Why Rodri Won the Ballon d’Or

With Rodri announced as the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, we look at the Manchester City midfielder’s stats to see if it was justified.

Rodri has won the 2024 Ballon d’Or award, which might be a surprise to some, though not because there are any doubts about the Manchester City star’s credentials.

It’s just that we so rarely see central midfielders in the running for a prize that has been so dominated by attacking players over the years.

Jorginho – then of Chelsea – came third in 2021, but central midfielders don’t often appear in the race for the Ballon d’Or, let alone win it. Andrés Iniesta and Xavi featured in the top three on numerous occasions between 2009 and 2012, but the last midfielder to win the prestigious award was Kaka in 2007, and he was barely a central midfielder. Pavel Nedved won it in 2003, while Rivaldo (1999) and Zinedine Zidane (1998) did so prior to that.  

After a year that saw him win another Premier League title with Man City before going on to be a key part of Spain’s successful Euro 2024 campaign, Rodri has earned the accolade after a vote from his peers. He is the first ever City player to win it, and the first player from the Premier League to do so since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008 when he was at Manchester United.

He also became the third Spanish player to win the Ballon d’Or and the first in 64 years, following Alfredo Di Stéfano (1957 and 1959) and Luis Suárez (1960).

Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior had been the bookies favourite to win after his own special year that included scoring in the 2-0 UEFA Champions League final win over Borussia Dortmund. Despite his best efforts, TNT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand shouting “Ballon d’Or!” over and over at Wembley as the Brazilian scored that goal in May wasn’t enough to secure the award for him.

So, does the data back up the decision to go with Rodri over Vinícius?

Rodri was a reliable figure for City in 2023-24, starting more matches (50) than any of his teammates, while he also played the most minutes (4,325). At Euro 2024 with Spain, he started six of their seven matches before suffering an injury and being withdrawn at half-time of the final against England.

Of his 50 games last season, City won 38, drew 11 and lost just once, which was the FA Cup final against Manchester United. In the nine games Rodri didn’t feature, City won just five, losing four of them.

In his 50 games in all competitions for Man City, he recorded 22 goal involvements (9 goals, 13 assists). He had never previously registered more than seven goals in a campaign, or more than seven assists.

He also averaged 111.2 passes per 90 minutes with an accuracy of 92.3%. That’s more passes per 90 than any other player from Europe’s top five leagues in all competitions; in fact, his average was 8.8 passes per 90 higher than any other player, with Bayer Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka second with 102.4.

Rodri set a new Premier League record (since 2003-04) for successful passes (3,359) and successful passes in the opposition’s half (2,122) in a single season in the 2023-24 campaign.

His goals were often important ones, too, including an 88th-minute winner away to Sheffield United, and a late goal at Chelsea that put City 4-3 up before Cole Palmer’s even later equaliser from the penalty spot. Rodri found the net again against Chelsea to equalise in the 83rd minute in the reverse fixture, and hit the last goal to clinch the vital 3-1 win over West Ham to secure the Premier League title.

The Ballon d’Or is for his work between August 2023 and July 2024, but it’s worth pointing out how crucial Rodri has been overall in his time in England.

Since signing for the club in 2019-20, he has only missed 25 of Manchester City’s 199 Premier League matches. In all competitions, only teammate Bernardo Silva (263) has played more games than Rodri of Premier League players in that time (260), while no outfielder has started as many (238).

At the time he suffered injury against Arsenal in September, he was also second (20,555) to only Bruno Fernandes (21,210) for minutes played in all competitions by Premier League outfielders at club level since 2019-20, though he has since been overtaken by Mohamed Salah (20,725) and Declan Rice (20,628). You can add in 50 national team appearances for Spain in that timeframe for good measure.

Since his Premier League debut in August 2019, City have lost seven of their 25 games without Rodri in the side (28%). Three came in the first half of last season, with defeats against Wolves, Arsenal and Aston Villa before his return to the side steadied the ship and helped deliver a record fourth consecutive Premier League title.

Overall, their win rate is over 10 percentage points lower when he’s missing compared to when he’s appeared across those seasons, while they are less dominant at both ends of the pitch, averaging a positive goal difference of 1.7 when he plays compared to 1.2 when he doesn’t.

City’s average points-per-game figure without Rodri unsurprisingly dips, too, going from 2.4 with him to 2.0 without.

Rodri was at the centre of everything Man City did in the Premier League last season as they marched to a record fourth title in a row. He was the only player to average more than 100 successful passes per game (103), while no one saw as much of the ball as he did, with his 126 touches per 90 minutes 24 more than any of his teammates in the competition. He also led the Premier League rankings for open-play sequence involvements per 90 (2,000+ mins played), with 8.4.

The hamstring injury suffered in the Euro 2024 final also kept him out of City’s opening three league games of this season, before he returned as a half-time substitute in their 2-1 win over Brentford on Matchday 4.

Having played the full 90 minutes in City’s 0-0 draw with Inter in the UEFA Champions League, fans would have hoped Rodri’s injury problems were behind him, but their worst fears came to pass. He sustained an ACL injury in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September that has ultimately put an end to his 2024-25 campaign.

Despite results largely remaining positive, the slightly unconvincing nature of them could well be due in some part to the absence of the calming and warm hug of a figure that is Rodri. Pep Guardiola’s side had to come from behind and fight hard to secure wins over Fulham and Wolves, while their 1-0 home win over Southampton on Saturday was far more modest than many expected.

It will be a long time before Rodri is back playing, and football fans should all look forward to seeing him return in 2025-26.

For now, the 28-year-old can console himself with the most prestigious individual prize in world football.

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