At the end of October 2024, Vinicius Junior swallowed tears while receiving the Silver Ball award after losing to Rodri of Manchester City. At that time, the Brazilian striker of Real Madrid said: "I will respond 10 times, they will not be ready for this".
Less than a year later, in September 2025, people saw Vinicius ranked 16th among the players in the list of 30 final candidates. What did the 25-year-old do during that time? It is true that Real Madrid club has collective problems, but for many Madridistas, Vini has declined even faster. That is no longer Vinicius "doing" and exploding like last season but only " saying" (fighting, causing aggression, complaining) 10 times.
This year, Ousmane Dembele won. There is not much controversy, because the French player deserves it. Not only because of the form and achievements in the 2024-2025 season, but because the Ballon d'Or seems to be the summary of the career that Dembele has gone through - hard work, hardship, even being attached to the hospital more than the pitch at times, to have times of skepticism about his comeback.
Before 2025, Dembele had never been a finalist for the Ballon d'Or. But he has never complained. No oath, no appointment, no loud statements. Just try, until the harvest day...
Football is also a very clear reflection of life: There are people who are good at speaking, good at promising, painting sparkling prospects but lose steam right when they have to start acting. On the contrary, there are those who are quiet, only focused on work, silently overcome difficulties and then the result is the voice.
Life is not without the image of Vinicius - those who make majestic statements about projects, about plans, about determination to change. But after a while, everything disappeared, leaving no trace. And there are also many Dembele, when they are not good at speaking, not showing off, but being persistent.
It's easy to say, difficult to do. Saying quickly can be applauded immediately, doing it again requires perseverance in waiting for value. Of course, there are still many people who are able to say, do and that is really valuable, but the reflection in the story between Vinicius and Dembele shows that the halo needs to do more than what comes out of the mouth.
