Rio de Janeiro.- The Brazilian star Neymar criticized the classification of Golden Ball and said his compatriot Raphinhafifth place, deserved something better for its successful season with the Barcelona.
“Raphinha Quinto is too absurd,” wrote the 33 -year -old striker on Instagram, in a comment to a publication of the Ofuiclear profile that showed the top 10 of the award given Monday night in Paris.
The Golden Ball was awarded to the Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé, from Paris Saint-Germain, where Neymar played from 2017 to 2023.
Raphinha, backed by impressive statistics with Barça (34 goals and 25 assists) last season, was also surpassed by his teammate, the Spanish Lamine Yamal, second behind Dembélé.
The Portuguese Vitinha, also of the PSG, and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, of Liverpool, were third and fourth, respectively.
Last year, many voices raised in Brazil to criticize the attribution of the Golden Ball to Spanish Rodri, to the detriment of vinicius junior, great architect of the title in the Real Madrid Champions League during the 2023-2024 season.
Neymar, who today plays in Santos, his training club, got his best classification in the Golden Ball in 2015 and 2017, when he finished third while playing in Barcelona.
Brazil does not win the most prestigious individual football prize since 2007, when Kaká was the laureate.
“We learned a lot,” says Bonmatí
The Spanish midfielder Aitana Bonmatí, who received on Monday the third consecutive gold ball of her career, recognized the AFP that this season the Champions League and the Women’s Eurocup escaped, but that she has “learned a lot.”
“We have won three titles with FC Barcelona, but we lost the two most important finals (Champions League with Barça and Women’s Eurocup with Spain), although it has been a year in which we have learned a lot,” said the midfielder when asked if he was the most surprising of his three awards.
“Over and again we reached the final and we could not win because the other team was better. But we were in the final again. This is more than winning or losing, this is football and being high every year is very difficult and our teams do it every year,” Bonmatí valued.
