Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior admits he expected to win Ballon d’Or | OneFootball

Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior has intimated that he too expected to win the Ballon d’Or award this past year, after he was pipped to the recognition by Rodri Hernandez of Manchester City. The story snowballed after Real Madrid decided not to attend the Ballon d’Or gala out of protest.

The vote was split between various Real Madrid players this year, with Dani Carvajal, Toni Kroos, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius all featuring in the top 10. Yet after weeks of the Madrid-based press briefing that Vinicius was guaranteed to win the award, the blowback when it emerged that Rodri would win was significant.

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During the gala Vinicius posted that he would ‘do it 10x more’ in order to prove people wrong. When he did win the FIFA Best Award, the Brazilian declared himself the best in the world.

It is a story that has pursued him through stadiums in Spain, chanting ‘beach ball’ at him, is Rodri Hernandez pipping him to the Ballon d’Or. Vinicius was asked whether the 2025 Ballon d’Or was one of his targets after Real Madrid beat RB Salzburg on Wednesday night.

“I always say that my biggest goal is to help my team, to be able to score goals, assists, to be at my best, because if I am like that I can help all my teammates and take Madrid to the top, which is always my biggest goal.”

“Individual awards are of course important, but… We can’t talk so much, it’s not the vote that people expected, but we have to continue… Rodrygo, Kylian, Jude, to do great things.”

Arguably his task has become even more difficult this season, with Kylian Mbappe now in the Real Madrid side, providing another star for Vinicius to share the limelight with. Equally, Bellingham has emerged again as one of the leaders of this Real Madrid side, something that will likely split the Real Madrid vote again.