Namibian Journalist responds to Florentino Perez: He feels we’re inferior people

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez launched an impassioned tirade on why Vinicius Junior should have been this year's Ballon d'Or winner, with the Brazilian defeated by Manchester City's Rodri Hernandez. Perez argued that journalists from Finland, Namibia, Albania and Uganda should not have a voice.

“If the journalists from Uganda, Albania, Namibia and Finland had not voted, Vinícius would have won the Ballon d'Or. No one even knows who they are,” Perez laughed on stage in front of Real Madrid delegates. He received a round of applause for his statement.

Finnish journalist Juha Kanerva apologized for leaving the Brazilian out of his top 10 selections, and resigned his voting rights in the aftermath after significant online abuse from Real Madrid fans. However, his Namibian counterpart Sheefeni Nicodemus has responded to Perez.

“Actually, I suspect these are the words of someone who is frustrated,” he told Cadena SER, as told by Relevo. “Sir. Perez believes that the people of my country and the other countries mentioned do not have a meaningful voice because we are inferior people. I would just like to know if I came from the big football countries and disagreed with his opinion, what would his argument be?

Perez is also said to have insinuated that UEFA had something to do with the result, noting that this was the first year they had co-hosted the event with France Football and that the voting system had changed. The president of Real Madrid indicated that under the previous system Vinicius would have won, but Relevo also emphasizes that this is not true.

The system used this year allowed journalists to vote for 10 players, giving them 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point. Under that voting system, Rodri scored 1,170 points, ahead of Vinicius' 1,129 points. Under the previous system, journalists awarded 5 players 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point, which would still have given Rodri a margin of 31, with the Spanish midfielder earning 420 points and Vinicius 389.