Ballon d'Or: Joao Felix tips 'entertainer' Vinicius Junior for gong, names Cole Palmer as future winner
Published 28/10/2024 at 09:10 GMT
Joao Felix hailed the entertaining brand of football Vinicius Junior plays and backed the Brazilian to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or award. The Real Madrid star is the red-hot favourite but faces opposition from the likes of Manchester City’s Rodri and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez. Felix also picked out his Chelsea team-mate Cole Palmer as a future recipient of the individual accolade.
'Everyone is ready to play' - Felix lauds Blues boss Maresca
Video credit: TNT Sports
Joao Felix is the latest player to back Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior to scoop the Ballon d’Or award on Monday.
The Brazilian is the favourite to take the crown for the first time after starring for Los Blancos during a 2023/24 season that yielded a La Liga title and a 15th UEFA Champions League.
And asked by TNT Sports who he thought would win this year’s Ballon d’Or, Felix was in no doubt.
“Vini,” the Portuguese 24-year-old said.
Explaining why, he added: “The way he plays. For me, I like to watch him play, he entertains the people. He plays the Joga Bonito [Portuguese for 'The Beautiful Game'] as we say, and I think he deserves it.”
It is one of the most highly anticipated ceremonies in recent memory, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s stranglehold of the award at an end.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
Once the brightest young prospect in Europe, Felix was tipped to become a Ballon d’Or winner, but his career has stalled slightly.
Hoping to reignite it in his second stint with Chelsea, he is part of a strong attacking line-up at Stamford Bridge.
But it is one of his fellow attacking midfielders who has grabbed the headlines in the early part of the season.
England’s Cole Palmer has enjoyed an incredible start to life under Enzo Maresca, scoring six goals and registering five assists in eight Premier League appearances.
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And Felix singled out the young Englishman as the Chelsea player most likely to add the Ballon d’Or award to his roll of honour in the future.
Chelsea brought in Maresca following the departure of Mauricio Pochettino in the summer and has brought stability – on the pitch at least – despite working with arguably the largest squad in England.
But the Italian is adamant there is still much more to come from this group of exciting young players.
“We are [going] in the right direction but I’ve said many times, we could do many, many things better,” Maresca told TNT Sports.
“We can defend better, we can attack better but we just started three months ago so there are many things that we could do and we are going to do it.”
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