Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti: “Vinicius Junior is sad, but not because of the Ballon d’Or”

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed that star player Vinicius Junior is affected by the DANA storm tragedy, and paid little attention to the Ballon d’Or result, which dominated the headlines until last Wednesday.

Ahead of their clash against AC Milan in the Champions League, Ancelotti noted that he would try to make the press conference as short as possible as he did not feel it was appropriate to be speaking about football.

Brazilian journalist Tatiana Mantovani of TNT Sports Brasil did apologise for asking about it, but after Vinicius’ reaction to the Ballon d’Or dominated the headlines last week, stated that she was required to enquire about his emotional state.

“Vinicius is sad, like us, but not because of the Ballon d’Or, but because he is seeing the situation in Valencia.”

Of course Ancelotti himself did win the Ballon d’Or award for the best manager.

“I am happy, the Ballon d’Or has already passed and we must congratulate all the winners,” he told the press.

“It has been a difficult week, because it is not the normal atmosphere. But not because of what happened with the Ballon d’Or. It happened and that’s it. Congratulate the winners. The sadness is not there, but because of what is happening here in Spain.”

On Vinicius, Ancelotti had little more to say.

“It’s normal. He realizes what is happening. Fortunately we didn’t play on Saturday and Vinicius has trained well, like everyone else.”

Real Madrid reacted furiously to Vinicius missing out on the Ballon d’Or last week, deciding none of their nominees would attend the gala in Paris, having intended to go originally. The hot topic last week, since the DANA storm hit, the absurdness of the importance given to the award has become increasingly apparent in the face of a real issue.