2025 Ballon d’Or Prediction thread

[Barikui1]

Age shouldn't be a barrier for the Lamine Yamal to win the award.  The young player is extraordinary and plays like a 25 year old with great strength and stamina. He should be given the award if he gets the maximum votes. But with his performance in the finals where he was boxed by Nuno Mendes, his chances reduced drastically.

Does Lamine yamal truly deserve this award? No in my own opinion, football has gone past that stage when they gives award to players based on the fact that they were the most skilful players around, now football is more of numbers, how many goals and assist did he got this season for him to be considered?

I even fancy raphinha ahead of Lamine yamal because in goals and assist he is ahead of him, and just as you rightfully pointed out here, in the finals that he should have prove himself why he deserves it, but he was out fought by Nuno Mendes and that alone proves why it will be terribly wrong giving him the award when their are more players that did better than him this season.

Look at what cristiano Ronaldo was saying the other day about the ballon d'Or, he said that the award has lost it credibility, which to me is right.
Lamine yamal shouldn't have been among the first three if they want to go by credibility because his numbers is too poor as an attacking player.

[blomen]

How do you comment on Cristiano Ronaldo's statement about the Ballon dor? He said that the award should go to a player who won the Champions League, and that the Ballon dor has lost its value. In my opinion, he's right i think Dembele deserved it, but we'll see soon. Yamal is indeed a great player and has shown a lot, but he's still very young and his time is yet to come.

in the 2014-2015 season, ronaldo won the golden boot for the 4th time, surpassing messi in this regard. messi won the ballond'or that season and ronaldo said that ballond'ors were voted for and that the golden shoe was more valuable. after that season messi won 3 more golden shoes and overtook ronaldo.

now he says that ballond'or should go to the player who won the champions league because he is the best in this field. i'm not saying that dembele shouldn't win, but ronaldo always tries to put himself forward when he expresses this kind of opinion.

it is very likely that ballond'or will be dembele's this season. but if barcelona can achieve some club success and yamal can keep up this performance, they will win a lot of ballond'or for years to come. there is no need for him to rush.

[Alpha Marine]

Having said this, if this award would not be considering trophies anymore, it would end in awful discussions within the community. There has to be a certain objective measure that does at least provide a least amount of justification that everyone can relate to.

I never said trophies are not a part of things they look at when giving the award, I only meant it's not the only thing they look at. The award shouldn't just be given to the best player in the team that won more trophies. Also, the award shouldn't just be given to the best player of the team that won the Champions League. The best player of the team that won more trophies and the Champions League may not be the best player in the world that season.

Individual performances, decisive and impressive character
Team performances and achievements
Class and fair play

These are the things that are looked at when awarding the balon d'or.

If Dembele gets the award, I for myself can say that it is not wrong. Would it be wrong if Yamal gets it? No, it wouldn't be wrong. Mbappe would be wrong.

When it comes to individual performance, decisive and impressive character, both Yamal and Raphinha are above Dembele. The only reason why Dembele is rated so highly is because he won the UCL ahead of the other 2. If I were to vote, my top 3 would be Yamal, Raphinha and Dembele in that order. Salah should even come in before Mbappe, in my opinion.

[SquallLeonhart]

in the 2014-2015 season, ronaldo won the golden boot for the 4th time, surpassing messi in this regard. messi won the ballond'or that season and ronaldo said that ballond'ors were voted for and that the golden shoe was more valuable. after that season messi won 3 more golden shoes and overtook ronaldo.

now he says that ballond'or should go to the player who won the champions league because he is the best in this field. i'm not saying that dembele shouldn't win, but ronaldo always tries to put himself forward when he expresses this kind of opinion.

it is very likely that ballond'or will be dembele's this season. but if barcelona can achieve some club success and yamal can keep up this performance, they will win a lot of ballond'or for years to come. there is no need for him to rush.

I agree, there is a balance to it. Sure, if a player won UCL, and he provided a lot, then he should win, but not every year the winner team has a player that provided a lot. I think it was Ribery or Robben or whoever, talked about "oh so UCL winner should get the ballon d'or" for a season when they lost, and Ronaldo won, but when you compare the stats, it's obvious.

So, it is not just the best player with best stats and titles etc, it's about having all of them at the same time. If one player doesn't have it all, you look at overall best player. This season, Dembele was that one, and if he wins, I would not be shocked, if not , then we need to wait and see who else could. If Yamal won UCl, or if he won Nations league, he would have more chance, but he lost both of them, so it feels like it is not going to be him. Dembele seems like he has the highest chance.

