Karim Benzema has claimed that no one “deserved” to win this year’s Ballon d’Or more than Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Junior, suggesting that real winner Rodri is not a player to excite fans.
Vinicius Junior was Madrid’s top scorer as he completed a rare La Liga and Champions League double, while Rodri was instrumental as a ‘number six’ in Manchester City’s Premier League triumph and victory over Spain in Euro 2024.
Opinion has been divided ever since the Spaniard was awarded the Ballon d’Or ahead of the Brazilian.
“Last year, when Real Madrid they were champions of Europe, Vinicius was decisive in every match. So I don’t think there is anyone who deserves it more than Vinicius,” Benzema, himself a 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, told the Spanish network. The Chiringuito.
“I have nothing against Rodri, he’s a good player, but I’m sitting on my couch watching TV and Rodri doesn’t do anything that makes you go ‘wow’. Vinicius has done that to me more than once, so It’s a bit of a shame because he deserved the Ballon d’Or.
“I hope (Vinicius) is strong mentally. I was talking to Vinicius and he is strong enough to work and one day he will have (a Ballon d’Or). I wrote him a message and I was sad. It’s normal. It’s a bit complicated when everyone he sees you winning the Ballon d’Or and, at the end, they tell you that you won’t win it.
“Vinicius is a good boy, he goes to work and one day he will win the Ballon d’Or.”
Controversy reigned when it was reported, a few hours before Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, that Vinicius was not expected to win out of the blue and as a result Real Madrid would boycott the evening – no one from the club he assisted on a play widely perceived as entitled and mean.
The Spanish giants told the national media that they felt slighted as a club and suggested that if Vinicius didn’t win the Ballon d’Or it should have been Dani Carvajal, who finished fourth. Madrid’s Jude Bellingham finished third, that is to say, he got three of the top four.
Conspiracy theories of an anti-Madrid bias are a bit hard to swallow when they do still won the Men’s Club of the Year award. Carlo Ancelotti was too named male coach of the year ahead of a justifiably deserved Xabi Alonso, who led Bayer Leverkusen to an unbeaten domestic double and fell one Europa League final away from an unbeaten treble.
In the past 11 years, the Ballon d’Or has been awarded to a Real Madrid player six times: four to Cristiano Ronaldo and one to Luka Modric and one each. Benzema.
