2025 Ballon d’Or Prediction thread

[TastyChillySauce00]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners and the metric was too inconsistent. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how many publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

[AprilioMP]

It makes sense to me that Dembele won the Ballon d’Or considering his performances last year with PSG. He won the Ligue 1, he won the Champions League, and he won the UEFA Super Cup at the beginning of the 2025/26 season. He was a protagonist in all those competitions, contributing both with goals and assists. He began this season nicely as well and was only stopped due to an injury.

I also considered that the winner of the Ballon d'Or won by Dembele was very appropriate even though there was a narrative built on social media that Yamal should have won the Trophy.
Dembele's contribution to the glory of his team made me think it was very fair to get.
Dembele's statistics in the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup Cup with PSG and his hard work after recovering from injury is the reason why the d'Or trophy ballon is worthy and appropriate for him.
Congratulations to Dembele.

[KTChampions]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners and the metric was too inconsistent. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how many publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

Haaland was robbed the year he broke numerous Premier League records and won the treble.
It's a shame that this award has long since lost touch with reality (only the PR remains), and every year the question arises: "Will there be a robbery or will the awards ceremony be relatively fair?"
But I don’t see any point in worrying – this has little to do with football, all important issues are decided on the field.

[Juicyhome]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how much publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

when it's our turn ,even basket will hold water for you. That's the what happened to Dembele, he fought hard and contributed to PSG first ever champions League in history, he scored an amazing goals and provided good assists. He did what Mbappe , Messi and Neymar couldn't do in PSG. That alone was enough to crown him the award.

The organization got it right this time, giving it to the fans favorite, Dembele was the fans favorite anything Les than that would've resulted to negative reactions on the award just as they did to Rodri, who was not where close to the debate, on the ward night he was given the award ahead of Vinicius who was the fans favorite last year.  The Ballon d'or has lost value, Real Madrid are not longer attending the gala night, so is Ronaldo and other top players. Yesterday they shown previous winners, Ronaldo was not shown that's to say, they do not like Ronaldo statement against the  award. He has on many occasions criticise the integrity of the organizer.

[Oluwa-btc]

I still don't understand why Raphinha shouldn't be in the top 3. Being 5th is not justice for Raphinha because he had a better individual season than Vintihan and Salah. At the very least, he should be 4th. He had such an amazing season, and he deserves third place.

The same goes for Olise. I was surprised to see him rank 30th. What does that even mean? He had a better individual and team season than Viniciuc, but he was not in the top 20 players. Then there's Lewandowski with 43 goals and a domestic treble at 17th. I don't understand what they did, but they need to be fairer so players can be encouraged to work harder.

You be cracking my ribs truly,  you're cool with Rodri winning ot last season but not with Vitinha who won the treble with PSG and also an European competition with Portugal?! You're a great analyst but sometimes you get a little biased,  sentimental and one sided.  Vitinha deserves it.

Do you know Olise had more goals and assist than Lamine Yamal in the 2024/2025 season? But he's 30th?! You can compare him with Vinicius Jr bit not with Lamine Yamal?!  I'm most excited for Raphinha looking at where he has come from ( Leeds United ) I'm pleased with the level he's attained since joining Barcelona.

[verdinio]

I still don't understand why Raphinha shouldn't be in the top 3. Being 5th is not justice for Raphinha because he had a better individual season than Vintihan and Salah. At the very least, he should be 4th. He had such an amazing season, and he deserves third place.

The same goes for Olise. I was surprised to see him rank 30th. What does that even mean? He had a better individual and team season than Viniciuc, but he was not in the top 20 players. Then there's Lewandowski with 43 goals and a domestic treble at 17th. I don't understand what they did, but they need to be fairer so players can be encouraged to work harder.

You be cracking my ribs truly,  you're cool with Rodri winning ot last season but not with Vitinha who won the treble with PSG and also an European competition with Portugal?! You're a great analyst but sometimes you get a little biased,  sentimental and one sided.  Vitinha deserves it.

