Manchester United great Gary Neville has blasted Vinicius Jr’s ‘classless’ and ‘outrageous’ reaction after missing out on this year’s Ballon d’Or award to Rodri, accusing the Brazilian of ‘disrespecting’ his rival.
Vinicius Jr had been considered the strong favourite to scoop the prestigious prize after playing a central role in Real Madrid winning the Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup last season.
However, a pre-ceremony leak indicated that Vinicius Jr was set to be beaten to the award by Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri, 28, who secured the Premier League title and the Euro 2024 trophy across a stellar 12 months.
As a result, Madrid’s delegation, which had been set to include Vinicius Jr, cancelled their trip to the star-studded Paris event as a form of protest, meaning nobody was present to collect Los Blancos’ Men’s Club of the Year gong.
A furious Vinicius Jr later warned organisers: ‘I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready.’
Subsequent reports emanating out of Spain revealed how Vinicius Jr had invited 50 friends to Madrid for a celebration party, which the ‘devastated’ 24-year-old awkwardly had to scrap.
‘I’m quite offended by the reaction towards Vinicius Jr not winning by, to be fair, his fellow professionals as well,’ ex-United and England right-back Neville said on The Overlap US.
‘For me, Rodri, aside from the fact that he’s an amazing player and had the greatest influence, I believe, on his club team and on his international team in terms of winning a major tournament, he’s actually a players’ player.
‘He’s a player that everybody in the world should love and almost unify behind the idea that Rodri is just a very special player and brings an amazing amount of influence to a football team. He’s the best midfield player in the world by a mile at this moment in time.
‘I cannot believe, having watched Rodri in the way I have and talked about him in the way I have, he’s the one player I would take out this City team straight away if I was a Manchester United, an Arsenal fan.
‘He holds them together. They lost four or five games last season when he didn’t play.
‘We talk about having no leaders nowadays, we talk about having no big presences. He’s outstanding, Rodri, and he has been for a number of years.
‘His consistency, his reliability and his level of performance is absolutely amazing.’
Neville is ‘absolutely delighted’ Rodri got his hands on the prize over Vinicius Jr given the Spaniard’s consistency at ‘such a high level’ both both club and country.
‘I can understand people in Madrid and I can understand people in Brazil being upset that their boy hasn’t won it because he’s a special talent,’ he added.
‘But I feel in doing what they’ve done and to disrespect Rodri in the way they have, I think it’s absolutely outrageous.
‘[Lionel] Messi winning it last year, I thought that was wrong personally. At that time, I just didn’t think he was the world player of the year and that got a little bit of controversy. This seems to have gone to another scale.
‘Honestly, I’m absolutely delighted, not from a personal point of view. I’m not a Manchester City fan and people know that… I’m delighted Rodri has won the Ballon d’Or and I’m delighted it’s gone to a player who has contributed week-in, week-out, consistently at such a high level for his club and country.
‘Spain weren’t favourites by the way, they were nowhere near favourites for winning the Euros.’
Neville continued: ‘Vinicius is a star, he’s a wonderful player, but the idea that Rodri doesn’t deserve to win it is just plain wrong.
‘It’s because you don’t value players that play in different positions or have different levels of quality or different types of quality to the one that looks the most skilful.
‘The Ballon d’Or isn’t about the most skilful and talented, in my opinion, it’s about the best player and most important player and I think that is Rodri.’
According to Neville, Vinicius Jr should have taken the disappointment on the chin and acted with dignity by going ahead with his party and inviting ‘class-act’ Rodri.
‘Rodri is a class-act on and off the pitch and I’m delighted that he won it,’ he went on.
‘What I would have hoped but you don’t tend to get that from Real Madrid players because there’s an entitled feel about the club generally, that’s the way in which they are and they’ve produced some of the greatest players of all time and Real Madrid have great players.
‘What I would have liked to have happened was Vinicius Jr to still travel to the awards and that he would have invited Rodri to his party after and he would have celebrated with him and said, “Well done, Rodri, you’re an amazing player and do you know something? Next year, I hope I can win it!”, because that, to me, is what class looks like.
‘We don’t get that. All the Real Madrid players don’t turn up to the event, the manager doesn’t turn up to the event. I think there were five Real Madrid players that were awarded on the night and none of them turned up out of protest, I suspect, that Vinicius has not won it.
‘Vinicius is a special talent, he’s amazing, he’s going to win it one day, I’m sure, but the idea that you try and take the glory away… I get it, he’s a fans’ player, he’s a players’ player, he’s somebody who will be respected all around the world and a good man… I just think it is classless.’
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