Final 2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings ahead of ceremony: Yamal or Dembele to claim award?
The winner of the 2025 Ballon d’Or is set to be announced at tonight’s glitzy ceremony in Paris, with superstar names from Real Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Liverpool and PSG in the running for football’s most prestigious individual award.
Last year, Manchester City midfielder Rodri became only the third player not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to claim France Football’s golden ball since 2007. But who will follow in Rodri’s footsteps this year?
Here’s our final edition of the 2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings.
10. Desire Doue
Two goals and an assist in a Champions League final? From a teenager? Ridiculous stuff.
We bumped Doue up a few places following his exceptional display against Inter, but now the 2024-25 campaign is far away in the rearview mirror that one game didn’t do enough to catapult the youngster beyond also-ran status.
A shoo-in for the Golden Boy award at the very least.
9. Pedri
“Nobody deserves the Ballon d’Or more than Pedri, everyone knows what kind of a player he is,” says Gavi.
That’s nice of him. We don’t entirely agree, but Pedri was back to his very best in 2024-25 and is certainly worthy of consideration.
Rodri’s win last year brought an end to the Ballon d’Or’s era of flashy forwards and showed that an unheralded midfielder can be recognised for the very top prize, but we can’t see it happening two years in a row.
And if it is to go to a midfielder, there’s a certain PSG man who boasts a stronger claim…
8. Cole Palmer
After a stellar 2023-24 campaign, Palmer started last season like a house on fire.
But his form dipped during the second half of the previous campaign, not helped by Chelsea’s staid league form, leaving many fans questioning Enzo Maresca for taming his own match-winning talent.
Happily, the young Mancunian returned to his best for the Club World Cup in the United States.
Palmer was the Player of the Match in the final against PSG, scoring twice and providing an assist, during Chelsea’s crushing 3-0 win.
We’ve dropped Palmer down a few places now that everyone’s already forgotten about the Club World Cup. You can’t imagine he’ll seriously challenge, but he’s worthy of his nomination.
7. Kylian Mbappe
Ultimately, Mbappe is not in the Ballon d’Or conversation. And nor should he be after Real Madrid’s failure to land any major silverware in his debut season.
That’s a sorry state of affairs for an attacker who has the strongest claim of any as the actual best footballer on the planet in the post Messi & Ronaldo era.
Scoring a hat-trick in an El Clasico defeat that killed Los Blancos’ hopes of retaining their La Liga crown would’ve given Mbappe flashbacks to notching three in the last World Cup final and not getting his hands on the trophy.
But he did end up claiming a first career European Golden Shoe, which must count for something given the dysfunction around him.
Mbappe’s status makes a place on the shortlist a formality. He ought to finish top 10. But we’d be surprised if he pushes for the top five.
6. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Two league titles, a Champions League winner’s medal and a Club World Cup finalist? Some season, that.
Kvaradona wasn’t PSG’s standout in their masterclass-for-the-ages mauling of Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
But he still found himself on the scoresheet and added some stardust to proceedings.
We’re not sure there’s a more fun, unique talent around at the moment. A proper throwback and just a pure joy to watch.
5. Raphinha
The Brazilian would’ve been the clear frontrunner were it not for Inter’s injury-time equaliser – and subsequent victory – in the Champions League semis.
Or if Yamal had tucked away either of the presentable chances he’d served up – which would’ve seen Raphinha notch one more assist and move ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time record for goal contributions in a European campaign.
As things are, the former Leeds United forward tied Ronaldo’s record – but that lost its lustre a little when he was absent in Munich.
Raphinha’s numbers were off the charts last season. And he still won a domestic double (treble if you count the Super Cup).
In an ordinary year, that might’ve been enough for a podium placing. But the competition is seriously tough in 2025.
4. Vitinha
We held off including Vitinha throughout most of the 2024-25 season because there’s just so much quality in Luis Enrique’s well-oiled PSG machine.
Alongside the three other names in this ranking, Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves were brilliant in midfield. And there’s surely no better full-back pairing in world football now than Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi.
The Nations League has arguably already been forgotten. But it did offer us a reminder of how good Vitinha is. Only the Club World Cup final denied him a perfect year.
READ: 9 legendary teams who didn’t have a Ballon d’Or winner: Barcelona, Spain, Man Utd…
3. Mohamed Salah
Liverpool’s Egyptian King slowed down at the worst moment.
He notched just two goals and one assist in his last 10 appearances of the 2024-25 campaign, a run that saw Liverpool suffer a shock defeat to Newcastle United in the League Cup final and exit the Champions League at the Round of 16 stage.
Rarely, if ever, have you seen a Ballon d’Or winner so underwhelming at the business end of a campaign.
And yet – let’s be honest – it would be an absolute travesty if Salah doesn’t end up on the podium.
He was comfortably ahead of any other player across Europe’s major leagues for combined goals and assists and was Liverpool’s difference-maker as they made a procession of the 2024-25 Premier League title race.
For two-thirds of the season, he was on another planet. The best player by a country mile in the most competitive league in Europe.
We have a feeling that now the dust has settled, voters will remember and recognise what a brilliant year it was for Salah.
And given how well he tends to start seasons, don’t be surprised if he reminds the voters of his quality at just the right time.
READ: The 15 players who have made the Ballon d’Or podium ahead of Salah since 2018
2. Lamine Yamal
Football’s most exciting wonderkid can’t compete with Salah or his Barca team-mate Raphinha when it came to numbers in 2024-25.
Yamal’s goals and assists were ridiculous for a 17-year-old but not quite up there with Europe’s elite just yet.
Tons of players across Europe, including Fabio Silva and Danny Welbeck, scored more league goals in 2024-25 – and nobody is placing them in the Ballon d’Or conversation.
But forget all that. Just watch Lamine with the ball at his feet and tell us you’re not watching the best player in the world right now. And even algorithm-led stats firm WhoScored rated him as European football’s very best player last term.
Think back to Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane or a young Messi and you get that same sense of wonder.
The opposite of Salah, he came to life at the most crucial juncture of the season.
He was astonishingly good in both legs of Barca’s Champions League semi, scored against Real Madrid and unleashed a brilliant strike in their title-clinching Catalan derby victory away to Espanyol.
PSG’s Champions League final victory, and Spain’s Nations League final defeat, probably put the Ballon d’Or beyond him for now.
But he still has time on his side to become the youngest ever recipient.
1. Ousmane Dembele (=)
Like Salah, Dembele wasn’t quite at his brilliant best in the final run-in. Goals dried up in April and May.
But he still was – just about – the closest thing to a leading light in that PSG superteam.
Dembele’s exceptional run of form mid-season helped turn PSG’s season around, while goals against Arsenal and Liverpool proved pivotal in clinching the club’s first-ever Champions League.
The Frenchman assisted the second in the mauling of Inter but he wasn’t quite the headline-maker in the final.
Spain’s 2010 World Cup winners had no Ballon d’Or winner. Nor did Bayern Munich’s 2012-13 treble winners.
And like those teams, PSG might just be so good collectively that it’s to the detriment of any one individual’s candidacy. So there’s a chance he misses out.
But he’s still the frontrunner, despite PSG’s dismal Club World Cup final loss to Chelsea.
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