Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid is awarded as the Best Men’s FIFA Player during the FIFA Football Awards 2024 in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Sayed)
Brazil legend Ronaldo congratulated Vinicius Jr on winning The Best FIFA Men’s Player award and hailed him as a “symbol of resistance and resilience”.
This comes after a controversy during the recent Ballon d’Or awards where Manchester City’s Rodri got the nod over the Brazilian leading to Vinicius’s club Real Madrid boycotting the ceremony.
“It has been 16 years since the last time the trophy for the best player in the world came to Brazil,” he wrote on Instagram. “Now deservedly in Vini’s hands, it means much more than his decisive role in the games and the extraordinary numbers in the 2023/24 season. His talent would be enough to win the award, but his power goes far beyond the field,” Ronaldo wrote on Instagram.
“We are talking about one of the most valuable players today, a victim of televised racism with inconceivable frequency. How many anonymous Viniciuses does he represent? How many victims spread all over the place? A symbol of resistance and resilience, today Vini also leads the anti-racist struggle in world football, where impunity is as pernicious as the attacks. And those who remain silent are no less racist. The omission – especially by entities and authorities that have the legal power to confront and punish such practices – further reinforces the culture of erasure and disrespect towards black people. They tried to erase you, my friend. And you rocked. THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD IS BLACK AND BRAZILIAN!” he added in the post.
On Tuesday, Real Madrid star Vinícius finally got his hands on a big global player award as he pipped Rodri by five points to win The Best award.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Vinícius said in Portuguese after receiving the award on stage. “It was so far away that it seemed impossible to get here. I was a kid who only played football barefoot on the streets of São Gonçalo, close to poverty and crime.
“Getting here is something very important to me. I’m doing it for many children who think that everything is impossible and who think they can’t get here.”
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