Rodri Ballon d’Oro

He’s Rodri, champion of Europe with Spain and winner of the Premier League, Uefa Super Cup and World Club Championship with Manchester City, the winner of the Ballon d’Or 2024.

The Spanish midfielder, who is currently injured in his knee, received the award from the hands of George Weah at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, beating all the representatives (who deserted the evening) from Real Madrid, namely Vinicius Jr., Bellingham and Carvajal.

Carlo Ancelotti won the Johann Cruyff award for best coach. The Kopa Award, reserved for the best young person, è was won by Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), the youngest person in history.

This is the final ranking:

1° Rodri (Manchester City)
2° Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
3° Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid)
4° Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid)
5° Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
6° Kylian Mbappe (PSG / Real Madrid)
7° Lautaro Martinez (Inter)
8° Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)
9° Toni Kroos (Real Madrid)
10° Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
11° Phil Foden (Manchester City)
12° Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)
13° Dani Olmo (Leipzig / Barcelona)
14° Ademola Lookman (Atalanta)
15° Nico Williams (Barcelona)
16° Granit Xhaka (Bayer Leverkusen)
17° Federico Valverde (Real Madrid)
18° Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
19° Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
20° Hakan Calhanoglu (Inter)
21° Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
22° Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid)
23° Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
24° William Saliba (Arsenal)
25° Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
26° Declan Rice (Arsenal)
27° Vitinha (PSG)
28° Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen)
29° Artem Dovbyk (Girona / Roma)
29° Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund / Roma)

The words of the trainer of Balotelli

Stefano Mazzoldi, the athletic trainer who has followed Mario Balotelli in recent months, è unbalanced himself after Genoa’s announcement: “He has to go in double figures, at least 10 goals he has to score them”

“Musically he is very well. È it is clear that he does not have the match rhythm, but he can’quietly make a half-hour or 45 minutes”, he revealed.

“Mentally? È charged up, he is eager to start again: I have seen him enthusiastic. He really has a lot of desire and mentally è very strong: training 5 months without having the certainty of starting again is not like everyone”.

“I work with so many soccer players, but never in my life have I seen someone kick like he does. He shoots differently, he pops balls. He told me that this fundamental coached him a lot at’Inter when he would stop an extra hour’to kick with Mihajlovic and Recoba”, he concluded.

The words of Lautaro Martinez

Lautaro Martinez closed his countdown on the Ballon d’Or night in seventh place, behind even Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland but ahead of for example Lamine Yamal and Toni Kroos.

The Inter’s captain was chosen to award teammate Emiliano Martinez with the second Yashin Trophy in a row and from the stage he took the opportunity to make a few brief statements.

“What a pleasure to be here. The truth è è that in the last period I have experienced important moments between Argentina and Inter. Winning trophies è always a goal, what you work for every day, the biggest incentive and push. As my goal I have to score goals, in the pre-match analysis we always study the opposing goalkeepers, then you have to decide in fractions of a second but every data è important”.

Lautaro has collected only three appearances, too few to play for at least the podium.