- Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernández Cascante is the winner of the 2024 men’s Ballon d’Or award
- Rodri is the third different player to have won the coveted trophy apart from famous Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since 2008
- Football players battle for this glittering and valuable award every year as they aim to put a mark on their profession
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TUKO.co.ke journalist Wycliffe Musalia has over five years of experience in financial, business, and technology reporting and offers deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends.
Rodri is the winner of the 2024 Men’s Ballon d’Or award, announced on October 28, 2024, at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France.
Source: Twitter
Professional football players fight for the coveted trophy, which is organised and awarded by France Football every year.
The Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernández Cascante is the third different player to have won the coveted trophy apart from famous Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi since 2008
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A look at how Rodri beat Vinicius Junior to the 2024 Ballon d’Or Award
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Messi and Ronaldo won 13 out of 15 Ballons d’Or between 2008 and 2023.
What is the Ballon d’Or trophy and its material worth?
According to Goal.com, the Ballon d’Or trophy is estimated to be worth approximately $2,920 (KSh 376,534) in terms of the raw materials used to craft the masterpiece.
Despite its fame, the Ballon d’Or has no direct monetary benefit to winners from France Football.
However, winning the trophy in a football player’s career could attract multiple seven-figure deals.
What football players get from Ballon d’Or
The New York Times wrote that the Ballon d’Or serves as an emphatic endorsement, a surefire way to take a player’s image to the next level in terms of sponsorship deals.
This means that Rodri could get other endorsement deals after the value of his football career increases. Commercial companies that will sign up for the best player in the world are likely to pay more.
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How much Rodri will earn after beating Vini Jr to win 2024 Ballon d’Or emerges
Below are the high-level interest and deals Ballon d’Or winners get:
Boot deals for players at the highest level
Companies signing up for the best players could include a clause in their boot contracts stating that if they win the Ballon d’Or, they’ll receive a big bonus.
Memorabilia arrangements
Football memorabilia means anything that a football player has touched or worn in a match can be classified and listed.
This means the Ballon d’Or winner will have all the items that often invoke past moments of Premier League glory, Fun Lounge wrote.
Commercial deals
According to sports and entertainment marketing experts, the Ballon d’Or makes a big commercial statement about the winner.
The New York Times reported that the upcoming 2026 World Cup (in the United States, Canada, and Mexico) will be big from a commercial perspective, and the 2024 Ballon d’Or award is the first indicator of that.
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Rodri names player who will win the Ballon d’Or after him
How Ballon d’Or winners are voted and chosen
The debate around Rodri’s victory reawakened the conversation about what exactly the voters look at. 100 Journalists from FIFA’s top 100 ranked nations selected their top 10 winners from a list of 30 nominees.
According to Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the ten selected players are awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point, respectively.
The points are then collated, and the player with the most points wins the award.
A journalist from a particular country can easily disregard the favourites and vote for his compatriot.
TUKO.co.ke broke down the steps and what voters look for when choosing Ballon d’Or winners.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
