Pep Guardiola makes Lionel Messi point after Real Madrid's Ballon d'Or boycott
Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri won the Ballon d'Or, with Real Madrid boycotting the ceremony after their forward Vinicius Jr was beaten to the award
by David McDonnell · The MirrorPep Guardiola trod a diplomatic path when asked about Real Madrid's decision to boycott the Ballon d'Or in protest at Vinicius Jr missing out on the top award.
Real snubbed the event because of the perceived injustice towards Vinicius, with the accolade going to Manchester City midfielder Rodri, the first time a player from the club has won the prize. Although Real won team of the year and their boss Carlo Ancelotti scooped the coach of the year, the club chose to stay away en masse from the lavish ceremony in Paris.
Asked about Real's snub, Guardiola pointed out City striker Erling Haaland attended last year's ceremony, even though he missed out on the top award, which went to Lionel Messi for the eighth time. Although Guardiola said he felt Haaland deserved to win the Ballon d'Or last year, having scored 50-plus goals to help City win the Treble, he pointed out that the striker still attended the ceremony, despite losing out to Messi, in a subtle dig at Real for their boycott.
“You have to accept the result, simple,” said Guardiola. “Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don’t like it, but it doesn’t matter.
“If they [Real] want to go, it’s fine. If they don't, it’s fine as well. They want to congratulate? It’s fine. If they don’t want to congratulate, it’s fine as well.
“At Manchester City, we are not here to judge what the other clubs do. For us, last season, Erling won the Treble, scored more than 50 goals and I said to him ‘just being there you have to be so happy’. If you are in the first two or three, it’s exceptional. It means you have done an incredible year and you have to be so satisfied.
“Last season, Erling should have won, but Messi won. In the end, it's not important. What it is important is that you represent something in elite football because you, with your team-mates, have something from a really nice season.”
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Rodri, who is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament, drew praise from his boss Guardiola for being voted as the best player on the planet. “We're so proud of him,” said Guardiola. “Hopefully it can give him energy to recover well and be with us again next season.”
Of more immediate concern to Guardiola is tonight's Carabao Cup tie at Tottenham, where he will be without six outfield players in Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Oscar Bobb.
Guardiola said: “We won the Carabao Cup four times in a row and I always used the early rounds to play guys who didn't play regularly. Now we have a problem that we have a lot of injured players and I cannot rotate like I would do and I don't want to put much pressure on the young players on this stage.”
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