The Football Faithful
·29 October 2024
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Yahoo sportsThe Football Faithful
·29 October 2024
Real Madrid feel that Dani Carvajal would have been a more worthy winner of the Ballon d’or than Rodri after Vinicius Junior missed out on the award.
The Brazilian forward was widely tipped to take home the prestigious honour on Monday night after playing a key role in Real Madrid’s Uefa Champions League and La Liga wins last season.
Instead it was Rodri who was presented with the trophy in Paris after helping Manchester win the Premier League and being one of Spain’s most important players as they won Euro 2024.
Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony after learning that Vinicius was not the winner, meaning there was no one present to collect the Men’s Club of the Year award they had won. Carlo Ancelotti was not there either to pick up his Men’s Coach of the Year award.
The Spanish club believe that Carvajal, as captain of Real and Spain, should have won the Ballon d’Or. The full-back finished fourth in the voting behind teammates Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham, as well as Rodri.
Real released a statement to AFP and Spanish media in which they pointedly mentioned Uefa, with whom they went to war over the formation of the European Super League. Uefa co-organised the event with France Football magazine for the first time this year.
“If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner,” Real Madrid said in a statement
“As this was not the case, it is clear that Ballon d’Or-Uefa does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected.”
It is worth noting that the award is voted on by 100 journalists, who rank their top ten players of the previous season.
Vinicius Junior posted his reaction to not winning the Ballon d’Or on social media. “I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready,” he said.