In first place of the Kopa Trophy rankings was Jason with 42 votes.

The crowd immediately erupted in applause while on the huge screen above the stage, highlights of his 2020/21 season was being played.

On the internet, the rankings of the Kopa Trophy was also released simultaneously and the netizens quickly began giving their opinions and congratulations on the rankings.

At this point something has begun to brew up when people saw the meagre difference between the votes of the first and second place on the rankings.

All this had nothing to do with Jason who had taken to the stage, his eyes clear and a small smile on his face.

Receiving the award, he then had to give a short speech.

Holding the award with one hand, he put his mouth to the mic.

"Well, I didn’t prepare a speech so I don’t know what to say really. Uh, my parents aren’t here anymore, but I’m sure that from where they are, they are happy right now,"

"I want to thank God, my family, my teammates, my agent, my girlfriend, my friends, the fans and everyone who has wished me well,"

"Lastly I want to thank me for not giving up on me, for putting in the work, for all sacrifices and for always being there for me," Unlike Snoop Dogg’s iconic speech that was for fun and clicks, Jason meant every word he was saying to himself.

Only he knew what he had gone through in the efforts of making himself a better player to get into places like this and he was grateful that he was in this situation.

Finally leaving the stage, the applause echoed loudly as Jason moved backstage to take pictures with the award.

After a bit, he headed back to his seat with his award and by this point the award ceremony had already continued.

The second musical performance had already begun when Jason took his seat again and as he walked to his seat quite a few number of people congratulated him.

Daphne and Adele congratulated him as well as he sat back down in-between them.

The ceremony continued and they moved on to the next 10 players in the Ballon D’Or rankings, namely ranks 11-20.

This time doing more analysis and commentators talking about surprises of the season.

Key goals, trophies won, and season stats of the players in that section of the ranking.

From there it was time for the Yashin trophy and the Gerd Muller award, the awards for the best goalkeeper and best striker.

Without surprise, Gianluigi Donnaruma won the Yashin trophy award as he had been the most impressive goalkeeper all season, irrespective of the trophies his team won.

For the Gerd Muller award people paid a lot more attention as it would determine which player could be removed from consideration for the final Ballon D’Or award.

It was sort of an unwritten rule that one couldn’t take more than one award home from the Ballon D’Or ceremony unless the second award involved team of the year.

Since the best striker award could only go to one of two players; Ronaldo or Lewandowski, whichever one of them win it would definitely not be winning the Ballon D’Or award, reducing the shortlist.

There was also the part where Ronaldo was the most touted to win the Ballon D’Or so if he didn’t get the consolation prize of best striker award, then well... However no one could really be sure who would end up with the award on that night.

"And the Gerd Muller award goes to..."

"Robert Lewandowski!!!"

Lewandowski’s face twitched as he confirmed that he wouldn’t be winning the Ballon D’Or tonight.

But it couldn’t be helped, he had been spectacular all season, but his fellow contenders had been even more spectacular.

At least he wasn’t going home empty handed, he thought as he walked up the podium to receive his award.

Giving a short speech before heading back to his seat, he sat down again as one of the winners of this year’s award ceremony.

The show took quick break to reduce the tension with a little entertainment from the hosts who interacted with the players and other guests, making light jokes and entertaining the crowd for a few minutes before getting back on track.

The rankings of the players from 5 to 10 were revealed after and at this point, each player reveal came with a narrated mini documentary and the major moments of their season was played on the screen.

At this point, Jason’s breath had slightly tightened as his name had still not been entioned.

At earlier conjecture, he had thought to himself that he was actually one of the most likely names to win the award and he had also told himself that individual awards didn’t matter, but now that it was actually happening, he was actually beginning to feel the weight of the moment.

Talk was cheap... When big moments actually happened, how wouldn’t he be stunned?

It was hard to believe that just after a season and a half, he was already in contention for the acclaimed best in the world for the year title.

Turning to the Women’s Ballon D’Or, the attention was once again taken away from the final four of the Men’s Ballon D’Or.

The top 3 of the Women’s Ballon D’Or ranking were quickly shown and the winner took her award among much fanfare.

Right after that was another musical performance, the third for the night.

It was a pretty dramatic performance with a choir, orchestra and dramatic lighting and really highlighted the fact that they were in the final stages of the awards ceremony.

Right after that, the coach of the Year award was given to Andrea Pirlo for his efforts with Uventus, both domestically and continentally as the winner of the Champions League and SuperCup.

Right after that Uventus also won the club of the year award which was to be expected, considering they had won the Champions League and done very well domestically.

With all that out of the way, it was time for the final act.

The final four players on the ranking, Ronaldo, Messi, Lewandowski, and Jason were presented individually with a mini documentary filled with their highlights, statistics and defining moments of their season.

"In 4th place for the Ballon D’Or ranking 2021, is..."

"Jason Bolu with 380 votes,"

Loud applause filled the room but Jason despite expecting it sighed internally, a bit disappointed.

This was exactly why he didn’t want to have much hope in the first place, but he also understood that the individual performances of all the other three players were far ahead of his so it was a loss he could easily swallow.

With Jason selected as fourth, everyone expected the next result which was Lewandowski in third with 396 votes.

In classic fashion, the hosts once again diverted from main topic and began a short tribute segment, but everyone was itching in their seats as they waited for the final results of the award ceremony.

Luckily they didn’t have to wait long and the two final players were shown side by side and a quick run down of their season was shown.

With all that done, the hosts began to open the envelope bearing the name of the final winner.

"And the winner for the Ballon D’Or 2021, is...."

"Christiano Ronaldo with 547 votes,"

The most thunderous applause yet filled the Theater as Ronaldo stood up from his seat and received several embraces from his family before he finally walked to the stage to receive his award.

The Ballon D’Or was presented to Ronaldo by former teammate and football legend Ricardo Kaka and Ronaldo received the award with a huge smile.

Turning to the crowd to give his speech, he thanked his family, his teammates, and the organizers of the event, gave a word of warning to the crowd that he wasn’t done winning and making the news just yet.

He received even more applause as he finished and the pictures session immediately began and all the winners of the other awards were invited up the stage once again with their awards to take pictures altogether.

Walking on the stage, Jason congratulated Ronaldo and Ronaldo did the same to him as they had both won something thanks to the efforts of each other.

The final pictures were taken with everyone on the stage and the ceremony ended shortly after with players now moving to press rooms for quick interviews to record some heat of the moment shots.

Right after that was a VIP after-party that Jason couldn’t avoid even if he tried because quite a few people now wanted to meet him.

After all, winning the Kopa Trophy and being 4th on the Ballon D’Or rankings during his first appearance in the award ceremony was a very impressive feat.

With the number of senior footballers and legends who had said they hoped to meet him at the after party, if he dared not attend, there would instantly be news about him being prideful and all sorts of other weird rumors.

Of course he could ignore all that and do what he wanted, but it wasn’t worth the trouble.

Also, he really did want to go as his "seniors" were treasure troves of knowledge and connections.