Former Real Madrid and German national team player Toni Kroos criticized the Ballon d’Or. He considered this award unimportant.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri was selected as the winner of the 2024 Ballon d’Or. He received the award at the Theatre du Chatelete, Paris, Tuesday (10/29/2024).
Rodri received the Golden Ball after showing a very impressive performance with Man City and the Spanish National Team. He beat Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham for the award.
Kroos was actually nominated for this year’s Ballon d’Or after undergoing a very successful 2023/2024 season with Real Madrid. He finally finished in ninth place.
Kroos considered the Ballon d’Or award unimportant. He expressed this shortly before Rodri was selected as the winner.
“Rodri will win the Ballon d’Or. I have never seen the importance of this individual award in football, this award has no place,” said Kroos as reported by Sportskeeda.
Meanwhile, Kroos’ former club Real Madrid chose to boycott the 2024 Ballon d’Or. They did not send their delegation to the event.
A number of Real Madrid players and coaches were nominated for the world’s most prestigious individual award. Real Madrid was also named the best men’s football club.
However, not a single Real Madrid representative was present. Reportedly, they did so as a form of protest because Vinicius Junior did not win the 2024 Ballon d’Or.
A number of players expressed their sympathy for Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior who had to admit Rodri’s superiority in the fight for the 2024 Ballon d’Or world’s best player award.
There were a total of three trophies presented by Vinicius for Real Madrid throughout the 2023/2024 season. The three trophies were the Spanish Super Cup, La Liga, and the Champions League.
Referring to the assessment criteria for the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, namely the player’s performance in the period starting from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024, then Vinicius was indeed worthy of this title.
However, in the end Vinicius only ranked second below Rodri. The Brazilian star also received sympathy from a number of players on social media.
In addition to Vinicius, Real Madrid and Ancelotti also favor Carvajal. Their choice is quite reasonable. In fact, Carvajal’s titles can be said to be complete again.
In addition to winning all the trophies that Vinicius won with Real Madrid, Carvajal was also part of the Spanish squad that won Euro 2024 yesterday.
It could be said that Carvajal won a combination of the trophies won by Vinicius and Rodri. Unfortunately, the right-back player only finished fourth in the final standings of the 2024 Ballon d’Or.
At this year’s Ballon d’Or event, Ancelotti was chosen as the best coach in the world. Through his personal social media account, the Italian man wrote a thank you.
“I want to thank my family, my president, my club, my players, and above all, Vini and Carvajal,” wrote Ancelotti.
The final part of Ancelotti’s sentence of thanks could be a dig at the Ballon d’Or committee because according to him, Vini and Carvajal were more worthy winners than Rodri.