Do you know Olise had more goals and assist than Lamine Yamal in the 2024/2025 season? But he's 30th?! You can compare him with Vinicius Jr bit not with Lamine Yamal?!  I'm most excited for Raphinha looking at where he has come from ( Leeds United ) I'm pleased with the level he's attained since joining Barcelona.

We know that these competitions have always been a bit like this and have always put us at odds, I can't understand for example how someone like Donnarumma has someone like Palmer above him who is an excellent player but Donnarumma has done much more this season, so I just can't understand how it could have happened

[Umulala-alala]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners and the metric was too inconsistent. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how many publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

Sometimes winning such Awards comes with luck and opportunity Mbappe could have won it if he was patient enough to stay with the Paris Saint Germain this would have also make Dembele not to play well as he did since every attention will be given to Mbappe, it's also just like the UEFA champions league title there are great players who hasn't won it some will leave a club this season and that same club will win it next season, Paris Saint Germain did exploit last season won the treble, Dembele performance with Paris Saint Germain last season was a top notch well deserved Award congratulations to Ousmane Dembele as the new Ballon d'Or winner.

[Alpha Marine]

You be cracking my ribs truly,  you're cool with Rodri winning ot last season but not with Vitinha who won the treble with PSG and also an European competition with Portugal?! You're a great analyst but sometimes you get a little biased,  sentimental and one sided.  Vitinha deserves it.

It's very difficult for people to keep their bias aside in things like this, but try to put context when you say things. Rodri won the Euro as the best player in the tournament. In case you've forgotten how good and consistent Rodri is that season, go back and check his rating. In a bad game, he had a 7/10 rating; his average rating was 7.94/10 the whole season. Do you know how insane it is for a defensive midfielder who doesn't always score goals to have an 8.5 rating in a match consistently? Attackers and wingers can have an average game, but a goal can take them to an 8/10 rating; a defensive midfielder doing it without goals and assists is a phenomenon, not to mention the fact that Rodri, as a defensive midfielder, had more assists than Vinicius, who is a winger. Vinicius picked form towards the end of the season. From the quarter-final stage of the Champions League, Vinicius picked form and football fans with their short-term memory started shouting Balon d'Or. Meanwhile, it has been Birmingham that they've been screening for the Balon d'Or up to that moment. Rodri, on the other hand, was elite from the beginning to the end of the season and mind you, they also played Copa America that year, where Vini was total ass in the tournament.

You can't sit here and tell me Vitinha had a better individual season than Raphina and claim not to be biased. Raphinha was the best player in his league, the highest goal scorer and the highest assist provider in the Champions League. Only Yamal created more chances than him. Don't accuse me of being biased when that is exactly what you're doing.

Do you know Olise had more goals and assist than Lamine Yamal in the 2024/2025 season? But he's 30th?! You can compare him with Vinicius Jr bit not with Lamine Yamal?! 

First of all, no, Olise did not have more goals and assists than Lamine Yamal. People have pushed a narrative that Yaml scored only "9 league goals" just to fit their agenda. It's easy for you to fall into it if you don't already like the player, but the league is not the only competition in a season. Yamal's stats for Barcelona alone, excluding Spain, are more G/A than Olise's. Then you can talk about the chances created, what he led his teams to achieve.

Olise had better stats than Vini and won a trophy, created more chances too, but he's not in the top 20 while Vini is. You're obviously the biased one here, man 
You're just projecting. Last season was one of Vini's worst seasons. Without Mbappe, Madrid would have had an even worse season. 
Or do you want to talk about Lewandowski with 43 goals, and a domestic treble at 17th, while Vini with no trophy is 16th?

