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This year’s Ballon d’Or winner is Vinicius Junior. Spanish sports daily Marca also published a report a few days ago that they found out that the Brazilian star is winning this year’s Ballon d’Or.

Whether Vinicius will finally win the Ballon d’Or will be known on October 28. The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner will be announced at the award ceremony on October 28. Before that, however, another Brazilian star, Neymar, spoke in favor of Vinicius winning the Ballon d’Or.

Neymar, the Brazilian forward of Al Hilal, who is sidelined due to injury, told the country’s newspaper Globo about the possibility of Vinicius winning the Ballon d’Or. There is no one else who deserves to win this award.

Neymar singled out Vinicius’ consistent performance in dealing with racist behavior over the years. While praising Real Madrid star Vinicius, his Brazilian team-mate Neymar then added, ‘He is a fighter. He has suffered a lot in his life. He handled all the criticism and provocation and today he is a unique role model, a hero to us all.’

Neymar and Vinicius played for Brazil at the same time in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. However, they did not get the desired success in that World Cup. Brazil had to leave the World Cup in Qatar after losing the tiebreaker to Croatia.

Earlier, in 2015 and 2017, Neymar was in the top three in the competition to win the Ballon d’Or but did not win the award. He finished third twice. The last time a Brazilian won the Ballon d’Or was in 2007. Kaka beat Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Ballon d’Or.

Apart from this, the Ballon d’Or has been won four more times by Brazilians. Legendary striker Ronaldo Nazario won the trophy in 1997 and 2002. Rivaldo won the award in 1999 and Ronaldinho in 2005.

This time, Vinicius Jr. is ahead of the others in the race to receive the award due to his excellent last season for Real. The Brazilian forward played an important role in Real’s La Liga and Champions League titles last season. In addition to scoring 24 goals for Real last season, he scored 9 goals with teammates.