Rodri's statistics have been compared with Real Madrid duo Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham to decide the true winner of the 2024 Ballon d'Or.
On Monday night, Manchester City midfielder Rodri was awarded the 2024 Ballon d'Or, shocking football fans across the world.
After it was reported that he would not be winning the award, Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior, who was the favourite heading into the evening, boycotted the evening with his teammates.
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And now, a series of statistics gathered over the past year has revealed exactly who deserved to win the 2024 Ballon d'Or award.
Using stats gathered from SofaScore, Rodri was compared to both Vinicius and Bellingham, who finished second and third in the Ballon d'Or rankings respectively.
From August 1 2023 until July 31 this year, the Spanish midfielder had an average rating of 7.89 across 63 matches played for both City and Spain.
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Vinicius Jr averaged 7.36 playing 49 matches for Real Madrid and Brazil, while teammate Bellingham averaged 7.86 in 54 matches for the La Liga side and England.
Across these matches, Rodri boasted a win percentage of 79%, winning 50 games, while Vinicius won 65% (32 matches) and his English teammate won 67% (36 matches).
In this time, the Spaniard won four trophies, including the Premier League with City and Euro 2024 with Spain, while both Real Madrid players won three trophies with the club over the last year, including the Champions League.
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Across the nine statistics tracked in a viral graphic posted on the soccer subreddit, Rodri came out on top on six, followed by Bellingham who led two while Vinicius was only ahead for successful dribbles.
Therefore, it would appear that Rodri was perhaps the worthy winner of the 2024 award, despite the protests from Madrid players and staff who didn't attend the ceremony in Paris even though they won several other awards on the night.
After the ceremony had finished and Rodri had been handed the Ballon d'Or, Vinicius wrote on social media: “Eu farei 10x se for preciso. Eles não estão preparados,” which translates to: “I'll do it 10x if I have to. They're not ready.”
Topics: Ballon d'Or, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Rodri, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Football