It is perhaps the Ballon d’Or which has had the most surprises in store for us in a very long time. While the entire football world expected Vinicius Jr to be crowned as best player of the year, it was ultimately Rodri who was elected. Yet on the strength of his performances in La Liga and the Champions League, the Canarinha star saw the European champion unexpectedly pass him by, while even Real Madrid already saw him as the winner. But if we rely on the latest explanations made by the Spanish media in particular, the Spaniard’s coronation is a little more understandable…
First, Vinicius Jr pays for having had other “competitors” as teammates. “It was tight. Vinicius surely suffered from the presence of Bellingham and Carvajal in the top 5”revealed Vincent Garcia, boss of France Footballon the channel The Team. The votes were thus distributed and dispersed among several Madrid residents, and especially between Vinicius and Bellingham.
Vinicius Jr lacks fair play?
Then, there is the fact that in the selection, Vinicius Jr was not particularly brilliant, signing a fairly mediocre Copa América when he was supposed to be the Brazilian leader. Crippling performances under the yellow tunic of Brazil, where Rodri was elected MVP of the Euro. And international competitions are particularly important in these kinds of individual distinctions. If Vinicius Jr was the big favorite in June, the club competitions finished, the summer selection tournaments changed the situation a little.
Finally, there is another criterion which weighed enormously in the balance, and which especially gained weight this year: fair play and exemplarity. Often considered a provocative player, with small, not particularly noble gestures to his opponents sometimes, and a player who disputes quite vehemently with the referees, Vinicius Jr therefore lost a lot of points in that regard. Quite the opposite of Rodri whose behavior is rather exemplary. Vinicius Jr therefore knows what he has to do…
