisement.

There was a lot of trouble about this matter at the beginning, but Laporta was also smart and chose the curve to save the country policy, and directly donated the advertisement on the chest of the jersey to UNICEF for free.

This can be regarded as a foreshadowing, using public service advertisements to test, so that fans and the media have nothing to say.

Everyone knows very well that as soon as the UNICEF contract expires and the time is right, Barcelona will immediately attract investment in the chest jersey advertisement, and then the opposition from the media and fans will not be so strong.

Yin Jun didn't have any idea about this matter, because he thought it was quite normal.

Laporta's approach is indeed very clever. Not only did he avoid criticism from media reporters and fans, but he also won a FIFA Fair Play Award and a Lawrence World Sports Award Sportsmanship Award for Barcelona. Great potential benefits for the future.

Therefore, it is definitely not accidental that Laporta has been able to bring Barcelona out of the chaotic quagmire in the past few years. He is indeed a very powerful Barcelona chairman.

On the other hand, Real Madrid, after Florentino stepped down, Calderon who took over could be said to be a clown-like figure. Many things he did were really dumbfounding. People are like dogs.

What's more interesting is that a day later, "Daily Sports" published a cartoon. Laporta on the left side of the cartoon is holding up the sportsmanship award of the Lawrence World Sports Award in high spirits, while standing next to him is Real Madrid chairman Calderon, the text is very clear, Calderon is holding the ghost trophy.

………………

Sir Bobby Charlton's last speech after the Sportsmanship Award got a standing ovation from everyone in the audience.Because, this time, Bobby Charlton presented the Lawrence Lifetime Achievement Award, which was given to Beckenbauer, the legendary German superstar known as the emperor of football and the chairman of the 2006 Football World Cup Organizing Committee.

After Pele and Cruyff, Beckenbauer became the only football player to receive this honor.

Beckenbauer's career can be said to be a combination of elegance and fierceness. He is handsome but has the most daunting tough guy temperament of the Germans. He is not only an excellent leader, but also a great changer. Football has brought about a tactical revolution, and it has built the German team into the world's top team with its own efforts.

He used to be an insurance salesman, a frustrated person who was slapped by a player of Munich 1860, but he was also the number one star of Bayern and the German team forever.

Beckenbauer can be called omnipotent on the court.When defending, he returns to the middle or even behind the defenders to fill in the gaps; when attacking, he can launch a charge from the last position of his own side, rushing all the way into the opponent's penalty area to attack, which not only gives full play to Beckenbauer's ability to attack and defend well, but also has all-around skills The characteristics also allow him to best display his leadership talent on the field.

As a result, Beckenbauer, who was omnipresent and omnipotent on the court, gradually became a symbol of world football in that era, and the praise of "Football Emperor" was born from this.