Manchester City midfielder Rodri joined the likes of Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane and Johan Cruyff on Monday night as he claimed his first Ballon d’Or crown.
The Spaniard was named the 2024 victor after beating the likes of Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe and – controversially – Vinicius Junior to the prize, becoming the first Premier League player to claim the accolade since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008.
The award has long been dominated by the Portuguese and his rival Messi, with the pair having won 13 awards between them in the past 16 years, but neither were nominated for this year’s trophy for the first time in over two decades.
Rodri’s victory may have offended Madridistas across the globe following Vinicius’ snub, but the midfielder is a worthy winner, rewarded for an exceptional 2023/24 campaign for club and country littered with clutch performances and silverware.
Here is how Rodri beat Vinicius to be named the world’s best.
The Ballon d’Or is often influenced by international success, a factor which heavily contributed to Rodri’s Man City team-mate Erling Haaland losing out to World Cup winner Lionel Messi in 2023. But within a year where there was the European Championships and Copa America, international glory was always going to influence minds ahead of the Ballon d’Or.
For Vinicius, Copa America success never arrived. The Brazilian scored twice during the tournament but his nation’s quarter-final exit at the hands of Uruguay dented the Champions League winner’s odds of claiming the most prestigious individual prize on the market.
By contrast, last summer’s international excursions couldn’t have gone any better for Rodri. The midfielder was the linchpin in the Spain side that tasted glory at Euro 2024 in Germany, with the Man City metronome being named the Player of the Tournament after La Roja beat England in the final.
Had Brazil won the Copa America, then it may well have been a different story, but Rodri’s international achievements helped thrust him into top spot.
While comparing Rodri’s and Vinicius’ goalscoring and assist numbers may seem futile given the latter plays as a forward for Real Madrid and the former in the base of midfield for Man City, it highlights just how impressive Rodri was in the final third in 2023/24.
The Spaniard has long been the scorer of clutch goals for Man City – the 2023 Champions League final winner springs to mind – but he raised his output last term. He finished the campaign with nine goals at club level in 50 appearances, one of which was a clinching goal on the final day of the Premier League season against West Ham United as Man City won the title.
The defensive midfielder also provided an impressive 14 assists in all competitions for the Cityzens – double his 2022/23 tally. That’s also three more than Vinicius managed in 39 appearances for the Champions League and La Liga champions.
Rodri isn’t just a destroyer of counter-attacks and back four shield, he’s a chief creator for one of the world’s best sides.
Midfielders are often overlooked for the Ballon d’Or. The award tends to favour the glamour of the forward line, with only a handful of engine room residents having been victorious – most recently Luka Modric in 2018. However, even fewer have been defensive midfielders.
Some would argue that no deep-lying midfielder has ever won the award, although Lothar Matthaus and Matthias Sammer could both lay claim to being number sixes. Defining the exact position of players as eras and styles change is difficult.
Regardless, the rising stock of enforcers in the modern game must be celebrated. There may never be a better opportunity to award a defensive midfielder with the Ballon d’Or again and it’s a position that has often been ignored by the prize’s decision-makers previously.
There can be no questioning Rodri’s status as the world’s best holding midfielder.
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