Ballon D'Or Polemic, Rodri Doesn't Respect Real Madrid's Boycott

Rodri won the 2024 Ballon d'Or (Instagram/@mancity).

JAKARTA - Manchester City midfielder Rodri Hernandez said he could not respect Real Madrid's decision to boycott the Ballon d'Or ceremony at the end of October 2024 after he received the award beating Vinicius Junior.

The midfielder was awarded the Ballon d'Or after an extraordinary season. He won the Premier League trophy with The Citizens and Euro 2024 with the Spanish national team.

Rodri's toughest rival was Vinicius, who refused to go to Paris to attend the ceremony after learning he would not take the award home.

Not only Vinicius, the entire squad and Real Madrid executives did not come to Paris.

"Well, it's an individual or club decision in general to decide what to do."

"I can't respect the decision. I've always said I wouldn't do it the same way," Rodri said on The Rest is Football podcast.

"I remember last year, maybe Erling (Haaland) almost won it. I wanted to be there with him to support the club and even though Leo (Lionel Messi) won it."

"We were there to applaud because the Ballon d'Or is not a confession for a player, but for a year, for the level of players for a full year," he said again.

Vinicius was previously a strong candidate to win the world's best player award after helping Real Madrid win the doubles, La Liga and Champions League titles, last season.

However, neither he nor his fellow nominees from Real Madrid, a total of eight people at various awards, were not present at the event.

In fact, Los Blancos won the award as Team of the Year and Carlo Ancelotti was named the Best Coach of the Year at the ceremony. No club representatives were present to receive the trophy.

"In sports and life, winning is important. However, I think more about how to lose and I always say the same thing."

"That was my moment, I don't want to talk about other people. They don't want to be there."

"I want to be with my club, with my family, the people who were there and applauded me and it was a fantastic moment," said Rodri.

Prior to the award ceremony, Rodri suffered an ACL injury during the Premier League match against Arsenal. This condition made the midfielder absent quite a long time.

Despite the Ballon d'Or polemic, Rodri's most important thing now is to return to play and recover from injury.

"My target is to return this season. In my opinion, in terms of mentality, it will be a positive thing for me not to give up this season and waste it."

"I don't want to run, you know, I don't want to make mistakes. However, yes, that's my mentality. I don't know when (again playing)."

"My target is six, seven months, but physiotherapists will decide," said the 28-year-old midfielder.