During Rodri’s 2024 Ballon d’Or celebration, Man City posted a video of the midfielder mocking Vinicius, but then had to delete it.
Spanish channel El Chiringuito reported that Man City posted a video on Instagram of Rodri celebrating with friends and family at a Paris restaurant, a day after he received his first Ballon d’Or.
Initially, the video featured Rodri singing in Spanish: “Ay Vinicius, ay Vinicius, ay Vinicius, ciao, ciao, ciao” (translated: Oh Vinicius, oh Vinicius, oh Vinicius, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye).
The video was later deleted by Man City, removing Rodri’s singing part, and then re-posted. However, the 28-year-old midfielder’s singing part was recorded by fans and shared on social media. While many said they did not hear Rodri mention Vinicius, El Chiringuito and other sources said the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner was actually mocking the Madrid’s star
According to the tournament’s rules, each journalist from a country with a team in the FIFA Top 100 will be selected to form a panel to judge the 30 nominees. Each journalist will select 10 players from the Top 30 nominees, with points of 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points for each player. The player with the highest total points wins the award.
Spanish journalist Bruno Porzio said he chose Jude Bellingham to win the award instead of Vinicius, because the Brazilian star “does not represent the spirit of sportsmanship and often provokes opponents”. It is worth mentioning that Porzio also only ranked Rodri in seventh place, Vinicius was not in the Top 10.
Therefore, Rodri’s teasing of Vinicius during the celebration made many Real Madrid fans unhappy. They cited the time when the Man City midfielder choked Morgan Gibbs-White in the match against Nottingham Forest on September 23, 2023, causing him to be sent off.
This is also not the first time Rodri has been embroiled in controversy for singing while celebrating. At the party celebrating Spain’s victory in Euro 2024, the 28-year-old midfielder and captain Alvaro Morata sang: “Gibraltar belongs to Spain”, and were suspended by UEFA for one match.
Rodri and Vinicius were once considered two strong candidates for the 2024 Ballon d’Or, as they were respectively the best players in two important tournaments last season, Euro and Champions League. Until the award ceremony, the media and bookmakers were sure that Vinicius would be honored. But on the day of the award, Spanish media reported that the entire Real Madrid club would not attend the ceremony. In the end, Rodri won the award, while Vinicius only won the Silver Ball.
