Predicted Ballon d’Or winner Rodri arrived at the blue-chip Ballon d’Or ceremony on crutches alongside his Manchester City team-mates on Monday evening in Paris.
The Manchester City star – the leaked ‘winner’ ahead of the event – donned a black suit, white shirt, and bow tie alongside girlfriend Laura Iglesias on the red carpet. An assistant briefly relieved him of his crutches, required due to his ACL injury, for the photographers.
Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho – who had to take separate transport arrangements to the City stars after Sir Jim Ratcliffe was snubbed – donned similar garments.
He graced the carpet alongside his girlfriend Eva Garcia, who wore a sparkly dress for the ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet.
Harry Kane was pictured alone on the welcome mat and deserves his place among the elite after a prolific start to his Bayern Munich career, having signed last season.
Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal turned up with his family – including his father, Mounir, who was stabbed over the summer – and led out fellow Barca stars Pau Cubarsi and Dani Olmo.
Former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse made a surprise outing on the red carpet donning a shiny black jacket complete with a gigantic flower of the same colour.
Ex-World Cup winner Mats Hummels, back among the nominees aged 35 and playing for Roma, was pictured with his partner Nicola Cavanis.
There is currently no sign of any Real Madrid stars after they decided to boycott the ceremony, with Vinicius Jr led to believe he had lost out to predicted winner Rodri.
Spanish and French press have reported no player, member of the management nor coaching staff from Real will be in attendance at the glitzy ceremony tonight, held at the Theatre du Chatelet.
The shock news comes after it was reportedly leaked on Sunday that the winner of football’s most iconic individual prize was Vinicius Jr.
But in a twist of fate this list was wrong and that the winner is in fact Manchester City’s midfield maestro, Rodri.
Ballon d’Or organisers urged on Monday afternoon ahead of the ceremony: ‘No player and no club knows the winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or yet.’
More to follow.