Real Madrid are back in the "Ballon d'Or" conversation, and not because they lacked nominees. The Spanish giants deliberately ignored the event entirely last year. They published nothing on their official platforms about the players who made the 30-man shortlist, an award later claimed by Ousmane Dembélé, and they stayed completely silent on the final results.
Blame the drama of the 2024 edition, when Spain's Rodri Hernández pipped Brazil's Vinícius Júnior to the prize. The Real Madrid delegation boycotted in fury, ditching the trip to Paris the moment they learned the Brazilian winger would not be crowned, despite his leading Los Blancos to a La Liga and Champions League double in the 2023-2024 season.
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Anger and disappointment swept through the club's corridors, with Madrid regarding the outcome as an injustice against them. They made their stance crystal clear on 28 October 2024, declaring: "At this moment, the Ballon d'Or no longer exists for us." They even scrapped roughly five hours of special coverage that had been lined up to celebrate the event on their official channel "RMTV".
This year, though, the capital club broke the silence and engaged with the news officially. Their social media accounts and website carried a post that read: "(Kylian) Mbappé, Vini Júnior, (Jude) Bellingham and (Marc) Cucurella are among the list of 30 nominees to win the 2026 Ballon d'Or award presented by France Football magazine, with the nominees having been chosen based on the levels they produced during the (2025-2026) season."