[armanda90]

I agree, there is a balance to it. Sure, if a player won UCL, and he provided a lot, then he should win, but not every year the winner team has a player that provided a lot. I think it was Ribery or Robben or whoever, talked about "oh so UCL winner should get the ballon d'or" for a season when they lost, and Ronaldo won, but when you compare the stats, it's obvious.

So, it is not just the best player with best stats and titles etc, it's about having all of them at the same time. If one player doesn't have it all, you look at overall best player. This season, Dembele was that one, and if he wins, I would not be shocked, if not , then we need to wait and see who else could. If Yamal won UCl, or if he won Nations league, he would have more chance, but he lost both of them, so it feels like it is not going to be him. Dembele seems like he has the highest chance.

You appointed Cristiano Ronaldo only winning Ballon D'Or but not won UEFA Champion League tittle? did you remember how Lionel Messi dominance indeed failure with Barcelona since last UCL winning at 2015 but he won 3 Ballon D'or at 2019, 2021 and 2023 although not well contribution for his club.
For this years, I think Ousmane Dembélé is player who is worthy enough to win the Ballon D'or, has completed the treble winner this season by winning Ligue 1, French Cup and most recently the Champions League trophies its surprising if any players become the Ballon D'Or winner. Many fans still expected for Lamine Yamal become the winner but his games statistic huge difference from Dembélé scored 33 goals all competition and creating 15 assists.

[Jawhead999]

Football had not been fair to midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers. Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi and Gianluigi Donnarumma all deserve to be in the top ten. But because of the position they play, they might not get high votes. Many people think that football is all about scoring goals, so strikers get the biggest support.

I think midfielders still gets spotlight, it;s both defenders and goalkeepers are really low.

They have to play very very outstanding, to outperform midfielders and strikers, then they can get Ballon d'Or, it's like two or three times difficult. As time goes, I don't see new generations are raised to play as a defender or goalkeeper, they are mostly gets motivation to become striker.

This reduce the chance for defender and goalkeeper to win Ballon d'Or.

[Adbitco]

When it comes to individual performance, decisive and impressive character, both Yamal and Raphinha are above Dembele. The only reason why Dembele is rated so highly is because he won the UCL ahead of the other 2. If I were to vote, my top 3 would be Yamal, Raphinha and Dembele in that order. Salah should even come in before Mbappe, in my opinion.

Let's say we go with your opinion and rankings, are you really gonna play Yamal ahead of Raphinha? Like how? Under what bases or under what grounds? Was Yamal in any way better than Raphinha in the Barcelona team? If yes please drop your statistics to back up your claims you're just following media hype. Raphinha in all honesty was the better and best player for his team last season and the statistics are there to prove it. Even the dribbles people say Yamal does, Raphinha does same as well.

[Jegileman]

My top three is Lamine Yamal, Dembele and Raphina. It's actually very difficult to say but based on talent and their overall display this year I will definitely go with Lamine Yamal although he is 17 years old he has been very instrumental for Barcelona and also very important in big games, he talks but he also backs it up with action.

Lamine Yamal has been very instrumental since he joined the senior team of Barcelona but as far as this seaosn was concerned, Ousmane Dembele won more bigger trophies than him which makes him the better choice for the Balon d’Or. It will be not be nice if they deny him this award based of favoritism and gives it to Lamine Yamal. He is still young and how talented he is, he can get to win more awards in the future if he remains at the top of his game. He is good but Dembele is more deserving of the award than him.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

I mentioned in another thread that my choice would be Vitinha. In a hugely successful season for PSG he has been a real star.

PSG have an array of top attacking talent, maybe without Dembele’s goals Barcola, Kvara or Doue could have stepped up. Nobody could replace what Vitinha gave them though so he would be my vote.

[Felicity_Tide]

@OP, you've just reminded me that the era of two legends competing for one award back to back is already over. I believe we all enjoyed that moment, as we've entered a new era of young talents making waves for themselves in the world of football. Not sure if the history of football can ever be blessed twice with CR7 and Messi.

And as for the Ballon d'or, well I guess the list is very accurate, but it should have been placed in an ascending order. Dembele is obviously the favourite, even though Yamal was very brilliant. It is very clear, Dembele should be winning this, besides, he's a french player. Best of luck to Yamal next season.

