Real Madrid's walkout was a sulk, not a principled stand. With the 2026 Ballon d'Or set for the London Palladium this Monday, the club is reportedly ending a two-year absence and sending a delegation. Madrid haven't confirmed it publicly, but the moment they do, they'll have admitted what the rest of us already knew: the whole protest was a tantrum from a club that had the power to throw one.
Go back to how this started. Rodri beat Vinícius Júnior to the 2024 Ballon d'Or, and Madrid didn't just grumble. The club pulled its people out of the ceremony and said: "If the award criteria doesn't give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner... it is clear that Ballon d'Or-UEFA does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected."
Madrid's actual position was that the club should win, full stop, and if not Vinícius then Carvajal, and if not Carvajal then nobody deserved to see them there. That's a club using its stars' attendance as leverage to bully an awards body into a result. Even Spain boss Luis de la Fuente said, "It is not good for football that a club like Real Madrid is not present at a gala of this nature."
Florentino Pérez owns this; most of the players clearly wanted to go. By 2025 the club had already softened, skipping the gala as an institution while letting nominees attend on their own. Now comes the full return, timed suspiciously well to a year when Madrid's names are back in the mix. You don't abandon a "we don't go where we're not respected" stance on a point of principle. You abandon it because the pose cost more goodwill than it ever bought leverage.
Vinícius had a real case in 2024, and plenty of people still think Rodri winning was a genuine injustice. Maybe it was. But a grievance about one vote doesn't license two years of institutional hostage-taking, and it certainly doesn't survive the club quietly folding the instant its own nominees have decent odds again. If this were about respect, the stance wouldn't have an expiry date tied to the betting market.
Harry Kane should win it on Monday. He took the European Golden Shoe last season and was among the top scorers at the 2026 World Cup with six goals. That's the old-school test this award is supposed to measure: ruthless for your club, relevant for your country. Kylian Mbappé's second consecutive World Cup Golden Boot is a historic feat, but France went out in the semifinals, and individual fireworks on a team that didn't reach the final have never been enough here. Lamine Yamal is the generational, feel-good pick, and the bookmakers have him second behind Kane right now, but sentiment isn't the job.
There's a nice irony waiting in London. Rodri, the man whose win triggered all this, was named Player of the Tournament at the World Cup Spain won and is back on the shortlist, now in Barcelona colors. Madrid may once again watch the night end without one of their own lifting it.
Showing up to applaud that is exactly the humility this club earned after two years of acting like the ceremony belonged to them.
