While there has been no official confirmation that it was the reason, it seems that Vinicius Junior finishing second in the Ballon d’Or poll to Rodri Hernandez was behind the non-attendance of Real Madrid. Vinicius posted after the winner was announced that he go for it ’10x over’ in the aftermath, and generally seemed upset at the verdict.
He assured after The Best award, which he did win, that he was now the best player in the world. While the Ballon d’Or might have damaged his ego, there are millions of other reasons that Vinicius might have been frustrated at the verdict.
Diario AS detail that Vinicius will go from earning €15m per annum to €20m per annum in the final two years of his contract (which runs until 2027), a significant 33% bump and a difference of €10m in total. The Best award triggered bonuses in his contract, and it is presumed that the Ballon d’Or award would have either triggered the same, or perhaps even meant further bonuses.
Clearly, this is all relative to your earnings, but most would be upset at the prospect of losing €10m, beyond the general hopes he had of winning the award. Los Blancos are set to offer him a new deal next summer, amid interest from Saudi Arabia, as he moves into the final stages of his contract. It should be noted that some outlets dispute Vinicius’ current base salary, saying it is closer to €10m per annum.
It is unfortunate that this type of negative speculation is put out to shape the minds of football fans regarding the character of a footballer. It seems to be especially reserved for Real Madrid players – note that not a single article with this type of accusation was ever levelled at Messi – even though it is public knowledge now that his salary was a simply stupid amount that he was happy to keep receiving… at the expense of bleeding the club dry – the effects of which are still felt today. For context, Messi earned $168 million per year at Barca… Vini earns $15 million per year. I know the media likes to create villains and heros but this type of character assassination is unfair.
FYI: Vote buying is how UEFA got the Rodri votes up… there are small countries that hold key votes and the promise of money for vote is strong incentive for these disadvantaged countries. Ceferin and Al-Khaleifi are masters at this… they cannot stop Madrid on the field but have an agenda to ensure that a Madrid player did not win the Ballon D’or. With the criteria they portrayed to justify Rodi, Dani Carvajal would have been at the top of the list. Its all corrupt…. good that someone stood up to it.