A journalist who admitted overlooking Vinicius Junior in the Ballon d’Or vote has resigned from his role as selector.
Vinicius was favourite to win the award last month, but was surprisingly beaten by Manchester City midfielder Rodri. The Brazilian forward and his Real Madrid team-mates discovered the decision before the night and decided not to attend in protest.
He finished 41 points adrift of Rodri in the voting, which was decided by 99 journalists from around the world. Each reporter chose their top 10, with 15 points awarded to their number one pick and the others receiving fewer on a sliding scale.
The full voting has now been released and surprisingly showed that three journalists did not even consider Vinicius to be inside the top 10 players in the world. Journalist Juha Kanerva, who works for Finnish publication Ilta-Sanomat, was one of them – and he has responded to the fury that has come his way from Real fans.
Replying to angry fans on Twitter, he wrote: “This was my technical fault, for which I take responsibility. I am leaving my place as a Ballon d'Or selector.” Kanerva chose Rodri as his Ballon d'Or winner, with Erling Haaland second and Jude Bellingham third.
His top 10 also included William Saliba, Ademola Lookman and Dani Carvajal, but not Vinicius. The other two journalists who didn't include Vinicius in their top 10 were Bruno Porzio from El Salvador and Sheefeni Nikodemus from Namibia.
Their decisions provoked a furious response from Real Madrid, who explained their boycott in a statement. "If the award criteria doesn't give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner,” the club said. “As this was not the case, it is clear that Ballon d'Or-UEFA does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected."
Vinicius quickly reacted to the news, tweeting: “I'll do it 10x if I have to. They're not ready.” One of the other journalists who didn’t opt to put Vinicius in first place was Chile’s Danilo Díaz. He explained his decision on ADN TV: "I left Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham out of my top three because they had very bad international tournaments… Vinicius lost the ball 17 times against Costa Rica."
Former Real striker Karim Benzema was one of those to react. “Last year, when Real Madrid were European champions, Vinicius was decisive in every game. So I don’t think there is anyone else who deserves it more than Vinicius,” he told El 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 say ‘wow’. Vinicius has done it to me more than once, so it’s a bit of a shame because he deserved the Ballon d’Or.”
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