If it was the Spaniard Rodri who was crowned Ballon d'Or 2024 at the end of October, the African votes had elected Vinicius as the best player in the world. Votes which also gave pride of place to Ademola Lookman, the highest ranked African in this 2024 edition. Overview of the continent's votes.
France Football published, in detail, the votes for the Ballon d'Or 2024 which was finally awarded to Rodri. A turnaround, since the football world was expecting a coronation from Vinicius. But the 100 journalists from the top 100 countries in the Fifa ranking decided otherwise, sometimes provoking, notably on the Real Madrid side where Vinicius playsa real outcry.
So much so that some voters were afraid of seeing these results published, afraid of reprisals, as the result caused such a stir. And in Africa, the election of Rodri as the best player in the world for the 2023/2024 season may have seemed even more out of step with expectations. Because the continent's journalists have mainly spoken out in favor of the Brazilian striker.
Arriving 14th in the overall Ballon d'Or ranking, Ademola Lookman is the highest ranked African player of this 2024 vintage. And he can thank the journalists of the continent who wanted to salute the progress of the CAN finalist in Ivory Coast and triple scorer in the Europa League final with Atalanta Bergamo. Nigeria obviously ranked him first.
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