[promise444c5]

It's good that it looks like Dembele will win the prize and not the new FIFA boy.

pp
New FIFA boy ? C’mon KTC … I’m sure if it was Mbappe that won this treble and still reached the semifinals then he will be surely winning it even though is more good at scoring goals.. but fr fr Yamal really played an amazing game this season , taking out the whatever you call FIFA Fan Boy if he wins it there’s nothing actually wrong with that and if he doesn’t maybe there’s still some chance for him in the future as he’s still young..

[Alpha Marine]

Let's say we go with your opinion and rankings, are you really gonna play Yamal ahead of Raphinha? Like how? Under what bases or under what grounds? Was Yamal in any way better than Raphinha in the Barcelona team? If yes please drop your statistics to back up your claims you're just following media hype. Raphinha in all honesty was the better and best player for his team last season and the statistics are there to prove it. Even the dribbles people say Yamal does, Raphinha does same as well.

It's not difficult to know someone who has not been watching Barcelona matches often. You look at the score sheet and see Raphina and conclude that he was the best player. Raphinha had a balon d'or worthy season; he was so instrumental to the season Barcelona had, but he was not their best player. He was not even the second.
Barcelona's best players last season are Yamal, Pedri before Raphinha. People always say stats don't lie, yeah, maybe they're right,  but stats don't tell the whole picture. Lewandowski scored 40+ goals, but that does not mean he's among the top 3 best players of Barcelona.

The most dangerous player of Barcelona was Lamine Yamal. Almost every attack came from him. Keep Yamal quiet, and there's an 80% chance you've kept Barcelona quiet. Coaches didn't make plans on how to double-team Raphinha or how to stop him. Don't give me the media hype BS. Barcelona was one of the clubs I watched the most last season. I missed only 2 Barcelona matches the whole season.

To tell you how important Lamine Yamal is to Barcelona, he got injured and lacked match fitness in November last year, and Barcelona won only 2 out of 9 matches. They struggled so much when he wasn't in form. Raphinhan got the goals and the assist, but overall, the better player was Yamal.
You don't have to like him, the fact don't care about your feelings. Almost every football legend says Lamine Yamal was the best player because they watched him. No one tunes in to watch Raphinha or Dembele, but you have legends of the game tuning in to watch Yamal.
Ronaldinho won the Balon d'or with 9 league goals, same with Kaka. These are players that may not always be on the score sheet, but people always want to watch them because of what they can produce for their team and things they can do with the ball, and that is the kind of player Lamine Yamal is.

[Franctoshi]

My top three is Lamine Yamal, Dembele and Raphina. It's actually very difficult to say but based on talent and their overall display this year I will definitely go with Lamine Yamal although he is 17 years old he has been very instrumental for Barcelona and also very important in big games, he talks but he also backs it up with action.

Lamine Yamal has been very instrumental since he joined the senior team of Barcelona but as far as this seaosn was concerned, Ousmane Dembele won more bigger trophies than him which makes him the better choice for the Balon d’Or. It will be not be nice if they deny him this award based of favoritism and gives it to Lamine Yamal. He is still young and how talented he is, he can get to win more awards in the future if he remains at the top of his game. He is good but Dembele is more deserving of the award than him.

I'm totally in line with your view, Yes Lamine Yamal has done pretty well on his own side this seaosn but if this award did not go to Dembele's way this will be a clear robbery on the young star because it's obvious that Ousmane Dembele is the man to win this very award season's courtesy of his individual performance and collective achievement.

[Antotena]

Lamine Yamal has been very instrumental since he joined the senior team of Barcelona but as far as this seaosn was concerned, Ousmane Dembele won more bigger trophies than him which makes him the better choice for the Balon d’Or. It will be not be nice if they deny him this award based of favoritism and gives it to Lamine Yamal. He is still young and how talented he is, he can get to win more awards in the future if he remains at the top of his game. He is good but Dembele is more deserving of the award than him.

On what basis are you given preferencial treatment to Lamine Yamal? Winning the domestic league alone or what or the number of goals? Wasn't this the same thing Vinicious did last season, man was everywhere and yet he never won it. There is nothing didn't do for Barcelona back in the days and the guy never won any award and all of a sudden you all think Yamal was deserving, he is not even close they should wrap up that shit hype people are giving him.

