France Football has taken every precaution to keep the suspense high ahead of the Ballon d’Or gala, scheduled for Monday night in Paris. The winners are not informed beforehand, and currently, only one person knows their identities.
And the winner is… While Vinicius Jr. is anticipated to attend the event in Paris as the leading favorite, the Brazilian star remains in the dark about whether he will claim the 2024 Ballon d’Or. This year, France Football, the event organizer, has opted not to notify the winners in advance. Only a select few are privy to the results, keeping the circle of insiders as tight as possible.
“Anyone claiming to know the winner this year is lying,” says Marc Las, the editorial producer of the ceremony, in an interview with L’Équipe. Only two people in the world will be informed before the envelopes are opened by the presenters: “myself, for production reasons, in the final hours, and Vincent Garcia.”
Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of France Football, is currently the only person who knows the voting results and who will succeed Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmati. The envelopes containing the names of the winners will be sealed in L’Équipe‘s offices on Sunday night, the day before the ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Ballon d’Or: the unexpected twist around the winner
This decision to keep winners uninformed is meant not only to preserve suspense but also serves other purposes. “We had two main objectives,” explains Vincent Garcia. “First, to prevent leaks. In the era of social media, information spreads quickly—someone might be spotted during an interview, or the winner could share the news with people close to them, like their agent, family, or even their hairdresser. By not sharing the information, we wanted to minimize this risk. Second, it was about enhancing the emotional impact during the ceremony by creating a complete surprise.”
France Football also aims to heighten the emotional impact with this element of surprise, hoping to capture the pure joy and relief on the faces of potential winners like Vinicius Jr., Rodri, or Jude Bellingham. This approach does mean a slight compromise for the magazine, which traditionally published an interview with the winner the following Tuesday. This time, fans will have to wait until Saturday, November 9.
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