Manchester Metropolis and Spain midfielder Rodri was awarded the lads’s Ballon d’Or on Monday after profitable a fourth consecutive Premier League title and Euro 2024, however Actual Madrid boycotted the ceremony.
The choice to award the prize for the world’s finest participant to the midfielder got here as a shock, with Actual Madrid’s Liga and Champions League double winner Vinicius Junior extensively seen because the favorite.
Hours earlier than the ceremony in Paris, the Spanish membership introduced its delegation wouldn’t attend the ceremony at Chatelet Theatre due to what it perceived as a snub of Vinicius.
Rodri, 28, performed a key function as Metropolis held off Arsenal to win the Premier League title final season and was named participant of the match at Euro 2024 as unfancied Spain emerged triumphant in Germany.
Rodri was diplomatic when addressing the query of Actual’s no-show in his post-award press convention.
“They’ve their choice, they did not wish to be right here for his or her causes,” he mentioned. “I simply deal with my membership and my team-mates.”
Regardless of the French organisers insisting that the identification of the winner was a closely-guarded secret this yr, the information appeared to have leaked forward of the festivities.
Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati earlier gained her second successive girls’s Ballon d’Or, after main her membership to a historic continental quadruple of titles and claiming the Nations League together with her nation.
– Actual Madrid no-show –
The drama began hours earlier than the ceremony as Spanish and European champions Actual mentioned if Vinicius was not the winner, then the award ought to go to his teammate Dani Carvajal.
Just like the Brazilian, Carvajal scored within the 2-0 victory towards Borussia Dortmund within the Champions League last at Wembley.
Vinicius scored 24 objectives and made 11 assists in 39 matches throughout all competitions for Madrid as he led the membership to a few titles final season.
“If the award standards would not give it to Vinicius because the winner, then those self same standards ought to level to Carvajal because the winner,” Actual Madrid informed AFP.
“As this was not the case, it’s clear that Ballon d’Or-UEFA doesn’t respect Actual Madrid. And Actual Madrid doesn’t go the place it isn’t revered.”
The Madrid contingent of nominees additionally included Kylian Mbappe, Antonio Rudiger, Fede Valverde and Jude Bellingham.
The winner of the Ballon d’Or is chosen from the shortlist by a global jury of 100 specialist journalists.
The organisers, the Amaury group which owns the L’Equipe sports activities each day and France Soccer journal, denied to AFP that the identify of the successor to final yr’s males’s winner Lionel Messi had leaked and insisted that “no participant or membership” knew prematurely who had gained.
When Actual have been named as the lads’s staff of the yr, a video performed on the stage within the absence of any membership representatives.
– ‘Greatest in his place’ –
Metropolis supervisor Pep Guardiola has described Rodri as “in his place, one of the best”.
“He can do all the things. The standard, he reads the sport, his mentality, he’s all the time prepared,” Guardiola has mentioned.
Along with his metronomic passing and ball-winning capabilities, the previous Atletico Madrid participant has a knack of popping up with essential objectives for membership and nation.
His aim gained Metropolis their first Champions League in 2023 however he additionally scored very important objectives for Spain, such because the equaliser of their last-16 Euro 2024 tie towards Georgia.
So central is Rodri to Manchester Metropolis that their previous 4 Premier League defeats have all come when he was absent.
Metropolis are high of the Premier League however their probabilities of profitable a fifth straight home title have been dented in September when Rodri suffered an anterior cruciate ligament damage, ruling him out for the season.
Bonmati, 26, joins her Barcelona team-mate Alexia Putellas as the one girls to win the Ballon d’Or twice for the reason that award’s inauguration in 2018.
“This can’t be achieved alone, I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by gamers who make me higher on daily basis,” Bonmati mentioned.
The Catalans gained each trophy obtainable to them final season — the Spanish league, Cup, Tremendous Cup and a second-successive Ladies’s Champions League.
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