Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Ballon d'Or, Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid, Rodri
Ryan Smart
A journalist has claimed he will resign from the Ballon d'Or voting jury after he said there was a 'technical error' with his vote.
Manchester City star Rodri won the award for the first time in his career, ahead of the Real Madrid pair of Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham.
There was controversy surrounding the award as Real declared they would boycott the award entirely after it became apparent that Vinicius would not win.
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Los Blancos players and coaching staff took to social media, and in public interviews, to defend the Brazilian and state why he deserved to win it over Rodri.
The Spaniard received 1,170 votes in total, winning the award by 41 points over Vinicius.
On Saturday, the full list of votes was finally revealed, showing the top 10 players voted for by each of the 100 journalists who took part.
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There were three journalists who did not include Vinicius in their top 10 at all - Finland's Juha Kanerva, El Salvador's Bruno Porzio and Sheefeni Nikodemus from Namibia.
While Porzio and Nikodemus have yet to comment on their decision not to include Vinicius, Kanerva directly replied to a Real fan page - and several other accounts - to explain why the forward did not appear in his top 10.
He explained that he made a 'technical error' with his vote, and he claims he will resign from the Ballon d'Or voting panel. SPORTbible has contacted France Football - the Ballon d'Or organisers - for comment.
He wrote: "My technical error. I will resign from the Ballon d'Or jury."
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Even if Vinicius had been given 15 points by the journalist, however, he would still not have won the Ballon d'Or.
Behind Rodri and Vinicius was Bellingham (917 points), Daniel Carvajal (550 points) and Erling Haaland (432 points).
In the Ballon d'Or Feminin, Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati was comfortably declared as the winner for the second year in a row, with her 675 points placing her ahead of team-mate Caroline Graham Hansen on 392 points.
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The highest-placed Women's Super League player was Chelsea's Lauren James, who was in 13th.