Decision made – Real Madrid will not attend Ballon d’Or gala as Florentino Perez takes firm stance | OneFootball

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place at the Theatre du Chatalet in Paris later tonight where the best footballers and coaches for the year will be honoured.

Real Madrid once again have a number of nominations, on both men’s and women’s side.

Boycott again maintains Florentino Perez

However, as confirmed by The Athletic, Real Madrid will once again boycott the Ballon d’Or gala and will not have any representative present at the event in Paris today.

This comes after the Merengues shocked everyone by boycotting the ceremony after learning beforehand that Vinicius Jr. had not won the Ballon d’Or and instead it was being awarded to Rodri.

There had been some murmurs about the club’s representative, Emilio Butragueno, potentially attending this year’s ceremony, but the decision has been no made. There will be no official representation.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has stepped in to take a hard stance against the Ballon d’Or after Vinicius’ snub last season.

Boycotting the Ballon d’Or gala again. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

There has been no mention of any of the players’ nominations this season while Real Madrid did not even acknowledge the Coach of the Year and the Club of the Year awards they won at the ceremony last year.

Sources inside the club told The Athletic that the decision for Real Madrid to adopt such an attitude could only have come from Perez.

The Real Madrid president suspects UEFA influenced last year’s decision to not award Vinicius the Ballon d’Or, given the club’s continued support of the European Super League project.

There is a sense of frustration from some within the club about Perez’s hard stance on the matter, but for now, nothing appears to have changed from last year.

Real Madrid will not have any presence at the Ballon d’Or gala, despite Vinicius, Jude Bellingham, and Kylian Mbappe being nominated for the Golden Orb, Thibaut Courtois being in contention for the Yachine Trophy, and Dean Huijsen being a contender for the Kopa Trophy.

Journalist Melchor Ruiz of COPE adds that players have been given the freedom to attend on their own, if they wish to do so.