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Manchester City’s Spanish midfielder Rodri
receives the Ballon d’Or award during the 2024 Ballon d’Or France Football
award ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on 28 October 2024
Manchester City and Spain
midfielder Rodri was awarded the men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday after winning a
fourth consecutive Premier League title and Euro 2024, but Real Madrid
boycotted the ceremony.
The decision to award the prize
for the world’s best player to the midfielder came as a surprise, with Real
Madrid’s Liga and Champions League double winner Vinicius Junior widely seen as
the favourite.
Hours before the ceremony in
Paris, the Spanish club announced its delegation would not attend the ceremony
at Chatelet Theatre because of what it perceived as a snub of Vinicius.
Rodri, 28, played a key role as City
held off Arsenal to win the Premier League title last season and was named
player of the tournament at Euro 2024 as unfancied Spain emerged triumphant in
Germany.
Rodri was diplomatic when addressing
the question of Real’s no-show in his post-award press conference.
“They have their decision, they didn’t
want to be here for their reasons,” he said. “I just focus on my club and my
team-mates.”
Despite the French organisers insisting
that the identity of the winner was a closely-guarded secret this year, the
news appeared to have leaked ahead of the festivities.
Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati
earlier won her second successive women’s Ballon d’Or, after leading her club
to a historic continental quadruple of titles and claiming the Nations League
with her country.
Real Madrid no-show
The drama started hours before the
ceremony as Spanish and European champions Real said if Vinicius was not the winner,
then the award should go to his teammate Dani Carvajal.
Like the Brazilian, Carvajal scored in
the 2-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at
Wembley.
Vinicius scored 24 goals and made 11
assists in 39 matches across all competitions for Madrid as he led the club to
three titles last season.
“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 told AFP.
“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.”
The Madrid contingent of nominees also
included Kylian Mbappe, Antonio Rudiger, Fede Valverde and Jude Bellingham.
The winner of the Ballon d’Or is chosen
from the shortlist by an international jury of 100 specialist journalists.
The organisers, the Amaury group which
owns the L’Equipe sports daily and France Football magazine, denied to AFP that
the name of the successor to last year’s men’s winner Lionel Messi had leaked
and insisted that “no player or club” knew in advance who had won.
When Real were named as the men’s team
of the year, a video played on the stage in the absence of any club
representatives.
‘Best in his position’
City manager Pep Guardiola has
described Rodri as “in his position, the best”.
“He can do everything. The quality, he
reads the game, his mentality, he is always ready,” Guardiola has said.
In addition to his metronomic passing
and ball-winning capabilities, the former Atletico Madrid player has a knack of
popping up with crucial goals for club and country.
His goal won City their first Champions
League in 2023 but he also scored vital goals for Spain, such as the equaliser
in their last-16 Euro 2024 tie against Georgia.
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