The waves caused by the awarding of the Ballon d’Or are not going away. After Real Madrid boycotted the awards ceremony in Paris, Toni Kroos immediately questioned the entire event. “Everything to do with this trophy is too exaggerated and overrated. I always thought he was unimportant. I believe from the bottom of my heart that individual awards have nothing to lose in a sport like football,” said Kroos on the sidelines of the “Icon League”.
No representative of the Champions League winner traveled to Paris for the awards ceremony after it was announced that the prestigious trophy would go to Spanish European champion Rodri and not Brazilian striker Vinícius Júnior. Kroos, who wore the Royal jersey for more than ten years, even sees individual awards as alien to the industry: “That can happen in a sport like tennis when only one player wins.”
As superfluous as the event is for Kroos, he made it clear on Monday evening that the Ballon d’Or jury had made the wrong choice with Rodri. Toni Kroos, who ended his career with Real in the summer after winning numerous titles, commented on a photo of the Brazilian on Instagram with the words “The best”. The post has already been liked over four million times.
The German performance at the Ballon d’Or
Kroos himself ended up in ninth place in the election, which, according to his statements, probably doesn’t matter to him. Florian Wirtz from Bayern Leverkusen shone with twelfth place. Kroo’s former teammate Antonio Rüdiger came 22nd, Mats Hummels 29th. The last German player to win the Ballon d’Or was Matthias Sammer in 1996.
