REAL MADRID
Madrid kept Ballon d’Or suspicion a secret from Vinicius Jr before El Clásico
The entourage of the Brazilian footballer suspected he would not win on the Friday before El Clásico.
Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr missed out on the Ballon d‘Or to Manchester City’s Rodri, who swooped up Spain’s first male award in decades. Along with Aitana winning the female award, it was a historic day for football in Spain.
The news of Vinicius Jr missing out on the award many thought was his broke around 3pm local time on Monday, when it was revealed that the 50-strong Real Madrid team due to attend the event were not travelling.
However, it has been revealed that Vini’s entourage suspected that he would not win the trophy on Friday, before Real Madrid’s thumping 0-4 loss to FC Barcelona in El Clásico. This information was known by Real Madrid and kept from the player.
Madrid ‘didn‘t want him to know anything’
Speaking to Cadena SER, Spanish journalist Antón Meana reported that “according to sources close to Vinicius, the player‘s entourage suspected, or even more than suspected, since Friday that he wasn‘t going to win the Ballon d’Or. I don‘t know what calls they had made, but they suspected that what everyone took for granted wasn’t going to happen.”
“Before the game at the weekend, they called Madrid and said they knew he wouldn‘t win. Madrid said that they‘d prefer if they didn’t tell Vinicius as it would distract him before El Clásico. They didn‘t want him to know anything. The game goes badly but the information doesn’t distract him.
“Monday morning is very tense, and Madrid confirm that they‘ll be there in Paris. However, the flight is initially delayed until 4pm (from 3pm), and there are plenty of important people at the Valdebebas training ground that are prepared to go; they don‘t know it’s been cancelled because it‘s such a snap decision. They realise when making their way out of the door that the drastic option has been taken and they’re not going, and nobody is to explain anything to anyone about it.”
Since then, the player has been training as normal with Real Madrid, who saw their recent game against Valencia CF in LaLiga cancelled due to the heavy storm that has caused chaos in the eastern region of the country.