Rodri’s Ballon d’Or is an act of justice for an unsung category of footballer | Sid Lowe

Real Madrid were angry that Vinícius Júnior missed out but crowning the Spain midfielder marks a shift in thinking

When Rodrigo Hernández was a student, living in a hall of residence and reading business at university in Castellón, he was, to use his own words, “the lame one who never did anything”. He might go for dinner, sure, might briefly stop by the bar, but he would never do any of the after-hours stuff. Most of his class couldn’t understand it, until they saw him playing for Villarreal. He was 19, he hadn’t said anything and they didn’t know he was a footballer; now, at 28, he has been voted the best in the world, the first Spanish man to win the Ballon d’Or since Luis Suárez, 64 years ago.

On a dramatic day dominated by cries of injustice, this was in its way an act of justice: to Rodri himself but beyond than that to a kind of player and person, to an idea, a concept; to collectivism embodied by an individual, maybe even football itself. To Spain too, even if it wasn’t received that way at home where Real Madrid’s refusal to fly to Paris when they found out that Vinícius Júnior would not be the winner, set the tone and hung heavy, overshadowing everything. A national success, Rodri joining Aitana Bonmatí, was not really celebrated as one, certainly not with unanimity.