Vinicius Junior Narrowly Misses 2024 Ballon d’Or to Manchester City’s Rodri

Vinicius Junior, the talented Brazilian forward of Real Madrid, came agonizingly close to winning the 2024 Ballon d’Or but ultimately fell short to Manchester City‘s Spanish midfielder, Rodri. The voting results, released a week after the ceremony, reveal a tight competition between the two top contenders.

Rodri was named the world’s best soccer player by *France Football*, the organization behind the prestigious Ballon d’Or, with a slim margin of just 41 points over Vinicius Junior. Rodri secured 1,170 points, while Vinicius Junior garnered 1,129 points. This narrow difference highlights the subjective nature of the evaluations, as three voters did not include Vinicius in their top ten, and five voters omitted Rodri from their lists.

The voting process involved a panel of 99 journalists, each ranking their top ten players with points awarded in decreasing increments from 15 for the first place to 1 for the tenth place. Besides Rodri and Vinicius Junior, other notable players received first-place votes, including Jude Bellingham with five, Dani Carvajal with four, and Toni Kroos with two. Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Lautaro Martinez, and Ademola Lookman each earned a single first-place selection.

The top ten rankings saw Real Madrid’s dominance reflected, with four of their players making the list, including Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, and Toni Kroos. Other notable players in the top ten included Erling Haaland of Manchester City, Kylian Mbappe (formerly of Paris Saint-Germain), Lautaro Martinez of Inter Milan, Lamine Yamal of Barcelona, and Harry Kane of Bayern Munich.

The absence of Real Madrid players from the ceremony, reportedly due to the perceived snubbing of Vinicius Junior, added to the controversy surrounding the award. This incident may reignite debates with the upcoming FIFA The Best awards, which consider performances over the calendar year rather than the European football season.