Cafu and Dida back Vinicius for Ballon d'Or

Vinicius Junior deserves to win this year's Ballon d'Or, in the opinion of two Brazil greats.

Cafu and Dida were part of the Brazil squad that won the World Cup in 2002.

Vinicius was unable to inspire Brazil to glory at this year's Copa America, missing their quarter-final tie against Uruguay due to suspension, but has been in fine form for Real Madrid over the past 12 months.

And with neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo involved in the voting, there will be a new winner of the Ballon d'Or for the first time since Luka Modric collected the 2018 award.

Vinicius is among the favourites, and Cafu feels the award should go to the Madrid star.

"Yes, he deserves to win it, he’s had a great season," Cafu told Stats Perform at Festival dello Sport in Trento, Italy.

"The numbers he had last season were incredible. He deserves it for what he's done and what he will do in the future."

It was a sentiment echoed by Cafu's former national team-mate Dida.

He told Stats Perform: "Vinicius is a great kid, a great player, a top player. He did very well last year, he scored goals, he gave assists, that's why.

"If he wins, it's because he deserves to win it because he did very well, we hope he manages to win this Ballon d'Or."

Vinicius has directly contributed to 42 goals for Madrid in all competitions since the start of the 2023-24 season, scoring 28 times and laying on 14 assists.

Robert Lewandowski is the only player to have played for a Spanish club across all of that time to have registered more direct goal contributions (49 - 31 goals, 18 assists).

No player in Europe's top five leagues comes close to matching Vinicius for attempted dribbles (366), though the 24-year-old ranks seventh for dribbles completed (141).