A year ago Vitinha stood on the Ballon d’Or podium. Twelve months later he is outside the top 10, and his head coach is not hiding his irritation.

The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder finished 14th in the 2026 Ballon d’Or, announced at the London Palladium on 26 October. In 2025 he had come third.

At his pre-match press conference 48 hours before PSG travel to Le Havre, Luis Enrique made clear what he thought of the voting panel’s judgement. Speaking at the Campus PSG in Poissy on Thursday, the Spaniard defended his player and all but told the voters they had got it wrong.

“It’s a real pleasure to have a player with such technical and physical ability,” he said of Vitinha, before adding that the 26-year-old was not placed in the Ballon d’Or where his level warranted.

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A snub inside a PSG majority

The grievance is sharpened by what happened around Vitinha. PSG placed 10 players in the top 30, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (6th), Ousmane Dembélé (7th) and Fabián Ruiz (10th) all finishing above him. Team-mate Achraf Hakimi came in one place higher at 13th.

Vitinha was Luis Enrique’s metronome in a season in which Paris won Ligue 1 and the Champions League. The slide from third to 14th is one of the heaviest year-on-year falls in this edition of the ranking.

Behind Kane, Mbappé and Yamal

The ceremony itself was dominated by Harry Kane, who became the first English winner since Michael Owen in 2001 after a season in which he scored 73 goals for Bayern Munich and England and helped the Three Lions to third at the 2026 World Cup. Kylian Mbappé finished second, Lamine Yamal third.

Yamal’s placing has carried most of the public noise since the vote. Luis Enrique’s intervention adds a managerial voice to the complaints and draws attention to a quieter snub further down the list.

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Enrique staying on

The press-conference criticism arrives from a coach with freshly reinforced authority at the club. In September 2026, Paris Saint-Germain extended Luis Enrique’s contract until 2030, tying him to the project for another four seasons.

The next match for the group he keeps defending comes on Friday at the Stade Océane, where Paris Saint-Germain face Le Havre in Ligue 1 matchday nine.

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