Real Madrid Threatened Boycotting Ballon d'Or Over Fears Of Organisers Overlooking Vinicius Jr.

 

As there are growing fears over the dropping of Vinicius Jr. from winning the Ballon d'Or, Real Madrid are threatened that the forward will not be attending the ceremony in Paris on Monday. 

Hours ahead of the kick off of the ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Real released a statement criticising the organisers over the suspicion that the Champions League winner, Vinicius might not win the award. Real lost heavily to Barcelona over the weekend, throwing shades at the club for the manners by which their opponents completed the rout. 

"If the award criteria doesn't give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner," Real Madrid told AFP in protest. 

Meanwhile, Real also have Jude Bellingham in the nomination list but they suspected their players including Carvajal are being overlooked by the organisers, who they also criticised for not having respect for the club. The claims, however, have been dismissed by the organisers citing that no individual or club knows neither the criteria nor methodology used in selecting the winner of the award. The organisers also clarified that the process is done in high confidentiality. 

Real won the Champions League trophy last season, with Vinicius and Bellingham playing prominent roles during the campaign. Until their defeat to Barcelona in the La Liga El Clasico over the weekend, Real have maintained 42 game unbeaten run in the domestic league.

Karim Benzema was the last Real player to win the Ballon d'Or and he clinched that for the first time in his career in the 2022 edition. He already left the club for the Saudi Arabia Pro league. Luka Modric is another player in Real squad with Ballon d'Or, an award he won in 2018 ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.