Ballon d'Or chief Vincent Garcia has revealed how Vinicius Junior's Real Madrid teammates damaged his chances of winning the 2024 award, as Rodri walked away with the top honour.

The Manchester City and Spain midfielder was awarded the 2024 Ballon d'Or at a ceremony in Paris on Monday evening following a day of drama surrounding the prestigious event.

Brazilian forward Vinicius appeared to be the front-runner to claim the top prize after a leaked list suggested that he was poised to beat Rodri.

However, it soon emerged that the City would lift the coveted trophy instead, leading Real Madrid to controversially stop their delegation from attending the event.

Los Blancos subsequently released a statement stating they would not attend an event where they are "not respected".

"Obviously, Vinicius surely suffered from the presence of Bellingham and Carvajal in the top five because, mathematically, that took some points away from him," Garcia told L'Equipe television.

"This also sums up Real Madrid's season, which took between three and four players and the juries distributed their decisions among them, which benefited Rodri. What I can guarantee is that no one at Real Madrid or at Manchester City was aware."

Garcia miffed at Real Madrid no-show Garcia also admitted that he was "unpleasantly surprised" that Real Madrid decided against sending a delegation to the ceremony in the French capital.

He added: "Maybe they (Madrid) had a feeling, a strong feeling. Perhaps the Clasico (the 4-0 defeat by Barcelona) didn't help. I don't know. At the time that Real Madrid took its decision, I'm not sure that they knew 100% that Vinicius hadn't won the Ballon d'Or.

"I was always clear, fair, and perhaps my silence took them to the limit. But it was the same as with the others. I was very unpleasantly surprised by its absence. We were very clear with them and with all the other clubs.

"This year, the winner was not going to be notified. I thought everyone had agreed but at the last moment, I don't know why, they wanted to change the rule."

Despite Vinicius missing out on the top honours, Real did at least pick up two awards despite their non-attendance with the European champions named as the Club of the Year, while manager Carlo Ancelotti won the Men's Coach of the Year.