[Abbatty]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners and the metric was too inconsistent. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how many publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

Well said mate, Dembele has truly turned it around for himself, he has always had the qualities to win the Ballon D’or but a lot of people begin to doubt him when injuries began to always disturb him, well maybe leaving Barcelona as at that time was what he actually needed. I won’t even believe that he would win the Ballon D’or before Mbappe.

Well we still don’t get it right about the actual criteria in winning the Ballon D’or, sometimes they would say it by how much trophy you win, some years they would say winning the champions plays a big part too, and some years they would say you goal contributions matter too. Well as for last season in all criteria Dembele stood out and that was why they couldn’t deny him the Ballon D’or.

[Marvelockg]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners and the metric was too inconsistent. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how many publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

Sometimes winning such Awards comes with luck and opportunity Mbappe could have won it if he was patient enough to stay with the Paris Saint Germain this would have also make Dembele not to play well as he did since every attention will be given to Mbappe, it's also just like the UEFA champions league title there are great players who hasn't won it some will leave a club this season and that same club will win it next season, Paris Saint Germain did exploit last season won the treble, Dembele performance with Paris Saint Germain last season was a top notch well deserved Award congratulations to Ousmane Dembele as the new Balloon d'Or winner.

It's fair to say that Mbappe has to give way for Dembele to fully shine as an attacker. If Mbappe was still at Paris saint German, the narrative would still have revolved around Mbappe and the expectation would still have been centred around Mbappe winning the balon d'Or and not Dembele.

At least, we can say to an extent that this is one balon d'Or that's fair enough and goes down well with the majority of people around the world. If Mbappe wants to win it, he has the chance of putting in the work from now going forward and maybe, he might stand a chance but the fact is that with the way psg is going, it's going to still give Dembele more edge in this season and the coming one.

[rdluffy]

Something interesting I noticed when comparing last year's list with this year's

Top 10 list for 2024:

1 - Rodri
2 - Vinicius Júnior
3 - Jude Bellingham
4 - Dani Carvajal
5 - Erling Haaland
6 - Kylian Mbappé
7 - Lautaro Martínez
8 - Lamine Yamal
9 - Toni Kroos
10 - Harry Kane

Top 10 list for 2025:

1 - Dembélé
2 - Yamal
3 - Vitinha
4 - Salah
5 - Raphinha
6 - Hakimi
7 - Mbappé
8 - Palmer
9 - Donnarumma
10 - Nuno Mendes

Only Yamal and Mbappe managed to stay in the top 10
This shows how difficult the competition is at the moment and the inconsistency of several players who have an excellent season and then fail to repeat it

[Pmalek]

I also considered that the winner of the Ballon d'Or won by Dembele was very appropriate even though there was a narrative built on social media that Yamal should have won the Trophy.

Barcelona has a huge following all over the world, that's why such narratives get created. It's usually the younger generations that make their voices heard over social media. They can be quite bothersome at times. On one side, you have those claiming to be fans of Real, and on the other, there are the Barcelona fans. In the past, the argument was if Messi or Ronaldo was better. Now, it's between Vinicius and Yamal. Thankfully, just because they are loud and in greater numbers, doesn't mean they are right.

[Franctoshi]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how much publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

when it's our turn ,even basket will hold water for you. That's the what happened to Dembele, he fought hard and contributed to PSG first ever champions League in history, he scored an amazing goals and provided good assists. He did what Mbappe , Messi and Neymar couldn't do in PSG. That alone was enough to crown him the award.

The organization got it right this time, giving it to the fans favorite, Dembele was the fans favorite anything Les than that would've resulted to negative reactions on the award just as they did to Rodri, who was not where close to the debate, on the ward night he was given the award ahead of Vinicius who was the fans favorite last year.  The Ballon d'or has lost value, Real Madrid are not longer attending the gala night, so is Ronaldo and other top players. Yesterday they shown previous winners, Ronaldo was not shown that's to say, they do not like Ronaldo statement against the  award. He has on many occasions criticise the integrity of the organizer.

