The Ballon d'Or has been a hot topic of discussion this year. A month before the award was announced, European media outlets reported that Vinicius Junior would be the winner.
Real Madrid had also completed preparations to celebrate their player's Ballon d'Or win. But the whole scene changed a few hours before the award was announced.
Real Madrid also cancelled their trip to Paris after news of Rodri's Ballon d'Or win emerged.
However, in the meantime, British media outlet The Guardian has given Real another disappointing news. Like the Ballon d'Or, they have also chosen Rodrigo as the best footballer of the year.
The Guardian's selection process for the best player of the year was made up of 23 former footballers from different countries, including legendary Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci, Germany's World Cup-winning captain Philipp Lahm and Brazil's World Cup-winning star Bebeto.
Among the coaches in the selection process were Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk, Iceland's Afturelding club coach Magnus Mar Einarsson, and Brazil's 2018 and 2022 World Cup assistant coach Kleber Javier. In addition, more than a hundred journalists from different countries also gave their opinions on the player selection.
In the player selection, the number one player in each judge's order of preference received 40 points and the second-choice player received 39 points. Thus, the number 40 player received 1 point. Then, all the votes were added together to determine a score.
In this voting, Rodri received 7495 points, while Rodri received 7427 points. That is, Rodri won by 68 points in the end. Of those who voted, 92 chose Rodri as the best player. And 72 people chose Vinicius as their first choice.
Although the top two are the same as in the Ballon d'Or, there have been some changes in the subsequent places. Jude Bellingham came third in the Ballon d'Or. He has dropped to number five in the Guardian's list. And Holland, who was fifth in the Ballon d'Or, is number three in the Guardian.