The Madrid club tried to find out in advance who would win the award.
The editor-in-chief of France Football magazine Vincent Garcia admitted that Real Madrid put pressure on him to find out who would receive the award before the ceremony. “Golden Ball 2024”.
The winner of the award for the best footballer in the world was Manchester City midfielder Rodri. In the voting, the Spaniard beat out the other three finalists in the nomination – Brazilian striker Vinicius Junior, English midfielder Jude Bellingham and Spanish defender Dani Carvajal, who play for Real Madrid.
“Real Madrid were pressing me to find out if Vinicius had won and maybe my silence made them think Vini had lost, so they didn't show up. I'm unpleasantly surprised, but I don't want to waste the night talking about it. I want to talk about our winner, Rodri,” Madrid Xtra quotes Garcia as saying.
Real Madrid boycotted the Ballon d'Or ceremony after learning that Vinicius Junior would not receive the top prize. Not a single representative of the Madrid club attended the gala event in Paris.
The editor-in-chief of France Football also commented on the results of the voting for the winner of the 2024 Ballon d'Or.
“It was close. Vinicius probably suffered from the presence of Jude Bellingham and Dani Carvajal in the top 5, because mathematically it took away some points from him. It also sums up Real Madrid's season, in which several of their players showed excellent performances, and the jury divided their decisions between them, which played in Rodri's favor,” Garcia told Madrid Xtra.
Rodri won the Ballon d'Or for the first time in his career. The record holder for the number of Golden Balls won remains Inter Miami and Argentina national team forward Lionel Messi, who has received this prize eight times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023).
The closest pursuer of the Argentine is Al-Nassr and Portugal national team forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who was recognized as the best footballer in the world five times (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017).
Earlier it was reported that the winners of the 2024 Golden Ball football award in all nominations have been determined.
