Rodrigo Hernández ‘Rodri’, mastermind of the European champion Spanish team and Manchester City, won the 2024 Ballon d’Or this Monday, the second time that a Spanish player has won the trophy.
The Spanish midfielder received this recognition that no player from his country has achieved in the men’s category since 1960 and that was accompanied by Real Madrid’s boycott of the gala due to their anger at the prediction that Vinicius was not going to be awarded.
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At 28 years old and after having won the Euro-2024 with Spain and the Champions League in 2023, Rodri achieves the highest individual recognition in football, awarded by the magazine francesa France Football.
“Today is not a victory for me, it is for Spanish football. There are many players who have not won it and have deserved it, like Iniesta, Xavi, Iker. [Casillas]busi [Busquets]and many others. This is for Spanish football,” said Rodri.
Alfredo di Stefano, born in Argentina but naturalized Spanish, won it twice, in the second edition of the award, in 1957, and in the fourth, two years later, when the award was reserved for European footballers.
Rodri is also the first Manchester City player to win the award, after his teammates Kevin de Bruyne, in 2022, and Erling Haland last year, climbed onto the podium, as third and second respectively.
In the last two seasons, Rodri has won everything winnable. In 2022/2023 he was crowned with the Champions League, scoring the winning goal in the final against Inter Milan, in addition to winning the Premier League and the FA Cup, in what was the second treble in the history of football. . English.
While in 2023/2024, the one that counts for the French award, he triumphed again in the Premier, the fourth in a row for him, and although he did not win another treble with the defeats in the Champions and the FA Cup, he rounded off the summer with the Eurocup.
Spain also triumphing in women’s football
For her part, Aitana Bonmatí prepared a historic double for Spanish football.
If we add the women’s Ballon d’Or, an award created in 2018, there are a total of four footballers born in Spain who have won it, since Alexia Putellas won it in 2021 and 2022 and her partner Aitana Bonmatí won her second award this year. . consecutive.