Two years on, the wound left by the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony still has not closed at the Santiago Bernabeu — and a since-deleted Instagram post has just poured salt straight into it. The Vinicius Ballon d’Or question from that October night has never had a definitive answer, but the brother of the woman who was supposed to hand him the trophy says he knows exactly what happened.
The Vinicius Ballon d’Or claim that went round the world
Rafa Hermoso, brother of Spain World Cup winner and all-time leading women’s scorer Jenni Hermoso, posted a lengthy claim on Instagram this week about the build-up to the 2024 gala. As reported by Diario AS and carried by Mundo Deportivo, his version is blunt.
“Look, I’m going to tell you a secret that I think I can tell now. I’ll try to summarise it,” he wrote. “They invited us to their house for dinner. They told him that he was going to win the Ballon d’Or, and he had a place in his trophy cabinet ready for it.”
Hermoso went further, describing an arrangement between his sister and the Brazilian for the ceremony itself. “My sister was going to receive an award for social merits, or something like that. They agreed that she would present him with the Ballon d’Or, and he would present her with her award. And we already know what happened afterwards.”
Jenni Hermoso won the Socrates Award that year. The Ballon d’Or went to Rodri. Vinicius Junior, who had been widely tipped to win it, did not travel to Paris, and Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony as a club. Rafa Hermoso’s post has since been deleted from his profile.
Why this still matters to Los Blancos
Because nobody has ever squared the circle. The prevailing account has always been that word reached the Madrid camp late in the day that Rodri had overtaken Vinicius, prompting the club to pull everyone out. What was never established was whether Vinicius had been told, in advance and with any authority, that the award was his — or whether that was simply press momentum hardening into assumption.
Hermoso’s claim, relayed in English by Madrid Universal, is the first time anyone close to the other half of that planned trophy hand-over has said it out loud. It should be treated as exactly what it is: a secondhand account, from a family member, posted and then withdrawn. It is not confirmation of anything. But AS report that Jenni Hermoso was indeed aware Vinicius was due to present her with the Socrates Award that evening. In the end, Didier Drogba did it.
The long shadow over Vinicius Junior
The reason a two-year-old story is leading Spanish sports pages on a September afternoon is simple: plenty of people around Real Madrid believe that night changed the player. Vinicius has not consistently hit the heights of 2023/24 since, and the relationship with his own crowd has frayed to the point where he was whistled by sections of the Bernabeu during the win over Inter Milan.
That is the uncomfortable subtext here. A player who was, by this telling, told the biggest individual prize in the sport was his — who had cleared the shelf for it — and then watched it go elsewhere on the night. Madridistas have spent two years arguing about whether the fallout explains the dip, or whether it has become a convenient excuse for one.
What is not in doubt is the club’s continued faith in him. Vinicius signed a renewal this summer that made him one of the highest earners at the Bernabeu, and Jose Mourinho has publicly praised the graft in his game even while the goals have dried up — nine recoveries against Inter earned the Portuguese’s explicit respect.
No closure coming
Nobody at France Football has ever set out who knew what before the 2024 envelope was opened, and a deleted Instagram story is not going to change that. The 2026 shortlist has already been published with several Real Madrid names on it, and the circus will move on within weeks.
But every time the award comes round, this comes with it. Until somebody with a vote speaks, the Vinicius Ballon d’Or question stays exactly where it has been since October 2024 — unresolved, and quietly corrosive.
