Rodri Vs Vinícius Jr Data Analysis: Their Impact, Influence & Ballon d’Or Battle

The 2024 Ballon d’Or has kicked up quite the debate after Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri pipped Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior to the prestigious award.

It seems that Vinícius Júnior has quite the following, and his fans, along with various pundits – not to mention Real Madrid themselves, were not pleased with the outcome.

The Spanish giants may regret their actions in the future.

They refused to attend the Ballon d’Or ceremony in apparent protest against the decision not to award Vinícius Júnior the title of best player of the 2023/24 season.

Rodri had a phenomenal campaign, winning trophies for both club and country, so a high ranking in the list was to be expected anyway; Vinícius Júnior helped Real Madrid win the 2023/24 La Liga and the UEFA Champions League but was unable to bring similar glory in a Brazil shirt in the 2024 Copa America, despite scoring twice in the group stage.

With the outrage over Vinícius Júnior not being crowned, Rodri has almost fallen by the wayside.

As a result, he is not receiving as many plaudits as he perhaps should – but on the flip side, is there meat in the argument for Vinícius Júnior winning the award this year?

This data analysis uses various statistics to provide some insight to help you decide: Was Rodri rightfully crowned? Or was Vinícius Júnior robbed?

Vinícius Jr Vs Rodri Criteria

The aim of this data analysis is to learn about each player’s impact in the 23/24 season—mainly for their respective clubs, but with some insight into their role in international competition as well.

We will look at Rodri’s position-relevant statistics first, comparing his data to central midfielders who played a minimum of 2000 minutes in the 23/24 season (this includes defensive midfielders and ‘8s’, but the only attacking midfielders/10s involved are those who played some minutes in a deeper role that season).

Regarding his EURO data, the minimum for minutes was set at 275.

We will then assess Vinícius Júnior’s data.

As he played as both a winger and a 9 last season, all wingers and 9s were included in the data search, allowing us to compare him in a wider setting using metrics of both positions.

The minimum number of minutes set for the La Liga data search was 2000.

Rodri Radar Chart – Manchester City & Spain

This stat chart provides some insight into why Rodri is the best in the world in his role.

Last season, he achieved high percentiles for several passing statistics compared to other players in his position in Europe’s top five leagues, as well as various attacking metrics.

This data demonstrates, on a base level at least, Rodri’s ability to contribute to possession and be effective in a more attacking sense.

There isn’t too much data to discuss when it comes to Rodri’s defensive output—Manchester City tend to dominate possession with few turnovers, meaning Rodri is asked to defend less than midfielders in certain other teams, and that is somewhat reflected in Figure 2.

We see that Rodri falls around the average mark for defensive duels win percentage and Interceptions per 90, so perhaps this can serve as a reminder that data has to be taken into consideration alongside visual context—we all know that Rodri is far more than average defensively.

Still, due to tactical elements, he has less of a defensive role; at least, that can be measured by data anyway.

Figure 3 allows us to start looking into Rodri’s contribution in possession for City, starting with his ability to execute progressive passes.

Pep Guardiola likes his team to dominate and dictate the play, often utilising short passes to wear the opposition down.

However, you can’t rely on that one method for 90 minutes—you need variation and creativity.

That’s where a player like Rodri comes in – yes, he is reliable on the ball with short passes, but he offers much more than just a safe pass.

Figure 1 gave us an idea of his ability to execute progressive passes

the Manchester United man cannot match Rodri in terms of quality and accuracy, with the Spaniard boasting an impressive accuracy rate of 88.32%.

Those statistics could be difficult to comprehend at first—it’s very rare to find a player at this level who can consistently produce such a skill.

He is undoubtedly vital for Pep Guardiola’s tactics in that regard.

This next chart does link into the previous but with more of a pitch location theme.

But still, Rodri appears toward the top right of the chart, indicating high engagement and success levels.

Of course, this particular graph contains data from the 2024 EUROs, in which Rodri played a vital role in Spain’s eventual triumph.

We just learned about his importance in progressing possession further up the pitch for his club, but he also plays a similar role in the National setup,

consistent quality as well as tactical understanding.

When you hear the name Rodri, you probably don’t think of someone who dribbles the ball, but our data proves that this is yet another trait he has in the locker.

With 1.93 progressive runs per 90, he shows the ability to take responsibility for advancing his team’s possession.

At the same time, his overall dribble success rate of 64.29% tells us he is more than effective at all kinds of dribbles in midfield.

