Real Madrid Ends Ballon d'Or Silence with Four Stars on 2026 Shortlist
For a year, Real Madrid treated the Ballon d'Or as if it had vanished from the football landscape. No posts. No congratulations. No nod to nominees or winners. Just a cold, calculated silence.
Now, that freeze is over.
The club have stepped back into the conversation after France Football announced the 30-man shortlist for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, and four familiar names from the Bernabéu are in the frame: Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Jr., Jude Bellingham and Marc Cucurella.
The recognition came swiftly and publicly. Real Madrid pushed out the news across their social media channels and on the official website, highlighting the quartet’s inclusion and tying it directly to their impact during the 2025/26 campaign. No drama in the wording, no barbs. Just a clear message: Real Madrid are back at the Ballon d'Or table.
That was anything but the case a year ago.
A boycott born in anger
The club’s stance in 2025 did not emerge from indifference. It came from fury.
The roots lie in the 2024 edition of the award, when Rodri beat Vinicius Jr. to the Ballon d'Or. Inside Valdebebas, the reaction was explosive. Vinicius had been central to a La Liga and Champions League double in 2023/24, a driving force in the biggest games of the season. Madrid felt the Brazilian had done more than enough to be crowned the best player in the world.
When it became clear he would not win, the club’s hierarchy made a dramatic call: the Real Madrid delegation would not attend the ceremony. Plans were ripped up. The club cancelled nearly five hours of special Ballon d'Or coverage that had already been prepared for RMTV.
The anger did not stay behind closed doors. On 28 October 2024, the club used its in-house channel to fire a shot at the award itself. In a stark, unforgettable line broadcast on RMTV, Real Madrid declared: “Right now, the Ballon d'Or no longer exists.”
From that point, the boycott was total. When the 30 nominees were unveiled for the following edition, Real Madrid did not post a single word about their own shortlisted players, nor about the eventual winner. PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé lifted the trophy. Madrid’s official channels acted as if the night had never happened.
From rupture to reset
This season tells a different story.
The club’s announcement of Mbappé, Vinicius, Bellingham and Cucurella as candidates for the 2026 award is more than a simple news update. It is a deliberate signal that the freeze-out has ended.
“Mbappe, Vini Jr., Bellingham and Cucurella are among the 30 candidates for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, awarded by France Football. The nominees have been selected for their performances during the 2025/26 season,” the club stated.
The wording is neutral, but the shift is anything but. After a year spent using silence as protest, Real Madrid have chosen engagement over estrangement. The institution that once declared the Ballon d'Or “no longer exists” is now publicly celebrating four of its own in the race for it.
The wounds from 2024 have not been erased, but the message is clear: when the biggest individual prize in football calls, Real Madrid intend to be part of the story again.