It was a well-deserved award. If they had failed to give Dembele the award this season, then it would have been time we began to question the criteria and credibility of the FIFA body behind this award, because I don't understand why, after  it's crystal clear who is supposed to win the award, then in the end we see the award will be given to someone that the majority of people are doubtful of being the winner.  for instance, 2010 Lionel Messi vs. Snieder and Rodri and Vinicius Jr. Thanks to the FIFA body for doing what is necessary.

[BitBakerr1]

Congratulation to dembele for winning the Ballon d'Or this year he's a very good player and he has done very well for his club PSG however I was thinking the winner will be Raphinha because he has all the criteria more than all the players that were nominated however I think what dembele used in winning this years Ballon d'Or is the number of trophies because he had more trophy than Raphinha and Lamine Yamal apart from this they passed him in other criteria.
I really don't know the criteria that Ballon d'or uses whenever they want to give award it will be very nice that Ballon d'Or start giving a criteria earlier before a season kick off so that this players and everyone will know when a player qualify to win the Ballon d'Or so that people will not be tagging Ballon d'or as being biased in giving out award.
However in everything I want to say a big congratulations to dembele.

[Lida93]

Snip

If Ousmane Dembele is your favourite candidate to win the Ballon d'Or award, which am also tipping him to win. But I hope you also realise that others have their own favourites candidates. Should Ousmane Dembele not win, let's not feel that the organisers are biased or they did anything wrong. For me Raphinha, Ousmane Dembele and Lamin Yamal all deserves to win. But we can only have one winner.

You have to match them each by the criteria to who beat deserves it despite how it looks like they each deserve to be awarded the ballon d'Or. I enjoy watching Lamine Yamal and Raphinha play but as much as I do, it's obvious they didn't merit it as Dembele does which was why he eventually got it. But this doesn't flaws the fact that in other times the award has being given to players who didn't actually merit it in the year.

[cande86]

Big congrats for Dembele. I can't believe how he's won Ballon d'or even before Haaland or Mbappe or Salah. What a big turnaround on his career. He went from a player who often injured at Barcelona to lifting the Ballon d?Or in 2025. I thought that his career would be robbed by his injury, but glad i was wrong. He deserves it as his hard worked in PSG.
However, i still critics how the quality of this Ballon D'or has been dropping a lot. It's often changing the req of the winners. Some years it's based on how much players scored, other years it's based on who performed well in one season and how much publicity got by the players.

In the end, it's nothing surprised me at all caused by it's PR award.

when it's our turn ,even basket will hold water for you. That's the what happened to Dembele, he fought hard and contributed to PSG first ever champions League in history, he scored an amazing goals and provided good assists. He did what Mbappe , Messi and Neymar couldn't do in PSG. That alone was enough to crown him the award.

The organization got it right this time, giving it to the fans favorite, Dembele was the fans favorite anything Les than that would've resulted to negative reactions on the award just as they did to Rodri, who was not where close to the debate, on the ward night he was given the award ahead of Vinicius who was the fans favorite last year.  The Ballon d'or has lost value, Real Madrid are not longer attending the gala night, so is Ronaldo and other top players. Yesterday they shown previous winners, Ronaldo was not shown that's to say, they do not like Ronaldo statement against the  award. He has on many occasions criticise the integrity of the organizer.

It was a well-deserved award. If they had failed to give Dembele the award this season, then it would have been time we began to question the criteria and credibility of the FIFA body behind this award, because I don't understand why, after  it's crystal clear who is supposed to win the award, then in the end we see the award will be given to someone that the majority of people are doubtful of being the winner.  for instance, 2010 Lionel Messi vs. Snieder and Rodri and Vinicius Jr. Thanks to the FIFA body for doing what is necessary.

yes it's true, he had to make it credible again, this tournament could only be won by Dembele, there was no one else who could afford to win it, no one this year came even close.
I'm finally happy that FIFA has finally decided to give the award to someone who really deserves it.

