Predicted Ballon d’Or winner Rodri arrived at the blue-chip Ballon d’Or ceremony on crutches alongside his Manchester City team-mates on Monday evening in Paris.
The Manchester City star – the leaked ‘winner’ ahead of the event – donned a black suit, white shirt, and bow tie alongside girlfriend Laura Iglesias on the red carpet. An assistant briefly relieved him of his crutches, required due to his ACL injury, for the photographers.
Manchester United‘s Alejandro Garnacho – who had to take separate transport arrangements to the City stars after Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s proposal was snubbed – donned similar garments.
He graced the carpet alongside his girlfriend Eva Garcia, who wore a sparkly dress for the ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet.
Harry Kane was pictured alone on the welcome mat and deserves his place among the elite after a prolific start to his Bayern Munich career, having signed last season.
Rodri arrived for the Ballon d’Or ceremony on crutches but was spared them for this photograph with his girlfriend Laura Iglesias
Harry Kane poses on the red carpet after a prolific start to life with Bayern Munich in Germany
Alejandro Garnacho was one of the first players out on the carpet with girlfriend Eva Garcia
Lamine Yamal turned up with his family, including his father, Mounir, who was stabbed in the summer
Yamal laughs alongside fellow Barca stars Dani Olmo (left) and Pau Cubarsi (right)
Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal turned up with his family – including his father, Mounir, who was stabbed over the summer – and led out fellow Barca stars Pau Cubarsi and Dani Olmo.
His Spanish counterpart Jenni Hermoso, who won the 2023 Women’s World Cup and was the victim in the Luis Rubiales scandal, was not nominated but turned up in a purple suit.
Aston Villa stopper Emiliano Martinez, who last year won the Lev Yashin Trophy for being the best goalkeeper in the world, arrived to enjoy the occasion with wife Amanda ‘Mandinha’ Martinez.
Former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse made a surprise outing on the red carpet donning a shiny black jacket complete with a gigantic flower of the same colour.
Ex-World Cup winner Mats Hummels, back among the nominees aged 35 and playing for Roma, was pictured with his partner Nicola Cavanis.
There is currently no sign of any Real Madrid stars after they decided to boycott the ceremony, with Vinicius Jr led to believe he had lost out to predicted winner Rodri.
Spanish and French press have reported no player, member of the management nor coaching staff from Real will be in attendance at the glitzy ceremony tonight, held at the Theatre du Chatelet.
The shock news comes after it was reportedly leaked on Sunday that the winner of football’s most iconic individual prize was Vinicius Jr.
But in a twist of fate this list was wrong and that the winner is set to be Manchester City’s midfield maestro, Rodri.
Ballon d’Or organisers urged on Monday afternoon ahead of the ceremony: ‘No player and no club knows the winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or yet.’
Ruben Dias, one of many City representatives, looked serious ahead of the ceremony
Aston Villa stopper Emiliano Martinez shares a hug with wife Amanda Martinez
Jenni Hermoso, who won the World Cup in 2023 with Spain, smiles on the carpet
Mats Hummels, making his return at the age of 35, enjoys the occasion with Nicola Cavanis
RMC have reported that ‘Real president Florentino Perez is furious’ and as a consequence, the ‘Real Madrid delegation has cancelled its visit to Paris’.
This comes despite Los Blancos also being set to win the Club of the Year award.
Posting on social media platform X, news page MadridXtra shared a quote from journalist Jose Luis Sanchez, saying: ’50 people from Real Madrid were scheduled to travel to the Ballon d’Or Gala today. They cancelled the trip when they found out Vinicius wasn’t the winner. Real Madrid are FURIOUS. @JLSanchez78′.
ESPN Brazil even went onto confirm that Real sources labelled the decision as ‘historic robbery’.
Meanwhile, Marca reported that Real insiders have even claimed ‘the Ballon d’Or no longer exists for us’.
In fact, a furious statement from Real to AFP said: ‘If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner.
‘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 was a hot favourite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or after his epic contribution leading Madrid’s frontline to a LaLiga-UEFA Champions League double.
Luis de la Fuente, who guided Spain to Euros glory in the summer, is present alongside multiple of his stars
Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse, who is not nominated, made a shock appearance
Legendary defender Marcel Desailly poses for the cameras ahead of the ceremony
YouTubeer IShowSpeed, real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr, has not been nominated
The Brazilian, 24, hit six goals and four assists in ten Champions League appearances and tallied 20 goal involvements in 26 LaLiga matches.
The initial ‘leaked’ list, since believe dto be fake, purported to show the top 12 players based on voting points. It showed Vinicius Junior as the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner with 630 points – 54 more than Rodri, who, on this list came second.
Jude Bellingham came third, meanwhile, while two other English forwards, Harry Kane and Phil Foden, came in fifth and eighth, respectively.
Kylian Mbappe is fourth, Lamine Yamal is seventh, while Dani Olmo, Florian Wirtz, Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rudiger are ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th respectively.
However, Man City’s record-breaking goal machine Erling Haaland was listed as sixth with 195 points.
Haaland, who finished second behind Messi in the Ballon d’Or’s 2023 edition, hit 38 goals in 45 games for City last season, helping them on their way to a Premier League-League Cup domestic double.
One Portuguese-speaking journalist who shared the list on X: ‘If this really is the leaked Ballon d’Or list, what explains Haaland in 6th? Vini Jr deservedly the best in the world.’
