BALLON D'OR
Vinicius Jr Ballon d’Or snub: latest reaction
The Brazilian was the favourite to win, until Real Madrid received other news.
The news hit Real Madrid like a train. Or a plane. The plane they didn‘t get on to travel to Paris, which was scheduled for 15:00 on the day of the Ballon d‘Or ceremony in Paris. The Ballon d‘Or that Vinicius Jr was set to win. But he won’t.
Not according to various reports that all conclude the Brazilian will indeed miss out on the trophy handed to the world’s best player in favour of Manchester City midfielder Rodri.
It’s safe to say that the reaction to this news from Spain has been biblical, but a biblical story not of saviours and heroes; the ones of floods and disasters only explicable by higher powers that cannot be processed by human minds.
“A scandal” tweeted just about everybody within a 50-mile radius of the Santiago Bernabéu, with those avoiding such a word instead going for “robbery” or “injustice”.
“I can’t believe it“, wrote Tomás Roncero of AS, while others called the decision “insane”.
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“Robbery... a tremendous scandal” wrote one user.
“How can Vinicius not win the Ballon d’Or?”
“Rodri deserved it in 2023 but Vinicius is clear in 2024″
“Today they decided to rob him of this award”
“For me it‘s a shocking robbery and Real Madrid shouldn’t go to the ceremony”
However, there wasn’t only negative reactions to Vini potentially not receiving the award, with plenty of Spaniards delighted that their country could see a male winner and a female winner at the same time.
“This could be historic” said one online user while another said that Rodri winning “would be more than deserved” for his Euros performance.