The 28th of October marked the presentation and prestige of the Ballon d’Or, the world’s largest and most profound individual football award. The French annual football award recognizes the highest-achieving footballers and the best of that year.
For 2024, Brazilian and Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr. and Spanish Man City midfielder Rodri have been the two frontrunners.
Rodri collected the award last night despite attending the event in crutches after suffering a season-ending ACL injury against Arsenal in September. Over the last few weeks, reports suggested that eventual runner-up Vinicius Jr ‘already knew he would win the Ballon d’Or’. After a standout performance against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and Rodri’s injury, it seemed the Brazilians lost.
He did lose, however, but he already knew this. Hours before the ceremony, similar reports from famous journalists such as Fabrizio Romano exposed that ‘Vini will not attend the ceremony as Real Madrid knows he will not win’. No representatives of Real Madrid were in attendance despite manager Carlo Ancelotti winning ‘Manager of the Year’ and Jude Bellingham coming 3rd in the Ballon d’Or ranking.
Vinicius Jr. isn’t the first world-class player to miss out on the momentous award; fellow Brazilian Neymar was overlooked numerous times during the ‘Messi/Ronaldo era’. Should Vini have been present at the ceremony despite his understandable frustration?
The Ballon d’Or aims to recognize a footballer’s achievements throughout the year. A degree of professionalism and humility is expected from the award’s winner. Whether Rodri’s footballing season was stronger than Vini’s and more deserving of the award is a fair debate, but you can’t deny the lack of respect the Real Madrid man has displayed for the eventual winner.
As a professional, Vinicius has a responsibility and an example to set for other footballers and youngsters who idolize him, which comes with the privilege of playing at the pinnacle of the beautiful game. Lionel Messi, who has won the award the most times (7), was a deserved winner in 2023 after a mesmerizing and dreamlike World Cup win in Qatar. Although many pitched the idea that Norwegian Erling Haaland was ‘robbed’, after securing the treble (Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League) with Manchester City and besting the record for most goals scored in a Premier League season (formerly 34, now 36).
This was Haaland’s most prolific and successful season to date and undoubtedly the closest he would come to lifting the Ballon d’Or. The European striker accepted runner-up gracefully at the event and was humble when Messi added his 2023 Ballon d’Or to his other 6.
This is just a comparison of the winners and runner-ups to last year’s ceremony and how Vinicius and Real Madrid could have handled yesterday’s award ceremony differently.