Rodri emerged as the winner of the Ballon d’Or 2024 beating Vinicius Junior in the most dramatic fashion. The Real Madrid star looked all set to win the award. The whole world thought the same too. Although in the last moments before the ceremony, the club announced that he would not be attending. So that made it clear that he was not going to win the trophy. As a result, the Man City man was the sudden favorite all over again. He would win the award. But fans all over the world were not entirely pleased with the result. They would even go as far as to question the integrity of the awards.
Rodri beat Vinicius Junior: Margin of 41 points
The Ballon d’Or 2024 results were fascinating to say the least. Now we finally have the number of points the top 10 finalists would get. Rodri won the award over Vinicius Junior with a record-highest 1170 points. Meanwhile, the Real Madrid man would finish second also with a record-highest 1129 points. So it was close after all. A slightly better character and the Brazilian would have taken it home for sure. The points this time are truly extraordinary though. Even 3rd placed Jude Bellingham got 917 points. A couple years ago, one would be a sure-fire winner with those kind of numbers.
A close race in the end?
Well the points do reveal a gap of 41. But then, it ended up being close but not close enough. Taking Ballon d’Or 2019 into consideration, Virgil van Dijk lost to Lionel Messi by a mere 7-points margin. Now, that was might close. But in this case, it seems that Rodri and his good character gave him a fair amount of edge over Vinicius Junior. Nonetheless, the Brazilian will be keen to win the award next year now. Especially, with the Man City star out due to ACL for the rest of the season now.
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