**4th November 2021**

The picture of Tottenham’s players laying down on the field after Harry Kane’s goal made it to the front page of many sports news papers and also became a trending topic.

Jason had replied honestly in an interview that he was just resting after being a bit winded from falling over three times in quick succession and that his teammates had just copied him.

Many people had accepted his words as the truth, but a lot of people on the internet in normal internet fashion had chosen to believe something else and find faults that didn’t exist.

Some said he and his teammates were being disrespectful to the professional spirit of their opponents with the celebration.

Some had said Jason was too non-chalant.

Some said he just wanted to farm aura and look cool.

The various opinions sparked various debates, but one thing that no one could deny was that a new team celebration had appeared.

In other matches around the world in some lower tier leagues, some teams did the same goal celebration and with all the traction on Jason’s matter, the news about those other teams got some attention as well.

However the team in concern were hard in training, focusing on their next Premier League game against Norwich City, while the player who was the main cause of all the media attention, was on a plane to Paris just in time for the Balloon d’or ceremony. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He wasn’t the only one invited to the ceremony from the Tottenham squad, but he was the only one going as the club had another game in just 2 days.

Conte’s reason for sending him off was because as someone still at injury risk, back to back schedules were still a bit too much for him so wouldn’t be starting the next game.

Also, Jason had the highest potential among all the under 21 players in the world to win the Kopa Trophy this season so he should be at the ceremony to receive the award just in case.

For other players like Kane and Son who would be on the rankings but didn’t have much chance at any awards, they simply stayed back at England.

Thus Jason arrived at Paris where Adele and Daphne were already waiting and he was quickly dragged off to get ready for the event that would be taking place that same evening.

The women were shuffling back and forth on how he should dress up and what to say if he won and all that, but weirdly enough, Jason didn’t feel nervous... More like a bit irritated.

He had been injured for so long and now that he was finally getting to play, there was this ceremony.

If not for the ceremony, he would potentially have gotten his first start in the Premier League tomorrow, but with how late he would get back, he might not even be a part of the squad in the game tomorrow.

Scratch that... He definitely wouldn’t be part of the squad because he barely trained, was an injury risk, and would be exhausted from all the activities.

If he told anyone that the game agInst Norwich was more important to him than dressing up and going for the Ballon D’Or ceremony, they would probably want to strangle him, especially considering that he was both a nominee for the Kopa Trophy and the Ballon D’Or award itself.

Maybe it was because he stopped paying attention to things like individual awards a long time ago because no matter anyone said or tried to use to white-wash them, they weren’t awards won on the pitch.

If a team won the Champions League, then that was that.

Individual awards that weren’t based off just stats just felt like propaganda because unless it was a very standout season for one particular player who was so much better than everyone else, there would always be controversy.

For example, the Ballon D’Or award ceremony he was about to go to probably had four players who were most touted to win it.

Ronaldo was the first, because of his individual performances and leading Uventus to win literally every trophy that could be snagged up.

Lewandowski was another option, with his record breaking 41 Bundesliga goals and total of 64 goals in all competitions, as well as achieving a domestic double as well as winning the UEFA super cup and the club world cup.

Messi had achieved a total of 38 goals in all competitions, won the Copa Del Rey and then led his country to the 2021 Copa America, securing their first international trophy since 1993.

And then surprisingly but not surprising, there was Jason who had achieved 32 goals and 29 assists in all competitions and in two different teams. He had won all trophies Ronaldo did and won one more at Oporto before joining Uventus in January.

Then there were other players who had also performed well at the club, continental, and international levels like Jorghino, Benzema, Kante, Salah, De Bruyne, Mbappe e.t.c.

Going by just goals, Lewandowski should win.

If one was speaking star power, impact on the team, and trophies, then Ronaldo was the correct option.

If one considered international trophies as the criteria, then Messi would win.

If the award was to be given to the one with the most trophies, then Jason should win it.

With all that said, it was simply impossible to decide on the winner with absolute certainty, however a bunch of journalists were the ones with the most numbers and most crucial votes to decide who should win the trophy.

Jason didn’t have a problem with it because as already said, it was impossible to decide with absolute certainty who should win, but oftentimes, the clear option would not be the one who won the award and that presented serious doubts about the integrity of the awards.

So Jason didn’t hate individual awards or all the glam and glamour, he just preferred having his actual stats do the talking.

Actual goals, actual assists, actual impact on the pitch and actual trophies...

Not a debated individual award that didn’t serve any purpose than recognition and the justification for his team to severely inflate his price.

All that said and done, he was actually looking forward to the awards a bit, after all, who didn’t like recognition?

He just wouldn’t be too beaten up if he left the award ceremony with empty hands.