Football award
Ballon d’Or: Several points for Rodri, none for Hummels
It was a close call when it came to winning the Ballon d’Or. But the top two were far ahead. A German professional did not receive a single point.
The Spanish European champion Rodri won the prestigious Ballon d’Or award by a relatively narrow margin over the Brazilian Vinícius Júnior. Rodri scored 1,170 points in the journalists’ vote, according to the distribution of points published by the French magazine “L’Équipe”. Vinícius Jr. got 1,129 points. Third-placed Englishman Jude Bellingham missed the 1,000-point mark with 917.
Rodri’s victory was not well received at all by Vinícius Júnior’s club Real Madrid and the Brazilian’s fans. Real boycotted the awards ceremony in Paris on October 28th.
One journalist from each of the 100 countries that are best placed in the world rankings was eligible to vote. Ten players could be selected (from a list of 30 professionals), who had to be sorted into their own ranking list. The best placed received 15 points, the last placed one point.
Kroos got almost three times as many points as Wirtz
The best German professional was Toni Kroos, who ended his career in the summer and received 291 points (ninth place). Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz received 101 points (twelfth place). Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid) collected 13 points, which was enough for 22nd place. Mats Hummels, who now plays for AS Roma, took last place together with the Ukrainian Artem Dowbyk – the two were not selected by any of those eligible to vote.
dpa
