Manchester United legend offended by ‘classless’ Vinicius Jr reaction to Ballon d’Or snub

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·2. November 2024

Manchester United legend offended by ‘classless’ Vinicius Jr reaction to Ballon d’Or snub

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has slammed Vinicius Jr’s ‘classless’ and ‘outrageous’ reaction after missing out on this year’s Ballon d’Or award to Man City midfielder Rodri.

The Brazilian attacker was accused of ‘disrespecting’ his rival after being long considered the strong favourite to scoop the prestigious award.

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After all, Vinicius Jr played a central role in Real Madrid winning the Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup last season.

Trouble brewed before the Ballon d’Or ceremony when it was leaked that Vinicius Jr was set to be beaten to the award by Rodri, 28, who won the Premier League title and European Championship across an impressive 12 months.

Gary Neville unhappy with Vinicius Jr reaction to Rodri award

Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images

This led to Real Madrid throwing their toys out of the pram by cancelling their delegation’s trip to the Paris event as a form of protest.

Vinicius Jr later warned organised: ‘I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready.’

This has led to a heated reaction from former Manchester United captain Gary Neville, who told The Overlap US: “I’m quite offended by the reaction towards Vinicius Jr not winning by, to be fair, his fellow professionals as well.

“For me, Rodri, aside from the fact that he’s an amazing player and had the greatest influence, I believe, on his club team and on his international team in terms of winning a major tournament, he’s actually a players’ player.

“He’s a player that everybody in the world should love and almost unify behind the idea that Rodri is just a very special player and brings an amazing amount of influence to a football team. He’s the best midfield player in the world by a mile at this moment in time.

“I cannot believe, having watched Rodri in the way I have and talked about him in the way I have, he’s the one player I would take out this City team straight away if I was a Manchester United, an Arsenal fan.

“He holds them together. They lost four or five games last season when he didn’t play.

“We talk about having no leaders nowadays, we talk about having no big presences. He’s outstanding, Rodri, and he has been for a number of years.

“His consistency, his reliability and his level of performance is absolutely amazing.”

Neville went on to add that he is ‘delighted’ Rodri won the prize over Vinicius Jr given the Spaniard’s consistency at the highest level.

“I can understand people in Madrid and I can understand people in Brazil being upset that their boy hasn’t won it because he’s a special talent,” he added.

“But I feel in doing what they’ve done and to disrespect Rodri in the way they have, I think it’s absolutely outrageous.

“[Lionel] Messi winning it last year, I thought that was wrong personally. At that time, I just didn’t think he was the world player of the year and that got a little bit of controversy. This seems to have gone to another scale.

“Honestly, I’m absolutely delighted, not from a personal point of view. I’m not a Manchester City fan and people know that… I’m delighted Rodri has won the Ballon d’Or and I’m delighted it’s gone to a player who has contributed week-in, week-out, consistently at such a high level for his club and country.

“Spain weren’t favourites by the way, they were nowhere near favourites for winning the Euros.”