Carlo Ancelotti doubles down on Ballon d’Or snub and makes ‘nightmare’ Pep Guardiola claim

Real Madrid stars opted to skip the ceremony in October, believing Vinicius Jr. should have been named the world’s best player instead of Manchester City’s Rodri

Carlo Ancelotti is adamant Real Madrid were right to boycott the Ballon d’Or in protest at Manchester City’s Rodri winning it ahead of Vinicius Jr.

Real chose en masse to snub the Paris ceremony in October because they felt their Brazilian winger Vinicius would have been a more worthy winner.

Ahead of tonight’s first leg of their Champions League play-off tie, Ancelotti doubled down on the controversial decision – claiming Rodri should have won the award in 2023 when City scooped the Treble.

“I don’t think it was the wrong decision,” said Ancelotti. “We thought that Vini was the winner of the Ballon d’Or last year. It doesn’t mean we don’t respect Rodri, because he’s a fantastic player, but we thought that Rodri deserved to win it the year before.”

Ancelotti said the new-found rivalry between City and Real had turned their encounters into a modern-day ‘Clasico’ between two of Europe’s elite sides. The Real boss also branded Pep Guardiola a “nightmare” to come up against – even accounting for City’s poor form this season.

“It seems like it’s a ‘Clasico’, because we’ve played each other a lot of times recently in this competition,” said Ancelotti. “It will be a difficult game, hard to predict.

“It will defend a lot on the attitude, confidence and personality of the teams. It’s such a high level game, you have to be your very best in every aspect.