Real Madrid was outraged by their players’ Ballon d’Or placements, with Thibaut Courtois complaining that it was ‘impossible’ for a goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or.
The Spanish and European champions were surprised to see Vinicius Jr. finish his 8th and Luka Modric his 9th after a very successful season.
Despite Manchester City and Liverpool winning the Champions League and LaLiga double, they are ahead of Real Madrid in the team standings, with Toni Kroos scoring.
But the Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema put an end to the long-awaited Ballon d’Or at a glitzy awards ceremony in Paris on Monday night.
In the voting for the prestigious award, he defeated Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane, who was a Liverpool player until the summer, and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne. Spanish newspaper Diario AS reported that Modric, Vinicius, and Courtois’ goal, which finished seventh in the Ballon d’Or rankings, caused Real Madrid a controversy.
Mane, De Bruyne, Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah, and Kylian Mbappe all finished ahead of the trio.
Real Madrid’s Courtois reveals his disbelief, stating it’s ‘impossible’ for a goalkeeper to win
Real Madrid’s Courtois, unable to hold himself back after the ceremony, tells Spanish media: “I’m very happy for Karim Benzema. I’m not saying I would have won it, but I’m not even on the podium being the goalkeeper who won LaLiga and the Champions League.”
“It seems scoring a goal is better than stopping it. It is a battle that remains to be won. Seeing the logic and knowing how they vote, I knew I would have no chance of winning it.”
“A future-winning goalkeeper? I see that as impossible for a goalkeeper”, he adds. “It’s impossible to win this award. I don’t know if as a goalkeeper you can do more than what I did last year.”
Courtois had to settle for Lev Yashin’s trophy as the best goalkeeper in the world last year.
Kroos also expressed surprise that European champions Real were named team of the year behind City and Liverpool, who lost 1-0 in the final in Paris in May.
“3rd best team in 2021/22 – happy @realmadrid?”, the German midfielder tweeted.
City won the Premier League title but lost to Real in the Champions League semi-finals. Liverpool finished second behind City in England’s top league but won the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.
Former Real keeper Iker Casillas, backed Courtois up and wrote on Twitter: “I’m very happy for Thibaut Courtois!”
“With a huge difference, the best goalkeeper in the world. What I’m not happy about is that he was not included in the final podium for the Ballon d’Or. I still don’t understand what those who choose this award are based on.”
