France Football magazine released this Saturday morning (9) the details of the votes of the jury of journalists who awarded the Ballon d’Or to the Spaniard Rodri, and not the Brazilian Vinicius Junior, the award for the best player in the world of the season.
Three journalists did not include Vinicius Jr. in the top ten (El Salvador, Finland and Namibia), while five did not include Rodri (Bahrain, Bolivia, Colombia, United Arab Emirates and Panama.
The detail of the results indicates a very balanced vote. Rodri leads 49 of the 99 lists, and Vinicius 35.
Rodri, Manchester City’s midfielder, won 1,170 points out of a possible 1,485, compared to 1,129 for the Real Madrid striker. The Spaniard’s triumph, announced on the 28th at a gala event in Paris, generated controversy because until the day before the award ceremony the Brazilian’s victory was considered certain. Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony after learning, hours before, that Vini would not be the winner.
The Brazilian’s defenders raised the hypothesis of racism – Vinicius was notable for his blatant fight against prejudice in stadiums, which earned him several altercations on the field with opponents and judges.
The disagreements would have weighed against him because one of France Football’s criteria, in addition to individual and collective performance, is what the magazine calls “class and fair-play”.
Considering that there were 99 voters (they would be one hundred journalists from the top one hundred in the FIFA ranking, but there were no voters from Syria), the difference of 41 points can be considered quite small. Voters chose ten players from a list of 30 pre-selected players, assigning them, in order of preference, 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point.
Third place, still close to the top two, was English midfielder Jude Bellingham, Vinicius’ teammate, with 917 points. In fourth, very far away (550 points), another Real Madrid player, right-back Dani Carvajal. In fifth was Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, Rodri’s Manchester City teammate (432 points).
In addition to the English title with City, the good performance in the European Championship, held in Germany and won by Spain, would have weighed in Rodri’s favor. Vinicius, in turn, won the Champions League and the Spanish league, but with the Brazilian team he did not reach the quarter-finals of the Copa América, played in the USA.
Folha spoke in recent days with some of the members of the France Football jury. Although the magazine asked that votes be kept confidential until publication this Saturday, some were willing to reveal their preferences in part or in full.
“I voted for Jude Bellingham. Vini was second on my list,” said John Greechan, Scotland’s representative on the jury. “Tough for a Scot to vote for an Englishman! But he was remarkable in his first season at Real, and at the Euros he was part of a reasonable team.”
Greechan attributed Vinicius’ defeat to the division of votes between the six Real Madrid players named on the list of 30 (in addition to those already mentioned, German Toni Kroos, Uruguayan Federico Valverde and defender Antonio Rüdiger).
Another Brazilian who stood out for the Spanish team this season, striker Rodrygo, was not included among the 30 finalists, and reportedly expressed dissatisfaction behind the scenes, according to the Spanish press.
