A member of the Ballon d’Or jury from Russia, journalist Konstantin Kleshchev, explained why he placed Barcelona midfielder Raphinha in sixth place in his voting.

“I believe that the players from PSG, whom I included in my top five (Mendes, Vitinha, Donnarumma, Dembele), rightfully deserve a higher ranking than Raphinha. If we recall Donnarumma’s performances… It’s likely that without him, PSG wouldn’t have won the Champions League. Nuno Mendes handled all the star forwards he faced on the pitch exceptionally well. Raphinha is indeed a remarkable player. I think the top five or six in the rankings are those who are closely matched with Dembele. However, the details matter: the Frenchman excelled in the world’s strongest team. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, it was actually Lamine Yamal who stood out more than Raphinha. Some may accuse me of bias, but we all have our preferences,” Kleshchev said in an exclusive interview with Championship correspondent Vladimir Chetverikov.

As a result of the overall voting for the Ballon d’Or, Barcelona midfielder Raphinha secured fifth place, falling behind Ousmane Dembele (PSG), Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), Vitinha (PSG), and Mohamed Salah (Liverpool).

Video: Raphinha crawled on his knees across the entire field of the Barcelona stadium.