Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri has won the men’s 2024 Ballon d’Or award.

With Real Madrid’s Liga and Champions League double winner Vinicius Junior was regarded as the pre-ceremony favourite, the choice to give the world’s best player award to the deep-lying midfielder was unexpected.

The Spanish club declared hours before the Paris celebrations that its delegation would not be attending the ceremony at the Chatelet Theatre due to what it believed to be Vinicius’s rejection.

The 28-year-old Rodri was voted player of the tournament at Euro 2024 as an underdog Spain won in Germany, and he was instrumental in City defeating Arsenal to win the Premier League title the previous season.

The news seemed to have leaked, since Madrid announced hours before the event that they would not be attending, even though the French organisers insisted that the winner’s name was a closely-guarded secret this year.

After leading her team to an unprecedented continental quadruple of trophies and winning the Nations League with her nation, Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati previously won her second consecutive women’s Ballon d’Or.

The controversy began hours before the presentation when Real Madrid, the Spanish and European champions, said that his colleague Dani Carvajal should receive the trophy if Vinicius did not win.

Carvajal scored, like the Brazilian, as the team defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley in the Champions League final.

consecutive women’s Ballon d’Or, following her country’s Nations League victory and her club’s historic continental quadruple of titles.

Jude Bellingham, Fede Valverde, Antonio Rudiger, and Kylian Mbappe were also candidates from Madrid.

A global panel of 100 specialised journalists selects the winner of the Ballon d’Or from the shortlist.

The former Atletico Madrid midfielder is known for his ability to win balls in the middle of the pitch and for his metronomic passing. He also has a flair for scoring important goals for his team and his country.

Rodri is so important to the teams he plays for that each of Manchester City’s last four Premier League losses has occurred when the player Guardiola has dubbed “irreplaceable” has not been in the squad. In addition to winning City their first Champions League in 2023, he also scored crucial goals for Spain, including his equaliser in their last-16.

Since February 2023, Rodri has gone 52 games without losing in the Premier League.

Although City is presently leading the Premier League, Rodri’s anterior cruciate ligament injury in September ended his chances of winning a fifth consecutive domestic title, setting a new record.