Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr. issues a warning after being snubbed for the Ballon d'Or

Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr has broken his silence after being rejected by the Ballon d'Or panel on Monday, warning: “They are not ready yet.”

The Brazilian was widely expected to take home France Football's award as the best male football player in the world.

However, hours before the star-studded gala, several media outlets including RMC reported, citing anonymous sources, that the 24-year-old would finish second behind Manchester City and Spanish midfielder Rodri.

Later reports stated that Real Madrid would not send a delegation to the awards ceremony in the French capital, meaning that Carlo Ancelotti was not present to accept the award for best coach, nor could anyone accept an award that Los Blancos considered best team won.

When FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal won the Kopa trophy for the best player under 21 and Aitana Bonmati won the women's Ballon d'Or for the second year in a row, Rodri actually secured the top men's prize, becoming the first Spaniard to do so since 1960 , who managed this over second-placed Vinicius.

Minutes after the 2024 European champions were crowned, Vinicius posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, and wrote in Portuguese: “I'll do it ten times (ten times) if I have to. They’re not ready yet.”

As explained by Brazilian journalist Josue Seixas, who has interviewed Vinicius twice, the first part of his message could possibly be a reference to a live performance of a song by the popular Sao Paulo rap group Racionais MCs A Vida É Desafio (Life is a challenge), which a popular Brazilian account referred to X earlier on Monday in connection with the Ballon d'Or snub.

Before Edi Rock takes over and raps the song alone, group leader Mano Brown introduces the song by saying, “You gotta believe…Your mother was like, 'Son, because you're black, you gotta be.' twice better'.

“So after a few years I thought, 'How do you make it twice as good when you're behind at least 100 times? Because of slavery, racism, history, trauma and everything that happened,'” Mano Brown adds.

Instead of playing hard, it seems like Vinicius is using this setback as fuel to prove his critics wrong and try to finally become the first Brazilian since Kaka in 2007 to win the Ballon d'Or in the coming years wins.

It could be that he promises to do ten times better and believes the world is not ready for what he has to deliver.