On the afternoon of February 26, the "Walking with Chinese Football All the Way - 2023 China Golden Ball Awards Ceremony" was held in Shanghai. The China Golden Ball Awards ceremony, which returned to Shanghai after 5 years, left the final summary speech for Chinese football in 2023, and the awards of the 2023 China Golden Ball Awards were finally announced. In the selection, Manchester City Esports Club, a subsidiary of City Football Group, won the Best Football Esports Club in 2023 for the fourth time after the year, and Manchester City Esports player Yu Yue also won the FC Online Football Esports of the Year trophy.
In December 2015, Chinese Culture Group was invited to join City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City FC, as a strategic shareholder. On January 5, 2024, Manchester City Football Club won the "2023 Sports Club of the Year" award at the 10th Annual Sports Business Conference 2023 for its outstanding performance of the five-time champion and the continuous cultivation of the Chinese market. Manchester City FC has always been committed to continuously communicating with Chinese "city citizens" through innovative and localized content. In recent years, the development of e-sports in China has been obvious to all, and it has been loved by more and more young people. Founded in 2018, Manchester City Esports Club has demonstrated the strong heritage of traditional competitive sports giants in the second year of joining the Chinese esports ecosystem, winning the 2019 Best Football Esports Club and winning this award for the second consecutive year.
As a well-known football club with a long history, Manchester City FC has a very complete mechanism and rich experience in terms of operation, management, marketization, training, etc., which provides confidence and guarantee for its entry into the field of e-sports. At the same time, Manchester City FC is a club that attaches great importance to innovation, and in 2021 won the title of "World's Most Innovative Sports Team" by the well-known organization Sports Innovation Lab. Finally, Manchester City has a younger fan base, which is also very relevant to the esports audience.
Since the establishment of the team, Manchester City E-sports Team has successively won the championship of the FSL S9 season, the runner-up of the 2021 EACC Summer Tournament, refreshing the best results of the Chinese e-sports team in the Asian arena, and also won the 2019 FCC runner-up, the champion of the Red and Blue Competition, the champion of the People's E-sports Shanghai Station and many other honors.
In 2023, Manchester City Esports Club's outstanding players have won many great results, including the FIFA Online 4 Pro League S12 Overall Championship, the EA Champions Cup Spring Semifinals, the FIFA Online4 EACC Summer Championship runner-up, and the 2023 FIFA Esports Intercontinental Cup runner-up, the latter of which is the best result in the history of the Chinese team in the event. In 2023, Manchester City Esports also won the Best in E-Sports - Organisation Gold Award by the Football Content Awards.
FC Online" featured in the history of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, highlighting the Chinese Ballon d'Or and the football and esports industry moving side by side. In particular, it is worth mentioning that all the players and coaches of Manchester City E-sports were selected as candidates for the national training team of the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games E-sports (Football **4 (FC Online)), among which player Li Sijun represented the Chinese team. Yu Yue, who won the FC Online Football Esports Player of the Year this time, also won the FC Online Asia Invitational Championship in 2023 and the FC Online Super League Championship at the beginning of 2024.