Controversial battle between Rodri and Vinicius Jr for Ballon d’Or award was closer than anyone thought

Rodri’s Ballon d’Or victory left Real Madrid furious – but it turns out the race for the prestigious honour was far tighter than fans thought.

The Manchester City star became the first defensive midfielder to win the award at the end of last month, as he beat Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham to the prize.

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Anyone associated with Los Blancos was absent from the event in protest after learning of the result before it went, with even manager Carlo Ancelotti absent in Paris.

Kylian Mbappe also remained in the Spanish capital.

Now though, it’s been revealed Vinicius Jr – who Los Blancos felt should have won the award instead – was just 41 points behind Rodri – an incredibly small margin with 6633 points available in total.

French outlet Le Equipe detailed the results on Friday, stating Rodri won a total of 1170 points.

Meanwhile the Real Madrid winger came in second with 1129.

That would mean the Ballon d’Or winning vote was the second tightest it’s been since the voting format change in 2016.

Record eight-time Ballon d’Ors winner Lionel Messi beat Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk by just seven points in 2019.

In 2022, winner Karim Benzema earned 356 more points than runner up and then-Liverpool star Sadio Mane.

Messi enjoyed a much bigger margin of victory last year, with him nailing a 105-point victory over Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

The Ballon d’Or vote is made up of a large panel of international journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries

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Each of the 99 judges for the men’s award list a top 10 for the Ballon d’Or.

Each first-place vote is worth 15 points, followed by 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point for the 10th-place slot.

Five jurors did not pick Rodri, while three did not pick Vinicius Jr.

In a statement responding to what the club deemed as a snub on their winger, Real Madrid said at the time: “If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinícius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to [Dani] 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.”