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The competition for this year's award is hotting up.

2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings: Is Mohamed Salah still the frontrunner?

Rodri won this year’s Ballon d’Or after an exceptional 2024 for Manchester City and Spain, becoming only the third player not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to claim France Football’s prestigious golden ball since 2007.

But who will follow in Rodri’s footsteps next year? We know for certain that the midfielder won’t be retaining the honour, given his ACL injury will keep him out of action until next season.

With one eye on the season so far, and another eye on how we realistically expect things to play out from here, here’s our early edition of the 2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings. Keep checking back as we’ll be keeping this one updated throughout the year.

10. Ousmane Dembele (NEW)

We did have Virgil van Dijk here. But let’s be honest – if any Liverpool player is to get their hands on the award, it won’t be their captain (outstanding as he’s been).

So for the outsider spot we can’t look beyond Dembele. He’s just scored back-to-back hat-tricks and has scored 14 goals in his last nine appearances in all competitions.

We’ll believe it when we see it, but if the French forward can finally find some consistency and keep this up, he’ll be in the mix. PSG are the only unbeaten side in Europe’s five major leagues and the Champions League draw looks favourable.

9. Omar Marmoush (NEW)

The Egyptian has produced Ballon d’Or-worthy numbers so far this season, European football’s breakout star.

But let’s be honest. He was never going to challenge for the Ballon d’Or whilst at Eintracht Frankfurt.

The move to Manchester City changes everything, giving him a platform to challenge. It’s a very big if – but if he can help turn around City’s fortunes, starting with a mouth-watering Champions League knockout clash with Real Madrid, he’ll surely have a shot.

He’ll hope for better games than the defeat to Arsenal, though.


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8. Robert Lewandowski (↓1)

Robbed of a rightful Ballon d’Or when it was cancelled in 2020 – the year he fired Bayern to a treble with 55 goals in all competitions – there is surely no player of this generation more deserving of a golden ball (that doesn’t already have one).

He recently surpassed Gerd Muller to become the third all-time top goalscorer in Europe’s five major leagues, behind only Messi and Ronaldo.

Forget sentiment or a lifetime achievement charity award, Lewandowski remains one of Europe’s most reliable goalscorers at the age of 36. Only three players have scored more goals across Europe’s five major leagues so far this season.

But things have dipped off a bit for Poland’s all-time top goalscorer in recent weeks as Barcelona have dropped tons of points in the La Liga title race. He’s missed costly chances and hasn’t looked as mobile and dynamic as he once did, but he did score the match-winner in Sunday’s vital victory over Leganes.

Barca are still alive on three fronts. Huge games ahead. Will Lewandowski step up?

7. Harry Kane (↓3)

Kane picked up the 2024 Gerd Muller Trophy, shared with Mbappe, for the player with the most goals last season – 52 for club and country.

Surprisingly enough, no player has claimed both the Ballon d’Or and that award since it was introduced by France Football in 2021, but there’s a rich history of the European Golden Shoe winner – from Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo to Karim Benzema – doing so.

With 26 goals in just 26 matches for Bayern so far this season, we’d expect Kane to challenge once again. And surely 2025 will be the year his trophy curse is finally put to bed?

6. Jude Bellingham (↑3)

Bellingham’s debut season ended up winning both La Liga and the Champions League, named the Player of the Year in Spain and voted third in the Ballon d’Or rankings.

The England international is yet to quite match the stupendous form of his early months at The Bernabeu, but in recent months he’s been stepping up once again. He’s helped get their title challenge back on track by scoring in seven of his last 11 La Liga appearances and has also come up big in Europe.

With Rodri still on the treatment table, he’s quite possibly the best midfielder in world football right now.

5. Lamine Yamal (=)

Tremendously exciting in his breakthrough season at Barcelona as a 16-year-old, Yamal’s ascent has been as astonishing as it is rapid. He turned 17 years old just days before the Euro 2024 final and was one of the best players at the tournament, by any measure, regardless of age.

And now he’s continued that form into the 2024-25 campaign. There were serious questions over whether cash-strapped Barcelona would be able to compete with this new generation of Real Madrid Galacticos, but it turns out they didn’t need to buy one of the greatest talents in the world – just like Lionel Messi, he’s straight out of La Masia and they’ve developed him themselves.

His case has only been strengthened by his team’s struggles when he’s been sidelined of late. It increasingly looks as though he’s pivotal to Barcelona’s hopes of lifting silverware in 2025.

4. Vinicius Junior (↓2)

“I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready,” Vini posted on Twitter after finishing runner-up to Rodri last year.

Let’s see. The Brazilian hasn’t been spectacular so far this season, but quietly decent as Madrid have got their season back on track. Never write them off in the Champions League knockout stages, and if they go all the way there’s an irresistible narrative element that will be impossible to overlook.

Every chance he betters his excellent 2023-24.

Madrid, Spain. 22nd Oct, 2024. Real Madrid CF's Vinicius Junior celebrates the victory in Champions League 2024/2025 match. October 22, 2024.

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3. Kylian Mbappe (↑3)

“There’s every chance his debut season with Real Madrid goes on to be a great success, even after his shakey start and costly penalty misses,” we wrote earlier in the season.

That was basically going off his status alone after he endured a distinctly underwhelming first half-season as a Galactico, summed by his countless offsides as Real Madrid were thrashed at home to Barcelona in his first Clasico.

But now Mbappe looks like Mbappe once again – i.e. one of the very best players in the world. He’s been in inspired form over the past couple of months, although Los Blancos shock defeat to Espanyol continues to raise questions of whether he can click alongside Vinicius.

The World Cup winner will be licking his lips at the prospect of coming up against a dysfunctional, out-of-sorts Man City. And this is Real Madrid; you’d be a fool to write them off come the Champions League knockout stages.

2. Raphinha (↑4)

Who (apart from Leeds United fans) would have expected to see Raphinha up here?

The forward was okay in his first two seasons at Barcelona under Xavi, but he was certainly not the all-action Brazilian superstar he looks right now.

Raphinha is a player transformed under Hansi Flick, one of the leading lights of this irresistibly exciting new-look Barca side.

“I’ve never had a player like Raphinha in any of my teams. He gives his all. He puts his heart into it,” Flick told reporters earlier this season.

Not only is there the graft and intensity, but Raphinha has added end product too. Twenty-three goals and 13 assists, including a hat-trick against Bayern and a starring role in two separate thrashings of Real Madrid.

1. Mohamed Salah (=)

Liverpool’s Egyptian King has made this choice incredibly easy for us to be fair.

Salah’s notched a mindblowing tally of 25 goals and 17 assists in just 33 appearances in all competitions so far, further cementing his status as the obvious Ballon d’Or frontrunner.

Peak Messi would be proud of these numbers. Top for both goals and assists in Europe’s five major leagues is frankly outrageous.

Arne Slot’s Reds have already built up a comfortable lead in both the Premier League and look like a formidable force in the Champions League. The best, most important player in the best team in Europe at this moment.