Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has said that Vinicius Jr. winning the Ballon d’Or award would have also been well deserved.
However, Guardiola, 53, stated that Rodri won it because the voters believe that he deserves it more.
“Maybe, but it’s what happened. It’s journalists, it’s not a group of elite people that decide what they have to do,” he was quoted as saying by sports journalist, Fabrizio Romano when asked if Vinicius should have won the Ballon d’Or.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich gaffer added: “It’s all around the world, it’s not just one country votes. If Vini would have won the Ballon d’Or, it would have been more than well deserved.”
According to him, it was a similar situation with Erling Haaland in the 2023 edition of the award, which was eventually won by Lionel Messi for the 8th time.
However, he stated that Haaland attended the ceremony despite losing out to Messi, and congratulated him afterwards.
“Like last season with Erling Haaland, and he didn’t win. Erling was there, he was happy, and congratulate Messi and OK, let’s try to do next season.”
Guardiola also lauded the eventual winner, Rodri, noting that the achievement is an exceptional progress for Manchester City as an institution.
“Congratulations to Rodri. It’s incredible news for him and of course for all of us, for all Man City, our fans – we are so proud of him.”
He further said: “Hopefully, it can give him this energy to recover well for next season to be with us again.”
