Sorry, We Need To Talk About The Ballon d'Or

Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri has won the 2024 Ballon d'Or ahead of Real Madrid and Brazil winger Vinicius Junior, and in response, the world of football has lost its mind.

Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony in Paris, accusing the Ballon d'Or and UEFA of showing them a lack of respect, stealing the limelight from Rodri's big moment.

In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at how Ballon d'Or voting actually works, who deserved to win it, and why there is something much deeper going on in terms of Real Madrid's tantrum.

My Social Links:

Other HITC football / soccer / Premier League socials (not run by me):

[lukelikesturtles]

Alfie calling Real Madrid "little bitches" is truly the most i could hope for from HITC sevens today

[PaxBisonica]

Alonso and Leverkussen not winning in favor of Ancelotti and Madrid is a much bigger disgrace.

[maximusorbis]

Real Madrid are genuinely embarrassing, the lack of class is an utter embarrassment

[Prasko]

Clearly the last 4-0 Classico had such a huge mental impact on them and they felt too embarrassed to attend the ceremony

[samatkins]

well now i want to hear Alfie's opinions on Trotsky

[BALHAM]

Yea, Xabi Alonso did not win manager of season after going unbeaten with Bayer in second best League in world, Bundesliga.😮

[TheRogi]

Key thing to keep in mind is that this is an "individual" award yet Palmer finished 25th just because he hasn't won anything with the club....25th is crazy considering he was PFA player of the season and had the most G/A out of anyone. As Klopp eloquently put it "it's a journalist award".

[TiagoFerreira-zpgi]

What's the controversy? People voted on what they prefered and that person won. The fact that Real Madrid doesn't realize that having so many top players ended up penalizing Vinicius is hilarious.

[dwarakavamshi]

A narrative can be created for nearly any player if you frame their season in the right way. Highlight a few stats, focus on key moments, and suddenly it seems like they had an award-worthy year. With this approach, you could make a case for any player’s season, and it could just as easily be debated as not worthy enough to win.

Take Kane’s season for a moment, more goal contributions than matches played, Golden Boot in every tournament that he has played, scored in every knockout round in the Champions League that he has played, but because he didn't have a high-profile moment in a final or a big match, people often overlook the consistency he showed throughout the season.

This bias toward memorable moments skews perceptions. We see it all the time—players with a standout moment end up getting more recognition, even if others performed better over the whole season. It’s as if sustained excellence isn’t as valued as those dramatic, one-time moments.

In the end, it's often less about the season's merit and player's merit and is more about the narrative that sticks with fans and the media. The more popular you are, more the journalists hear about you and more votes you get.

[superyid]

Real Madrid think the whole football world revolves around them. Throwing their toys out of the pram because Vini didn't win it. Rodri thoroughly deserved this win. As Aguero said 'Football is about everyone, not just Real Madrid'.

[aryamanmani]

Theres a small part of me that keeps laughing at the thought that Mbappe is very happy Vini didn't win the Balon Dor and actually wanted to attend the ceremony.

[Hammerage]

Not even the most controversial Ballon D'Or...

[KMD-qjqc]

The fact that people think a plastic political popularity contest adds anything to a player shows they know nothing about football, Messi could have 0 ballon d’Ors and he’d still be the Goat

[GTsvetkovski]

Your long and detailed videos, combined with impeccable humor are a blessing in the cesspool that is the football community online

[edy]

Did Bayern Munich embarrassed themselves in the media by yelling "Robbery!" and crying in 2020 when their player - Robert Lewandowski was denied the Ballon D'or for a BS reason? Everybody agreed that he should've won it in 2020.

[Fanaro]

Xabi Alonso not getting the manager prize is indeed ridiculous.

[chrischandler]

If "class and fair play" is one of the criteria that the Ballon d'or is based on, doesn't this mean that Real Madrid have dealt their entire team a serious blow to winning next year's awards?

[vlsv]

Comparing the BallonDor with Leo Trotsky is wild

[ifan_]

you really NEED to talk about the Cymru premier. the league has only existed since the early 90s and has been neglected throughout its history. this year however, the champions are participating in the europa conference and have already bagged a win. could this be a turning point for the league? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[rohithraman]

This reminds me of when Kante won the PFA Player of the year in 2017 when the likes of Hazard, Kane and Alexis Sanchez had stellar seasons. All of them would have been worthy winners but it was refreshing to see a non-attacking player win the award. I think Vini had a case, but for me Rodri deserved to win this year's Ballon d'or