2 weeks Ago By Jack Johnson
The 2024 Ballon d'Or winner will be announced tonight as football's most prestigious award ceremony takes place in Paris. Vinicius Junior is the favourite to claim the honour after starring on the way to winning his second Champions League last season. The 24-year-old has become a world star and he will be going head-to-head against his Real Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham .
Bellingham is another of the favourites after settling into life in Spain by winning La Liga while also reaching the Euro 2024 final with England. Manchester City midfielder Rodri has been an integral part of Pep Guardiola 's side and after an incredible year, he's gunning for glory too. Alongside the men's Ballon d'Or winner being announced, the women's award will also be handed out while the best goalkeeper, clubs and coaches will be crowned.
It's Vinicius Jr, Bellingham and Rodri leading the way heading into the awards ceremony this evening. However, there are some other huge names nominated, including Harry Kane , Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe . Bukayo Saka , Phil Foden and Cole Palmer are also up for the award while Martin Odegaard , Declan Rice and William Saliba make up a huge Arsenal contingent.
Ademola Lookman , Vitinha , Florian Wirtz and Lamine Yamal make up some new names to be featured on the list. Here is the full list of nominees for the Ballon d'Or: Fans can watch the Ballon d'Or ceremony for FREE tonight. It is scheduled to begin at 7:45pm UK time.
The awards will be handed out live on L'Equipe's YouTube channel . It will also be shown live on L'Equipe's website HERE . talkSPORT and talkSPORT.
com will also keep you up to date with the latest from the ceremony. To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream . You can also listen via the talkSPORT app , on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
Winner: Vinicius Junior Real Madrid's Brazilian superstar had an incredible campaign last season in both La Liga and the Champions League. Vini Jr provided six goals and four assists in 10 appearances on his way to another European title. And that was on top of 15 goals and five assists in La Liga.
In all competitions, he has 35 goal contributions in 39 games which is an incredible return considering he also had to deal with injuries. On top of that, Bellingham had joined Madrid and Vinicius Jr had to share the limelight, but the latter still led Real to glory. Another three trophies last season added to his ever-growing collection, making it 13 titles at the age of 24.
Vini Jr's start to this campaign strengthens his claim too, having scored eight and assisted seven in only 15 games. A Champions League hat-trick in half an hour against Borussia Dortmund recently proved he's deserving of the award. And Carlo Ancelotti said after the game that his winger will come out on top in Paris for his immense contribution to Real's success, with his hat-trick against Dortmund going towards next year's award.
It means despite Bellingham and Man City's Rodri staking a strong claim, it's the Brazilian who will add his name to the history books..