I don't know what ti say about Dembele but I know Fifa is going to do his thing. You see the way it was difficult to know who was going to win the Balon D'or last season, that's how it's going to be this season again, it's going to end all in surprises because I recall people chanting Moh Salah as the favorite to win Balon D'or but when he fall out of the Champions League, the tune change to Raphina and when they fell out of the Champions League, it went to Dembele, we shall see the winner at the end of the day.

[Spaceman1000$]

My top three is Lamine Yamal, Dembele and Raphina. It's actually very difficult to say but based on talent and their overall display this year I will definitely go with Lamine Yamal although he is 17 years old he has been very instrumental for Barcelona and also very important in big games, he talks but he also backs it up with action.

Lamine Yamal has been very instrumental since he joined the senior team of Barcelona but as far as this seaosn was concerned, Ousmane Dembele won more bigger trophies than him which makes him the better choice for the Balon d’Or. It will be not be nice if they deny him this award based of favoritism and gives it to Lamine Yamal. He is still young and how talented he is, he can get to win more awards in the future if he remains at the top of his game. He is good but Dembele is more deserving of the award than him.

I totally agree with you, if it's about the numbers I think Dembele has it more than Yamal, Dembele won two major trophies, especially a champion league they've never won before, that's like creating a record for their team, of course Yamal was outstanding with his skillful way of play and his contribution to Barcelona for winning the la Liga and helping his national team to reach the UEFA nations league final, but that is not enough, the numbers in terms of stat doesn't give him that preference same to goes to trophies.

[Cryptoprincess101]

This is a thread where we can discuss, predict or speculate who will win the Prestigious Ballon d’Or. since either Leonel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or this years own has to be the most fiercely contested Ballon d’Or so this create a space for interesting football discussions.

According to https://www.goal.com/en-ng/lists/ballon-dor-2025-power-rankings/bltd009fae5576d751f
Below are the top 20 contenders

~~snip~~

Who will be crowned Ballon d’Or 2025 winner and how will the top ten list look like at the end.

It is really interesting to see many PSG players making it in the top 20 ratings of the ballon d'Or but i don't think they are all deserving to make it to the top 20 despite that winning the Champions League made most of them enter the list. Having 10 PSG players out of 20 is really crazy though but let's deliberate on the top 5 which is Kylian Mbappe, Mohamed Salah, Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele. Lamine Yamal and Dembele have the highest ratings which is fair but seems many people are just talking about Dembele just because he won the Champions League but if you see how Lamine Yamal performed both in the La Liga and the Champions League, he is worth giving a consideration because his dribbling skills and talents cannot be overemphasized. Even if Dembele wins against Lamine Yamal, the margin will not be much. I don't know why Mohamed Salah is rated above Kylian Mbappe, but i think Mbappe deserves to come first before Salah because his performance is better than that of Mohamed Salah.

[Liliana1304]

I will also nominate Lamine Yamal for the award above Raphinha and Dembele. It's not as if the other ones that came after Yamal are not good because they have been very great in their clubs and have had goals to their name but in their respective countries, they seem like they are hidden. I watched Dembele in the game when France played Spain and noticed that he seldom took chances for himself but preferred to leave the ball for Mbappe, as if he lacked courage to do so himself but Lamine Yamal took opportunities and created them too.
 
The title will be much more contentious for the three and would be left between Dembele and Raphinha if Yamal becomes less active in the team and the achievements he has gotten in the club begins to enter his head. Somehow it's even better he wasn't able to collect the Nations league title because then I doubt there'd be anything stopping him from being a worthy candidate and it may further affect his performance because like I said, the pride will affect him so much that it may derail him from focus.

[Kavelj22]

How do you comment on Cristiano Ronaldo's statement about the Ballon dor? He said that the award should go to a player who won the Champions League, and that the Ballon dor? has lost its value. In my opinion, he's right i think Dembele deserved it, but we'll see soon. Yamal is indeed a great player and has shown a lot, but he's still very young and his time is yet to come.

I did not like the idea that if Yamal deserve the Ballon d'Or, he should be denied it because he is still young and has the chances of winning it even more than once in the future. That is a faulty logic. No one actually knows tomorrow and you never can tell who will reign in the next season. If we were told that till now mbappé will not win the Ballon d'Or, majority of us will not believe but now it is increasingly difficult for him to do. If Yamal deserves it, give it to him.

Mbappe start in Madrid wasn't that ideal. He struggled with injuries and missed several matches for the French national team, amid criticism for his performances that fell short of expectations. However, his transformation began in late 2024, when he began to impress Ancelotti, and began his journey to shine in the new year. Mbappe excelled by scoring in all the finals he participated in this season with Real Madrid, including the European Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and the Copa del Rey, confirming his status as the team's top scorer this season. I think he is the candidate with most chance to win without to forget that the Trophy is based on many other factors not only the player performance.

