Football player Vinicius took the 16th place in the ranking of contenders for the Golden Ball

The striker of the Real Madrid football club Vinicius Junior took only the 16th place in the voting for the Golden Ball Award — 2025. This was reported by the newspaper L'équip on September 22.

"Having come close to the Golden Ball in 2024, 41 points behind Rodri, Vinicius dropped significantly lower in the 2025 poll, taking 16th place," the publication says.

According to the newspaper, the athlete "has never held such a low position since the beginning of his career" and previously showed "only positive results." In particular, in 2022 he took the eighth place in the list, in 2023 — the sixth place, and last year — the second place.

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Earlier, on September 10, FC Lokomotiv midfielder Alexey Batrakov was recognized as the best player of the Russian Premier League (RPL) for the period from July and August of this year. It is specified that in seven opening matches, the 20-year-old athlete scored seven goals and made two assists. At the same time, CSKA Moscow midfielder Matvey Kislyak won the fans' vote.

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