Ballon d'Or with controversy: Rodri wins and Real Madrid desert the ceremony

Gala evening with controversy. The award ceremony of the Golden Ball became a case: the failure of Vinicius Junior, considered by the insiders and the bookmakers as the favourite on the eve of the ceremony, sent the Real Madrid on the rampage, who decided to desert the award ceremony in Paris, cancelling at the last minute the charter flight that was supposed to leave in the early afternoon. No representative of the Casa Blanca flew to France, to the ceremony that took place at the Theatre du Chatelet: from Jude Bellingham, another great protagonist of the Blancos' year, to Carlo Ancelotti and Florentino Perez, passing by the other stars Kylian Mbappé, Daniel Carvajal, Toni Rudiger and Federico Valverde.

The success went to Manchester City and Spain's metronome Rodri, currently injured and appearing in Paris in the unusual combination of dinner jacket and crutches: last season he added to his already rich palmares by adding a European, a Premier League, a Club World Cup and a European Supercup.

Behind the decision to award the prestigious prize to the Madrid-born midfielder (who grew up in Atletico's football academy) are the new evaluation criteria, which take into account individual performance, collective performance, palmares, class and fair play. A choice - 100 journalists are to vote, each representing one of the top 100 countries in the Fifa ranking - which, however, did not go down well with Real, according to whom, with these new parameters, the winner should have been Dani Carvajal, himself out with a serious injury.

Serie A, meanwhile, enjoys a Lautaro Martinez placed seventh, the result of the Scudetto won by Inter and the Copa America won with Argentina. Out of the top ten Adenola Lookman (14th), Atalanta's forward, hero of the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen, and Hakan Calhanoglu, pillar of the Nerazzurri (20th).

Ex-aequo in 29th place for Roma players Artem Dovbyk and Mats Hummels, fresh from their rides with Girona and Borussia Dortmund. As far as the Italians are concerned, Ancelotti's triumph, as said not present in Paris, in the coach of the year category should be noted, while among the women Manuela Giuliano, the first Italian footballer to enter the list of 30 finalists, placed 27th. The women's Golden Ball was once again awarded to Barcelona's Aitana Bonmati.