Despite being billed as one of the favourites to win football’s greatest prize for solo achievements over the past year, the Brazilian forward came second place to Manchester City’s Rodri.
After reports had emerged earlier in the day that Vinicius would not be lifting the iconic golden ball, Real Madrid reportedly were not left too pleased by the decision, while ESPN Brazil claimed club sources called it a ‘historic robbery’.
Given Rodri was the key figure in arguably the best club team and the best national team of 2024 in City and Spain, it would appear to be a justifiable call to hand the award to him, however Vinicius Jr seemingly remains unconvinced.
Yet after the gala in Paris, the editor-in-chief of France Football – who are in charge of the award – gave his verdict on why the Brazilian missed out, and commented on his controversial absence.
‘Obviously, Vinicius surely suffered from the presence of Bellingham and Carvajal in the top 5 because, mathematically, that took away some points from him. This also sums up Real Madrid’s season, which took between three and four players and the judges shared their decisions between them, which benefited Rodri,’ explained Vincent Garcia.
He added: ‘I had a lot of pressure from Real Madrid but, as with other clubs, I was always clear, fair and perhaps my silence pushed them to the limit.
‘But it was the same as with the others. I was very unpleasantly surprised by his absence.’
On any other evening it would have been considered nothing short of a massive success for the Spanish side.
Real Madrid picked up awards for the best team of the year, as well as men’s manager of the year for Carlo Ancelotti.
