Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr has reportedly refused to attend tonight’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris, as he believes the result is a foregone conclusion.
In fact, Spanish and French press have reported no player, member of the management nor coaching staff from Real will be in attendance at the glitzy ceremony tonight, held at the Theatre du Chatelet.
The shock news comes after it was reportedly leaked on Sunday that the winner of football’s most iconic individual prize was Vinicius Jr.
But in a twist of fate this list was wrong and that the winner is in fact Manchester City’s midfield maestro, Rodri.
Ballon d’Or organisers urged on Monday afternoon ahead of the ceremony: ‘No player and no club knows the winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or yet.’
Vinicius Jr and Real Madrid ‘will now BOYCOTT tonight’s glitzy Ballon d’Or ceremony
This shock news comes after it was reportedly leaked that Man City ‘s Rodri has won the prize
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is reportedly ‘furious’ that Vinicius Jnr hasn’t won
RMC have reported that ‘Real president Florentino Perez is furious’ and as a consequence, the ‘Real Madrid delegation has cancelled its visit to Paris’.
This comes despite Los Blancos also being set to win the Club of the Year award.
Posting on social media platform X, news page MadridXtra shared a quote from journalist Jose Luis Sanchez, saying: ’50 people from Real Madrid were scheduled to travel to the Ballon d’Or Gala today. They cancelled the trip when they found out Vinicius wasn’t the winner. Real Madrid are FURIOUS. @JLSanchez78′.
ESPN Brazil even went onto confirm that Real sources labelled the decision as ‘historic robbery’.
Meanwhile, Marca reported that Real insiders have even claimed ‘the Ballon d’Or no longer exists for us’.
In fact, a furious statement from Real to AFP said: ‘If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner.
‘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 official unveiling of the new winner will be confirmed at Monday’s glitzy awards ceremony, which is due to begin around 7pm (UK time).
Vinicius was a hot favourite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or after his epic contribution leading Madrid’s frontline to a LaLiga-UEFA Champions League double.
The Brazilian, 24, hit six goals and four assists in ten Champions League appearances and tallied 20 goal involvements in 26 LaLiga matches.
The leaked list appeared to show the top 12 players based on voting points. The unconfirmed list showed Vinicius Junior was the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner with 630 points – 54 more than Rodri, who came second.
Jude Bellingham came third, meanwhile, while two other English forwards, Harry Kane and Phil Foden, came in fifth and eighth, respectively.
Kylian Mbappe is fourth, Lamine Yamal is seventh, while Dani Olmo, Florian Wirtz, Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rudiger are ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.
A list showing the top 12 players and how many voting points they have apparently received went viral via social media on the eve of Monday’s announcement
Manchester City forward Erling Haaland (left) finished second in last year’s Ballon d’Or vote but he has reportedly slipped to sixth in the 2024 rankings
Jude Bellingham apparently came third in the vote, with two other Englishmen in the top eight
However, perhaps surprisingly, Man City’s record-breaking goal machine, Erling Haaland, only came sixth with 195 points.
Haaland, who finished second behind Messi in the Ballon d’Or’s 2023 edition, hit 38 goals in 45 games for City last season, helping them on their way to a Premier League-League Cup domestic double.
One Portuguese-speaking journalist who shared the list on X: ‘If this really is the leaked Ballon d’Or list, what explains Haaland in 6th? Vini Jr deservedly the best in the world.’
