France Football Director explains why Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior missed out on Ballon d’Or | OneFootball

The shock when Vinicius Junior missed out on the Ballon d’Or was tangible in Spain, after Real Madrid and the Brazilian had taken it as a given that he would be collecting the award in Paris. His and the rest of the club’s nominees were absent at the gala, because they disagreed with the decision.

A number of theories as to how Rodri Hernandez pipped Vinicius to the award, aside from the excellent year he had. Some in Brazil have alleged that it came down to racism, while Real Madrid believe that it came down to their strained relationship with UEFA. This is despite the fact that the award is a 100-person vote. France Football Director Vincent Garcia explained that Vinicius’ issue was that his teammates had split the vote.

“Mathematically they took away some points. That also sums up Real Madrid’s season, which placed between three and four players among the best in the world and the jury ended up distributing their votes among them, which benefitted Rodri.”

Rodri is the first winner of the men’s award from Spain in 64 years, while combined with Aitana Bonmati, Spain become the first country to double up on the men’s and women’s awards.

“It is something beautiful and historic. We are talking about the first Spaniard to win the trophy since 1960, who is also a defensive midfielder. No one knew, neither at Real nor at City. The emotion that Rodri had on stage is the best response. He was not aware of anything,” Garcia told Cadena SER.