Ballon d’Or chief reveals why Vinicius Jr lost to Rodri

The Brazilian was expected to win the award.

Ballon d’Or chief Vincent Garcia has provided the latest revelation on why Vinicius Jr finished second on the podium while Manchester City star Rodri won the award.

He has given the key reason why the Brazilian lost to Rodri in the 2024 Ballon d’Or and what damaged his chances of winning his first-ever award.

The 24-year-old was favourite to win the award after his heroics with Real Madrid last season and it was certainly confirmed that he would take the prize home, but in a surprising turn of events, it was Rodri who walked away with the top honour.

A few hours before the event it was revealed that Rodri would win the award, which led to Real Madrid boycotting as they felt “not respected.”

However, the main reason for Vinicius finishing second confirmed by Garcia as the Ballon d’Or winner is decided by the vote of 100 journalists one from each of FIFA’s 100 top-ranked member nations. Garcia the editor-in-chief of the organisers of the awards France Football, confirmed that Jude Bellingham and Dani Carvajal’s finishing in the top four led to the splitting of voting which led to Vinicius losing points as Rodri won the most points.

“Obviously, Vinicius surely suffered from the presence of Bellingham and Carvajal in the top five because, mathematically, that took some points away from him,” Garcia told L’Equipe television.

“This also sums up Real Madrid’s season, which took between three and four players and the juries distributed their decisions among them, which benefited Rodri. What I can guarantee is that no one at Real Madrid or at Manchester City was aware.”

Garcia was also shocked by Real Madrid not sending any delegation to the award ceremony

Regarding this, he said:

“Maybe they (Madrid) had a feeling, a strong feeling. Perhaps the Clasico (the 4-0 defeat by Barcelona) didn’t help. I don’t know. At the time that Real Madrid took its decision, I’m not sure that they knew 100% that Vinicius hadn’t won the Ballon d’Or.

“I was always clear, fair, and perhaps my silence took them to the limit. But it was the same as with the others. I was very unpleasantly surprised by its absence. We were very clear with them and with all the other clubs.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Telegram.