[Chilwell]

DEMBELE is well deserving of the trophy and this time around, I’ll say they’re more transparent in the selection than they’ve done sometimes back. Dembele is the most deserving of the trophy once again I reiterate it because he has really earned a lot last season which Lamine Yamal performance cannot be on the same level as him. As for Yamal, I won’t be surprised that he’ll win it next season if he keeps this consistency. Congratulations to Ousmane Dembele, this is a milestone he has achieved at the peak of his career. He can now rest well anytime he decides to retire. I am very happy for him, he’s destined for it and well deserving of it.

I Focus on this ceremony just because of Ousmane Dembélé because he's the only one that qualified for the award. At the beginning of the process the way they were treating Lamine Yamal was so scary by hyping him all over the social media, I was beginning to have doubt for the victory of Ousmane Dembele because of all what had happened in the past years. Lamine Yamal had a chance to win the award too but what stop him was their elimination from Champions League, assuming the won the trophy he will have a clear chance to win over Ousmane Dembélé because his performance was excellent, despite I don't like Barcelona, I admired his performance in those matches he played last season.

[7juju]

Ousmane Dembele has made history for his club PSG and himself as an individual for winning the best male players award popularised as the ballon d'Or. He deserves what he got at this time after many times of coming out in runner up positions. No one for sure would have believed that Mbappe would be behind Dembele in first to win the ballon d'Or award, it's surprising yet a reality. Now we can all look front for what this new season could give for young talents like Yamal and Mbappe if anyone of their two can be the next to win it by next year.

I see Ousmane Dembele success in winning the Ballon d'Or as being at the right place at the right time. Believe me this would have been Kylian Mbappe winning this award if he remained at PSG. But it is what it is and he has missed it. His exit at PSG gave room to the rise of Ousmane Dembele in the club. This was Ousmane Dembele whom many thought his career was over at Barcelona before he moved to french capital. Am so happy for him for him because his hard work paid off.

[Luzin]

The guarantee of the organizers of the ballon Dior award organizing an award that is free of controversy is low because right from the messi- Ronaldo competition there were years that the players didn't deserve it it the award went their way. The the respect and value of this award is to continue then the organizers has to become more transparent especially with the voting process and the criterias that will be used in voting.

Indeed, FIFA must strive for all of this so that everything is fulfilled and we, the viewers, have factual data that can be accounted for. This means that FIFA must have real accountability data as a basis. The existing system must be improved immediately. They should have realized it by now, as there are many memes on social media criticizing FIFA regarding the Ballon d'Or winner. Although there may still be disappointed supporters, I believe FIFA will be viewed more favorably by many people. Congratulations to Dembele, I think he truly deserves this fantastic one-year period. I don’t feel disappointed because Dembele and PSG have performed quite well this season.

[ibuddy122505]

Ousmane Dembele has made history for his club PSG and himself as an individual for winning the best male players award popularised as the ballon d'Or. He deserves what he got at this time after many times of coming out in runner up positions. No one for sure would have believed that Mbappe would be behind Dembele in first to win the ballon d'Or award, it's surprising yet a reality. Now we can all look front for what this new season could give for young talents like Yamal and Mbappe if anyone of their two can be the next to win it by next year.

I see Ousmane Dembele success in winning the Ballon d'Or as being at the right place at the right time. Believe me this would have been Kylian Mbappe winning this award if he remained at PSG. But it is what it is and he has missed it. His exit at PSG gave room to the rise of Ousmane Dembele in the club. This was Ousmane Dembele whom many thought his career was over at Barcelona before he moved to french capital. Am so happy for him for him because his hard work paid off.

It's been quite a journey for Ousmane Dembele. Leaving Barcelona turned out to be the best move for him, as his rise at the French club brought out the player many had been waiting to see. After years of battling injuries, he finally delivered 24/25 season and showed his true potential. From being doubted to winning the Ballon d’Or, but his brilliance is now undeniable.