Vinicius Jr will not be traveling to Paris as Real Madrid knows he will not win the Ballon d’Or, Fabrizio Romano reports.
According to the report by Fabrizio Romano, apart from Vinicius Jr, no one from Real Madrid will attend the ceremony. “No Florentino Pérez, no Vini Jr, no Carlo Ancelotti, no Jude Bellingham,” he said.
Spanish and French press have reported no player, member of the management nor coaching staff will be in attendance at the glitzy ceremony tonight, held at the Theatre du Chatelet.
According to the report by Daily Mail, the shock news comes after it was reportedly leaked on Sunday that the winner of football’s most iconic individual prize was Vinicius Jr.
But in a twist of fate this list was wrong and that the winner is in fact Manchester City’s midfield maestro, Rodri.
RMC reported that ‘Real president Florentino Perez is furious’ and as a consequence, the ‘Real Madrid delegation has cancelled its visit to Paris’.
Posting on social media platform X, news page MadridXtra shared a quote from journalist Jose Luis Sanchez, saying: ’50 people from Real Madrid were scheduled to travel to the Ballon d’Or Gala today. They cancelled the trip when they found out Vinicius wasn’t the winner. Real Madrid are FURIOUS. @JLSanchez78′.
The official unveiling of the new winner will be confirmed at Monday’s glitzy awards ceremony, which is due to begin around 7pm (UK time).
Vinicius Jr was a hot favourite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or after his epic contribution leading Madrid’s frontline to a LaLiga-UEFA Champions League double.
The Brazilian, 24, hit six goals and four assists in ten Champions League appearances and tallied 20 goal involvements in 26 LaLiga matches.
The leaked list appeared to show the top 12 players based on voting points. The unconfirmed list showed Vinicius Jr was the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner with 630 points – 54 more than Rodri, who came second.
Jude Bellingham came third, meanwhile, while two other English forwards, Harry Kane and Phil Foden, came in fifth and eighth, respectively.
Kylian Mbappe is fourth, Lamine Yamal is seventh, while Dani Olmo, Florian Wirtz, Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rudiger are ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.
However, perhaps surprisingly, Man City’s record-breaking goal machine, Erling Haaland, only came sixth with 195 points.
Haaland, who finished second behind Messi in the Ballon d’Or’s 2023 edition, hit 38 goals in 45 games for City last season, helping them on their way to a Premier League-League Cup domestic double.
One Portuguese-speaking journalist who shared the list on X: ‘If this really is the leaked Ballon d’Or list, what explains Haaland in 6th? Vini Jr deservedly the best in the world.’