Real Madrid Breaks Ballon d'Or Silence with Four Nominations
For a year, Real Madrid treated the Ballon d'Or as if it had vanished from the football map. No posts, no congratulations, no interest. Just silence and a pointed line on their own channel: “Right now, the Ballon d'Or no longer exists.”
Now it exists again.
The club have broken their self-imposed blackout and stepped back into the conversation after four of their players – Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr., Jude Bellingham and Marc Cucurella – were named among the 30 nominees for the 2026 award.
On their social media accounts and official website, Madrid highlighted the quartet’s inclusion, noting that the list recognises performances from the 2025/26 season. It is a small gesture in appearance, but a significant one in context. Twelve months ago, they would not even type the words “Ballon d'Or”.
From fury to silence
The roots of that stance lie in 2024, and in one name: Vinicius Jr.
That year, Rodri claimed the Ballon d'Or, finishing ahead of the Brazilian after a season in which Vinicius had driven Real Madrid to both La Liga and the Champions League in 2023/24. Inside the club, the reaction was visceral. They saw an injustice, a misreading of their season and of their star winger’s impact.
The anger did not stay behind closed doors. Once it became clear Vinicius would not win, Madrid’s delegation chose not to attend the ceremony at all. Then came the public line in October 2024 on RMTV: the Ballon d'Or, as far as they were concerned, “no longer exists”.
Actions matched words. The club scrapped nearly five hours of special programming around the gala that had already been prepared for their in-house channel. When the 30-man shortlist was unveiled that year, there was no reaction from Madrid. When PSG’s Ousmane Dembele eventually lifted the trophy, again, nothing. No message, no acknowledgement, no debate. Just a deliberate void.
A calculated return
This year tells a different story.
As France Football announced the 30 candidates for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, Real Madrid moved quickly. A post, a statement, a clear shift in tone: “Mbappe, Vini Jr., Bellingham and Cucurella are among the 30 candidates for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, awarded by France Football. The nominees have been selected for their performances during the 2025/26 season.”
No fireworks, no emotional language. But the very act of publishing it underlines a change of posture. The boycott is over.
The presence of Mbappe, Vinicius, Bellingham and Cucurella on the list reinforces Madrid’s weight in the current landscape. Four names from one dressing room, all in contention for the game’s most prestigious individual prize, sends its own message about where the power lies at the elite level.
Just as striking, though, is the club’s decision to re-engage with an award they had so publicly dismissed. The bitterness of 2024 has not been erased, yet it has been parked. Real Madrid have chosen to step back into the theatre they once walked out of.
The question now is not whether they recognise the Ballon d'Or. It is whether one of their own walks up to claim it this time.
