The editor-in-chief of France Football: Rodri robbed Lamine Yamal of glory
The president of the Ballon d'Or drops a bombshell: this is how Kane was chosen!
The most powerful man in the Ballon d'Or has lifted the lid on exactly why Spain's world champions crashed out of the race for the crown. Harry Kane's coronation, he revealed, was no simple win. It was the product of an internal war of votes that tore the Spaniards' dream apart.
Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football magazine and head of the Ballon d'Or committee, broke his silence to explain this year's biggest shock. England's Harry Kane walked away with the prestigious award, while not a single player from the World Cup-winning Spanish side cracked the top places.
The riddle of the Spanish collapse
Speaking to French newspaper L'Equipe, Garcia pinned the collapse on "vote-splitting", a phenomenon that struck La Roja's camp hard. The fierce competition between the two national team stars, he explained, proved disastrous for both of them.
Garcia said: "I honestly believe that Rodri deprived Lamine of some votes. In the World Cup-winning Spanish national team, there was a clear split in votes between Rodri and Lamine Yamal, and this split cost them a great deal."
The veteran French journalist added: "There was a great dispersal of votes among the Spanish players, and more importantly, the Spanish national team was a complete side and an astonishing collective machine. That is why it was almost impossible for the members of the jury to single out and favour one specific individual performance."
Yamal pays the price of injury and a single goal
Garcia did not shy away from dissecting the case of young star Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona winger who entered the World Cup as one of the leading contenders.
He explained: "Lamine Yamal became a world champion and that is a great achievement, but in truth he scored only one goal and began the tournament while injured. This complicated situation made the jury's task extremely difficult in settling the comparison between the Spanish players."
Asked about his own vote, the head of the award refused to reveal it. Instead he stirred up more controversy, saying: "I voted for someone who did not win, and I believe he deserved to win too, but you will see everything on Saturday when France Football publishes the full and detailed results."
The battle of 41 points
On the final battle for the title, Garcia revealed the struggle between Kane and Kylian Mbappe reached boiling point. The decision came in the final moments.
He said: "Kylian Mbappe was ahead in the race for most of the voting period, before Harry Kane came back strongly. The gap in points between Kane and Mbappe is extremely small, even less than the gap between Rodri and Vinicius in 2024, which amounted to 41 points."
Garcia came out fighting in defence of the English star, rejecting any suggestion that he won off the back of his team's achievements alone.
He signed off with the numbers: "He is above all a great goalscorer. He scored 73 goals with his club and his national team this season, won every title in Germany with Bayern Munich, and reached the semi-final of the Champions League, and with the England national team he reached the semi-final of the World Cup. There is no doubt that the jury felt he was the best and most complete choice among all the contenders."
