"They are a small club, what they did is absolutely pathetic" - Ex-France coach Raymond Domenech blasts Real Madrid for boycotting Ballon d'Or gala
Former France manager Raymond Domenech has hit out at Real Madrid for snubbing the Ballon d'Or gala. He believes that the Spanish giants should have attended the event in Paris, and they showed a lack of respect by boycotting it.
Speaking to goal.pl, Domenech stated that Real Madrid showed that they are a "small club" and branded their decision as "pathetic". He added that the club should not have demanded the result in advance and said (via DAZN):
"Real is said, and Real itself wants to be said, that it is a big club. Meanwhile, it turned out that it is a small club. Very small! What Real did is absolutely pathetic. They showed a lack of respect for football, for the other participants in the gala, for the winners. It is something downright repulsive. How is it possible that they demanded information about who would win when the results were still secret, hidden? To pressure the organisers to either tell us that ours won or we won't come? That is something incredible! Especially since no one harassed them in these elections."
"Real was voted the best men's team of the year, Kylian Mbappe was the top scorer with Kane, Carlo Ancelotti the coach... But no, it wasn't enough for them, they demanded the certainty that Vinicius had won. Horrible, I repeat horrible behaviour from a club that calls itself great. Someone summed them up well when he said something like: 'Real doesn't start a match until it knows what the result will be.' They need to understand that the whole world of football doesn't revolve around them. Real has a white shirt, but yesterday in my opinion, that shirt was badly stained," he added.
Apart from Vinicius Jr, Los Blancos stars Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Federico Valverde, and Antonio Rudiger were also in the Ballon d'Or Top 30, along with new signing Kylian Mbappe.
Why did Real Madrid skip the Ballon d'Or gala?
Real Madrid were reportedly furious with France Football's decision to award the Ballon d'Or to Rodri this year over Vinicius Jr. The Spanish side had everything set to head to Paris on Monday, but decided to skip the whole gala after finding out that the Manchester City midfielder was winning the award.
Los Blancos believed that Dani Carvajal was the right choice if not for Vinicius Jr this year. The right-back had played a key in role in helping them win LaLiga and the UEFA Champions League while also winning EURO 2024 with Spain.
Real Madrid were crowned the Club of the Year, while Carlo Ancelotti was named the Men's Coach of the Year. No representative from the club was at the gala to collect either award.