A recognition for the best only, the Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious award in football. After more than a decade of Ronaldo and Messi dominance, the award is now set to see new names emerge as favorites.

Amongst the favorite candidates are Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr and Jude Bellingham, who both had a successful 2023/24 season.

Vinicius Jr was the main protagonists for Real Madrid in the champions league, while also playing a crucial role in LaLiga and Spanish super cup wins. Bellingham for his part, won the LaLiga player of the season, UCL young player of the tournament while also finishing runners up at the euros with England amongst other achievements.

Amidst this, according to Spanish newspaper Marca, the winner of the award is already known. (Via Madridxtra)

“All Roads leads to gold”

At the top of to today’s newspaper cover was the caption “all roads lead to gold”, with a Photoshop of Vinicius Jr holding the ballon d’Or.

The source also claimed that Vinicius Jr as of today, is already aware of the fact that he’s this year’s Ballon d’Or winner. This comes to light just a little over a month till the award night, with the Ballon d’Or ceremony planned for October 28th.

A deserved winner

There’s no denying Bellingham and Rodri’s contributions in 2023/24, but Vinicius Jr was simply unplayable. The Brazilian was the backbone of Real Madrid’s successful season, and proved decisive in big moments at the business end of the season.

7 goals contributions in the UCL knockout stages only, Vinicius proved to be the difference maker for Carlo Ancelotti. He also recorded several individual performances throughout the season, including against Girona (league leaders at that time), a hat-trick in the final against Barcelona, spectacular showings against Bayern, man city and liepzik, plus UCL final winning goal vs Dortmund

Although reports already label Vinicius as winner, nothing is confirmed yet.