Shivini Nicodemus, the Namibian journalist who voted for Rodri to win the Ballon d’Or, responded to Florentino Perez’s words in which he attacked the award and the voting mechanism.
Perez had strongly criticized the new voting system adopted by the France Football Council, specifically the entry of journalists from small countries into the vote.
The Real Madrid president, who was angry about Vinicius Junior’s loss of the award, singled out Namibia, Uganda, Albania and Finland in his attack, considering them the reason for the Brazilian’s unfair failure to win the award.
Nicodemus responded to Perez’s claims by saying “these words come from someone who seems really frustrated”.
He also added “Mr Perez feels that people in my country and in the other countries he mentioned do not have a meaningful voice because we are inferior people. If I am one of the big countries in football and I do not agree with him, what would he say?”.
“My choice was based on objective criteria, and this attack launched by Perez against journalists is unjustified,” he concluded.
