REVEALED: Norway forgets Haaland, Lookman No.1 and the STRANGEST Ballon d’Or 2024 votes

Robin Bairner

• 9 Nov 2024 13:00 GMT
• 3 min read

The 2024 Ballon d'Or has been among the most controversial in recent times, with Rodri’s victory over Vinicius Junior sparking such anger from Real Madrid that they elected to boycott the ceremony.

But no matter how strongly Los Blancos feel about Rodri being anointed as the best footballer in the world ahead of Vini Jr, there were some altogether more surprising votes out there.

These have been revealed in France Football, which detailed that Rodri was elected as the best player in the world 49 times compared to 35 for Vinicius Junior.

Regardless of what Real Madrid might think, there is no great scandal here, particularly when compared to some of the other opinions that were aired in this edition of Ballon d’Or voting.

READ MORE: Who won Ballon d’Or 2024? Final ranking and past winners

Ballon d’Or voting highlights

According to the panel in Argentina and Ecuador, Vini Jr was not even Real Madrid’s leading player. These two South American countries placed Bernabeu colleague Toni Kroos ahead of him in first place.

Erling Haaland, meanwhile, might be having some words with the voter in Norway, who did not even select the Manchester City striker among their top 10 players in the world during 2024.

On the other hand, Haaland was voted in at first by South Korea, who chose a rather surprising top three that did not include either Vinicius Junior or Rodri. Beating this duo onto the podium were the Real Madrid pairing of Jude Bellingham, who tailed away badly in the second half of last season, and Kylian Mbappe.

Another surprising vote came from Trinidad and Tobago, who put Lautaro Martinez in first.

Equally, the voter in Nigeria bizarrely had compatriot Ademola Lookman as the world’s top player, for a season in which he scored 17 goals in 45 games for Atalanta, including a hat-trick in the Europa League final. Strong? Yes. Best in the world? Absolutely not.