We said you probably don’t think of Rodri when talking about dribblers in football – well, you probably don’t think of Rodri when discussing goalscoring midfielders.

Still, the Spaniard is capable of that, too.

In last season’s EPL campaign, Rodri bagged eight goals and nine assists – an incredible 17 G/A from deep midfield!

That equates to 0.22 goals per 90 and 0.19 assists per 90, putting him in the upper echelons of goal-contributing midfielders, as you can see in the data visual above – he also added four G/A in the UCL last season.

Vinícius Júnior Radar Map – Real Madrid & Brazil

Above, you see the data chart for Vinícius Júnior.

Interestingly, his data output so far this season has been similar to last year’s, as far as the above metrics go, which tells you something about his play style.

A major difference is that this season has seen a considerable drop in his defensive contribution, measured by his percentile ranks for defensive duels attempted and win percentage.

Elsewhere, Vini’s performance in 2024/25 was more or less the same as last season—plenty of attacking involvement, including dribbles and touches in the box, while also proving effective with progressive and dangerous passes.

Vinícius Júnior was limited to 26 La Liga appearances last season but still managed to contribute an impressive 21 G/A, with an additional 11 G/A in the UCL, proving that he can be effective on the biggest stage.

We have also seen a continuation of that form so far this season (although this season’s form does not count towards the 2024 Ballon d’Or criteria, of course).

His numbers for last season put him in fine company as far as La Liga goes – his high post of 0.67 goals per 90 is similar to names like Jude Bellingham and bettered players such as Robert Lewandowski.

However, his conversion rate falls slightly lower (20.27%), perhaps to be expected from such a high engagement with shots—he averaged 3.29 shots per 90 minutes, the highest in La Liga last season (for players with 2000+ minutes).

He ranked in the top 20 in La Liga in terms of assists per 90 (2000+ mins) with 0.18 per 90, which only a handful of forwards were able to match or better last season.

There is an argument that you’d expect more assists from someone who has a creative role in that Madrid side, but he only featured as a winger for a combined total of 663 minutes in La Liga last season, so that may be a harsh argument.

Nobody in La Liga attempted more dribbles per 90 in La Liga last season than Vinícius Júnior (11.51), but his success rate sparks another debate.

48.65% of successful dribbles is nothing to write home about at face value, but there are several ways to look at those numbers.

You could say that Vinícius Júnior is attempting too many dribbles, and with 51.35% of his dribbles ending up in failure, some would argue that he was losing possession far too often.

The other way of looking at it is that Vinícius Júnior produces 5.6 successful dribbles per 90, which, if you compare that to many other forwards, means they don’t even attempt that many dribbles.

So, the point here is that depending on your philosophical bend, you may or may not be impressed by Vinícius Júnior’s dribbling data.

We mentioned that Vinícius Júnior plays a crucial creative role in Madrid’s tactics, and he has the data to back that up.

The Brazilian forward made 0.67 key passes per 90 last season, which is far above the average for La Liga forwards, so he is clearly getting involved in key stages of build-up phases.

He is also a constant attacking threat – his 6.89 touches in the box per 90 was La Liga’s highest last season, so we know he isn’t one to shy away from the ball.

Vinícius Júnior Penetrating Carries Map

We finish with some insight into his role in Brazil’s tactics at the Copa America this year, which saw Brazil fail to reach the semi-finals.

Vinícius Júnior had minutes both as a striker and a left winger in that competition and caused problems for opposition defenders by cutting inside from the left flank to drive inside, something we’ve seen this season at club level, particularly in the UCL.

In the three Copa America games he featured in, Vinícius Júnior completed 16 penetrating carries, indicating his attacking threat when running with the ball.

Conclusion

The point of this Vinícius Jr vs Rodri data analysis was not for us to be able to come up with an answer of who we think should’ve won the 2024 Ballon d’Or but to provide context in the form of data and statistics to the football community so that you can perhaps form or strengthen your opinion on who you think should’ve won the award.

Both Vinícius Júnior and Rodri have had phenomenal campaigns.

While Real Madrid and Vinícius Júnior left a bitter taste in people’s mouths by ultimately disrespecting the award and Rodri by not showing the ceremony, you have to believe that the Brazilian forward still has another level to reach in his career and the Ballon d’Or trophy will likely end up in his possession at some point.

But for this year, considering his immense importance to that Manchester City side that won the Premier League and his role in Spain’s extremely impressive EUROs triumph, it is no surprise that he walked away with the crown.