Karim Benzema has claimed no one “deserved” to win this year’s Ballon d’Or more than Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Junior, suggesting actual winner Rodri isn’t a player who excites fans.
Vinicius Junior top scored for Madrid as they completed a rare La Liga and Champions League double, while Rodri was instrumental as the ‘number six’ in Manchester City’s Premier League triumph and Spain’s victory at Euro 2024.
Opinion has been split ever since the Spaniard was awarded the Ballon d’Or ahead of the Brazilian.
“Last year, when Real Madrid were European champions, Vinicius was decisive in every game. So I don’t think there is anyone else who deserves it more than Vinicius,” Benzema, a Ballon d’Or winner himself in 2022, told Spanish broadcaster El Chiringuito.
“I have nothing against Rodri, he’s a good player, but I’m sitting on my couch watching TV and Rodri doesn’t do anything that makes you say ‘wow’. Vinicius has done it to me more than once, so it’s a bit of a shame because he deserved the Ballon d’Or.
“I hope [Vinicius] is mentally strong. I was talking to Vinicius and he is strong enough to work and one day he will have [a Ballon d’Or]. I wrote him a message and he was sad. It’s normal. It’s a bit complicated when everyone sees you winning the Ballon d’Or and, in the end, they tell you that you’re not going to win it. It’s very complicated.
“Vinicius is a good kid, he is going to work and one day he will win the Ballon d’Or.”
Controversy reigned when it was reported a few hours before the Ballon d’Or ceremony on Monday that Vinicius suddenly wasn’t expected to win and Real Madrid would boycott the evening as a result – no one from the club attended in a move widely perceived as entitled and petty.
The Spanish giants briefed national media that they felt disrespected as a club, suggesting that if Vinicius wasn’t going to win the Ballon d’Or it should have been Dani Carvajal, who finished fourth, instead. Madrid’s Jude Bellingham finished third, meaning they had three of the top four.
The conspiracy theories of an anti-Madrid bias are a little hard to swallow when they still won the Men’s Club of the Year prize. Carlo Ancelotti was also named Men’s Coach of the Year ahead of a justifiably deserving Xabi Alonso, who led Bayer Leverkusen to an undefeated domestic double and was a Europa League final away from landing an undefeated treble.
In the last 11 years, the Ballon d’Or has been awarded to a Real Madrid player six times – four for Cristiano Ronaldo and one each for Luka Modric and Benzema.
