Rodri perhaps experienced the most special night of his career after beating Vinicius Jr to the Ballon d’Or on Monday.
Vinicius was seemingly furious about Rodri’s Ballon d’Or triumph as he vowed to work 10 times harder to win the award one day.
Rodri winning the Ballon d’Or seems to have rubbed Real Madrid the wrong way.
Vinicius’ camp were confident Rodri would win the Ballon d’Or — after being certain for the longest time that he would make history in Paris.
As Rodri reacted to becoming a Ballon d’Or winner with an emotional acceptance speech, none of Real Madrid’s representatives attended the ceremony at all.
However, Manchester City supporters celebrated Rodri’s Ballon d’Or win a year after Erling Haaland finished in second place to Lionel Messi.
Rodri has well and truly conquered football.
Alan Shearer’s prediction about Rodri winning the Ballon d’Or in September came true.
However, Eduardo Camavinga leapt in Vinicius’ defence to take aim at the Manchester City maestro winning the Ballon d’Or over him, writing on X: "Football politics. My brother, you are the best player in the world and no award can say otherwise. Love you my bro."
Camavinga also expressed his support for his Real Madrid teammate on Instagram.
"You [Vinicius] don’t need that. Best player in the world."
Meanwhile, Manchester City’s players such as Ilkay Gundogan seem to be paying no attention to the Frenchman’s jibes amongst many and are instead celebrating Rodri’s historic accomplishment.
On a night where the midfield maestro made history, he must be on cloud nine and unable to focus on off-the-pitch matters.
But it seems like Vinicius’ teammates at Real Madrid such as Camavinga are fuming at him finishing second behind Rodri.
Usually, the Ballon d’Or is an award that is seeming reserved for attackers such as the former Santos winger.
However, Rodri has made history for multiple reasons as he is the 11th midfielder in the history of the game to win the award. Here are the midfielders who have won the Ballon d’Or.
Rodri has now officially placed himself amongst some of the greatest midfielders the game has ever seen.
At 28, the Spaniard still has plenty of time left in his career to further cement his greatness.
But regardless of how Rodri’s career progresses, him being a Ballon d’Or winner will be remembered for decades.
Every player would ideally like to leave a legacy in football once they retire.
With his latest feat, Rodri has guaranteed that he will once he hangs up his boots.