Rodri reveals how he found out he won the Ballon d'Or: Report

The Manchester City midfielder is currently nursing an ACL injury.

According to Rodri, he initially did not believe Real Madrid had made the decision to skip the Ballon d’Or celebration in Paris.

When Manchester City ace Rodri was honoured this year in Paris, he became the first midfielder since Luka Modric to win the coveted Ballon d’Or. In addition to being a key member of the Spain national team that claimed their fourth European Championship in Germany this summer, he helped City win the Premier League for the fourth straight season.

World football has been divided over choosing Rodri for the prize instead of Vinicius Junior, a star for Real Madrid and Brazil. After learning that their winger would not receive the award, Los Blancos even abruptly decided not to attend the presentation in the French city. According to the Cityzens star, he initially did not believe the Spanish champions had indeed made such a significant move.

When asked if he knew beforehand of his win, Rodri said, per L’Equipe, “No, not at all. I was actually surprised that everyone asked me that. No one had ever told me anything before the ceremony. I knew for a long time that this would be the norm this year.

“And it worked because, until the end, the winner didn’t know. In my opinion, this decision to not reveal anything until the final verdict is an excellent thing.

“To be precise, at midday, when we were getting ready to board the plane, we received several messages from friends telling us that Real Madrid would not be coming. My first reaction was: I don’t believe it, it’s fake news.”

He added, “When I landed in Paris, I received even more messages congratulating me. That’s when I started to think: wow! I had flown just to take part in the ceremony and I had landed in a virtually winning position. It was too much of a rollercoaster just because of the flight from Madrid to Paris, so I said: Let’s stop listening to all this, enjoy the evening and see what happens. But it was tough.”

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