[Adbitco]

Let's say we go with your opinion and rankings, are you really gonna play Yamal ahead of Raphinha? Like how? Under what bases or under what grounds? Was Yamal in any way better than Raphinha in the Barcelona team? If yes please drop your statistics to back up your claims you're just following media hype. Raphinha in all honesty was the better and best player for his team last season and the statistics are there to prove it. Even the dribbles people say Yamal does, Raphinha does same as well.

It's not difficult to know someone who has not been watching Barcelona matches often. You look at the score sheet and see Raphina and conclude that he was the best player. Raphinha had a balon d'or worthy season; he was so instrumental to the season Barcelona had, but he was not their best player. He was not even the second.
Barcelona's best players last season are Yamal, Pedri before Raphinha. People always say stats don't lie, yeah, maybe they're right,  but stats don't tell the whole picture. Lewandowski scored 40+ goals, but that does not mean he's among the top 3 best players of Barcelona.

The most dangerous player of Barcelona was Lamine Yamal. Almost every attack came from him. Keep Yamal quiet, and there's an 80% chance you've kept Barcelona quiet. Coaches didn't make plans on how to double-team Raphinha or how to stop him. Don't give me the media hype BS. Barcelona was one of the clubs I watched the most last season. I missed only 2 Barcelona matches the whole season.

To tell you how important Lamine Yamal is to Barcelona, he got injured and lacked match fitness in November last year, and Barcelona won only 2 out of 9 matches. They struggled so much when he wasn't in form. Raphinhan got the goals and the assist, but overall, the better player was Yamal.
You don't have to like him, the fact don't care about your feelings. Almost every football legend says Lamine Yamal was the best player because they watched him. No one tunes in to watch Raphinha or Dembele, but you have legends of the game tuning in to watch Yamal.
Ronaldinho won the Balon d'or with 9 league goals, same with Kaka. These are players that may not always be on the score sheet, but people always want to watch them because of what they can produce for their team and things they can do with the ball, and that is the kind of player Lamine Yamal is.

This epistle on something you're totally wrong about! Of what sense do you place Yamal ahead of Raphinha? You just said Raphinha is not the best player of Barcelona, lol. I'm the one to tell you that you don't watch games. So since you claim Raphinha wasn't the best player of Barcelona who is then? Lol. I guess someone is just waking up from coma. You said I look t the score sheet and see Raphinha there and I think he was the best player for the club. So if it's by goals scored as you claim that I thought, shouldn't Mbappe be winning the La Liga player of the season instead of Raphinha if it's by goals? Or you don't know that Raphinha is both Barcelona and La Liga best player of the season? Like I said earlier, welcome back from wherever you went to because it seems like you weren't around.

[Alpha Marine]

This epistle on something you're totally wrong about! Of what sense do you place Yamal ahead of Raphinha? You just said Raphinha is not the best player of Barcelona, lol. I'm the one to tell you that you don't watch games. So since you claim Raphinha wasn't the best player of Barcelona who is then? Lol. I guess someone is just waking up from coma. You said I look t the score sheet and see Raphinha there and I think he was the best player for the club. So if it's by goals scored as you claim that I thought, shouldn't Mbappe be winning the La Liga player of the season instead of Raphinha if it's by goals? Or you don't know that Raphinha is both Barcelona and La Liga best player of the season? Like I said earlier, welcome back from wherever you went to because it seems like you weren't around.

It's either you're too lazy to read what I wrote, or you didn't understand.
The only reason Yamal didn't win La Liga player of the season was his age, and that is why he was given the young player of the year. Lamine Yamal generated more football than any other footballer this season. Aside from the goals, any other attacking metric you want to use, Lamine is among the top.
Funny enough, I wouldn't even mind if Raphinha wins it, in fact, I would like him to winit because he was very good this season and he might not get a season where he's this good and Lamine on the other hand has not reached his peak yet, but Yamal was the best player in Barcelona. he carried the attack. Without him, they couldn't penetrate defences easily.

Again, most of the legends of the game who played and coached the game and understand it better than watched football this past season agree that Yamal should be the balon d'or winner because he is the best player in the world. That has nothing to do with media hype, he's simply that good, but I guess you did not watch so you wont know.