Carlo Ancelotti confirmed his conviction that Real Madrid Vinicius Jr should have won the Manchester City 2024 midfielder instead of the Manchester City midfielder.
Real made the front page of the newspapers in October after club members, including Ancelotti and Vinicius, decided not to attend the Ceremony for the awards of the Ballon d’Or after having learned that the star of Brazil did not not won the price.
Instead, the midfielder from Spain and the influential city Rodri received the prestigious prize after helping his club in another first League title and won Euro 2024, with the Vinicius teammate, Jude Bellingham in third.
So far, Real had not talked about their reasons before not attending the ceremony, where they were awarded by a team of the year, but Ancelotti has now broken his silence on the question while both parties are preparing to compete in a two. The Champions Champions Champions League eliminating matches.
“We did not want to participate because we thought that Vinicius should have won the Ballon d’Or,” said the Italian.
“And that does not mean that we do not respect Rodrigo, but we thought he should have won the previous year, not this one.”
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📺 Press conference ➡️ RM Play– Real Madrid Cf 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 10, 2025
City v real ‘a classic’
City and Real face equality of direct elimination of the Champions League for the fourth consecutive time, with Real by advancing two of these three previous meetings on the way to win the competition.
This has led to the meeting of the finish of a modern classic in football.
Ancelotti said: “Now it seems to be a classic, it will be an entertaining match as before. It is very difficult to predict what will happen because it depends on the quality, on the personality.
“They (the matches) have such a high level that you have to bring out the best version,” he said.
Ancelotti: opposite Pep is a “nightmare”
Ancelotti was right for Pep Gardiola last season, with a real winner on penalties in the quarter-final after a 4-4 draw on the aggregates.
Despite this, the 65 -year -old man knows that he faces another intimidating task against the winners of Treble 2023.
“What I can say is that he seems to me a coach who contributed a lot to football: possession, attack the game, press and build in the back.
“Whenever we competed, it’s a nightmare to prepare the matches because he always has ideas that make you think.”
