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Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have dominated the Ballon d'Or awards for longer
than most fans can remember, but that is now obviously changing and the
2024 edition of the ceremony featured a completely new winner in the shape of Manchester City and
Spain defensive midfielder, Rodri.
The 28 year old has been an integral part of Pep Guardiola's serial Premier League title
winning challengers, and many commentators have long picked out the fact that the
Etihad Stadium outfit notoriously struggle when he is not in the starting XI. His individual
form had continued this season as he rode the wave of becoming a European
Championship winner with his country, but his season is unfortunately over having
suffered his anterior cruciate ligament back in September. In the 2023/24 campaign, the
player did only taste defeat once for club and country and that more than put him in the
frame for the award.
With the 100 selected journalists awarding him enough points to finish in top spot in their
rankings this year, Rodri becomes the first Spanish player since 1960 to take the award,
and the first Premier League player since Ronaldo back in 2008.
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Ortega (3.50)
Lewis (4.00) Stones (4.00) Akanji (4.00) Aké (4.00)
Gündoğan (3.50)
Savinho (4.00) Foden (4.00) Bernardo Silva (3.50) Matheus Nunes (5.00)
Håland (4.00)
Despite
Real Madrid's petulant actions in boycotting the evening ceremony as they did
not get the success they clearly felt entitled to, they did pick up the club of the year
award, and dominated the top ten rankings like normal. Vinicius Jnr was in the runners
up spot, with Jude Bellingham in third (the highest English finish since Frank Lampard's
second spot in 2005), and Dani Carvajal in fourth. Kylian Mbappe also finished in the top
ten, and alongside manager Carlo Ancelotti, he also picked up an individual award on
the night.
With the likes of Harry Kane, Emi Martinez and Lamine Yamal also receiving significant
recognition on the night, they like Rodri, will undoubtedly have their own personal
thoughts on how Real Madrid have managed to completely subvert the headlines from
the night and their achievements to represent their own childish arrogance, as opposed
to actually sportingly acknowledging their own continued success and recognition.
The annual Ballon d'Or celebrations usually die a pretty quick media death as most of
the awards predictably go to a select few press favourites, from a select few clubs, and
simply put the vast majority of worldwide fans would rather watch paint dry. But given the
controversy surrounding the 2024 event, and no doubt the Santiago Bernabeu outfit will
have future 'woe is me' commentary based on the rightful criticism that they have
received, this one is likely to run for at least the next week.
Again, just for all the wrong reasons though.
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Rodri profile
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