Vinicius favorite for Ballon d’Or in post-Messi/Ronaldo period

Actual Madrid’s Vinicius Junior (foreground), seen right here with Kylian Mbappe, is the favorite to win the Ballon d’Or this yr
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

The elite of world soccer will collect in Paris on Monday (October 28, 2024) for the Ballon d’Or ceremony, with Actual Madrid ahead Vinicius Junior the main candidate for the lads’s award and Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati the new favorite to win her second-successive crown.

The boys’s shortlist for the 2023/24 version of the celebrated particular person award is the primary since 2003 to function neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo who hoovered up the prize 13 occasions between them.

Vinicius, the person who inherited Ronaldo’s quantity seven shirt at Actual Madrid, has been tipped by many pundits to succeed Messi because the Males’s Ballon d’Or after a season wherein he gained the Spanish championship and Champions League.

“Vinicius goes to win (the Ballon d’Or),” Actual Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti declared after his participant netted a hat-trick in a 5-2 Champions League win in opposition to Borussia Dortmund final week.

“And never due to the three objectives however due to his character. He is extraordinary.”

If the 24-year-old Brazilian confirmed why he’s anticipated to take Messi’s crown in Madrid’s beautiful comeback midweek, he was much less influential in Saturday’s La Liga Clasico as Actual have been comprehensively overwhelmed 4-0 by Barcelona.

However Vinicius’ six objectives final time period have been important as Madrid lifted their fifteenth Champions League, with the attacker scoring a brace within the semi-final and a purpose within the closing.

Vinicius has additionally change into a figurehead within the combat in opposition to racism after being focused on quite a few events since arriving in Spain in 2018.

He earned worldwide help in Could 2023 when he squared off with Valencia supporters after struggling abuse at their Mestalla Stadium.

Different contenders

The gamers anticipated to problem Vinicius for the Ballon d’Or are club-mate and England star Jude Bellingham, in addition to Manchester Metropolis and Spain’s Euro 2024-winning midfield common Rodri.

Additionally among the many record of nominees are purpose machines Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe.

Actual Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal has an out of doors shot, after a season which noticed him raise the treble of La Liga, Champions League and European Championship.

Within the Ladies’s Ballon d’Or, 26-year-old Barcelona and Spain playmaker Bonmati is anticipated to retain the title she claimed for the primary time final season.

She was once more the excellent participant in a workforce which gained its first continental quadruple of home league and cup, Spanish Supercopa and Champions League.

Barcelona’s dominance of the ladies’s sport is mirrored within the variety of nominees the Catalan membership boasts, with attackers Caroline Graham Hansen and Salma Paralluelo thought of the 2 principal threats to their club-mate Bonmati.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony will happen within the centre of Paris on Monday the place the winners, as determined by a global jury of soccer journalists, shall be introduced.