Just over two weeks removed from Real Madrid dramatically boycotting the Ballon d’Or ceremony after it emerged that overwhelming favourite Vinicius Jr had not, in fact, won the award, we now know that the race for the Golden Ball was extremely close. Rodri won by a mere 41 points, which given the points are allocated within France Football’s confusing voting system is about as close as it can get. It now seems even sillier that Los Blancos recused themselves from football’s biggest awards ceremony over such fine margins.
But perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from Vinicius’ second-placed finish. This was an extremely tight decision, and we will never truly know what, exactly, swayed voters to pick Rodri over Vinicius. But a fair guess would be that Spain’s success at Euro 2024 played a pretty big role. Rodri was named Player of the Tournament as La Roja triumphed in Germany, seamlessly transferring his imperious club from Manchester blue to Spain red.
Vinicius summer, meanwhile, did not go as well. There were stretches of the season – certainly the last few months – where you could argue that his club performances were better than Rodri’s. But he was ultimately let down by a fairly morbid showing in a Brazil shirt, which was capped by him being suspended as the Selecao crashed out of the Copa America at the quarter-final stage.
This is nothing new for Vinicius. He is five years into his Brazil career, and three years into being a consistent starter, with 35 caps to now to his name. Over that period, he has found the net just five times – a startlingly poor record for a player of his quality.
Starring for Brazil, then, was not only the missing ingredient from Vinicius’ Ballon d’Or argument, but remains the final boss of his footballing career. He has just over 18 months to figure things out on the international stage, or when the world is watching in 2026, he could be set for more embarrassment on the global stage.