The official Ballon d’Or votes have been revealed and they show the exact amount that Vincius Jr would have needed to win the 2024 award.
To the surprise of football fans across the world, Manchester City midfielder Rodri was awarded the 2024 Ballon d’Or trophy at the ceremony in Paris last week.
Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior had been the favourite to win the award this year, but in the end he finished second in the rankings behind the Spaniard.
And now, the exact points tallies that both men earned have been revealed, showing exactly how many points separated Vinicius from the Ballon d’Or.
According to a report from French outlet L’Equipe, the official Ballon d’or votes show that Rodri won the award after being given 1170 points, while Vinicius Jr was handed just 41 less with a total of 1129.
France Football, the magazine that organises the Ballon d’Or, will release an official print version of their voting report on Saturday, which reveals that each of the 99 judges that voted for the men’s Ballon d’Or award listed their top 10.
The player ranked in first-place was awarded 15 points, followed by 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point for the 10th-place slot.
In total, there were 6,633 points voted for, showing just how close the 41-point gap between Vinicius and Rodri really was.
Surprisingly, the report also reveals that five judges did not include Rodri in their top 10 list, while only three omitted Vinicius.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri won the 2024 Ballon d’Or last week. (Image: Getty)
Jude Bellingham, who finished third in the Ballon d’Or rankings, was topped the list of five judges while Real Madrid teammates Dani Carvajal and Toni Kroos were named first by four and two judges respectively.
Apart from Rodri, Ademola Lookman, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lautaro MartÃnez were the only players to receive 15 points from at least one judge that did not play for Real Madrid last season.
Despite Vinicius missing out on the Ballon d’Or award, Real Madrid enjoyed a successful night in Paris as they were named the best men’s football club and manager Carlo Ancelotti won the best men’s football coach award.
However, nobody from the club were present to accept the awards as all players and staff did not attend the ceremony out of protest as they believed Vinicius had been unfairly snubbed.