2025 Men's Ballon d'Or Power Rankings. Each week we will be bringing you updates on both the men's and women's race to win the prestigious award later this year. Join us to find out how the favourites stack up in the second edition of the rankings and to see who is our early leader for the greatest individual award in football.After a hectic season of football and more to come over the summer, fans, media and players will all have the 2025 Ballon d’Or awards in the back of their minds.
In the men’s award last year, Manchester City and Spain star Rodri triumphed over Real Madrid and Brazil forward Vinicius Junior, with England’s Jude Bellingham coming in third.
But what about this year? With no major international football apart from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, votes instead will be based off club performances for the most part.Another interesting wrinkle to remember this year is the new, expanded FIFA Club World Cup - how will voters factor that in? At this moment we still don’t know.
As a reminder, the voting period has been changed to reflect performances across the past season of football rather than calendar year.
So even though the ceremony will take place on September 22, it will reflect the 2024-25 season, which includes the aforementioned Club World Cup.
10 – Kvicha Kvaratskhelia (Napoli/PSG)
It was a truly remarkable season for Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was crowned a domestic champion with both Napoli and PSG. He also of course added the UEFA Champions League, having played a starring role in the knockouts for the Parisian giants after his move in the winter transfer window.
Kvaratskhelia ended the season with 12 goals and eight assists across all competitions for both teams and he played a key role in taking the PSG attack to another level after his move. Ultimately, though, he just does not have the numbers to end up much higher on this list.
9 – Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid)
Holders Real Madrid exited the Champions League at the quarter-final stage and finished second in La Liga behind Barcelona. However, despite some noise about his performances, Kylian Mbappe finished his first season in Spain with a mammoth 42 goals in all competitions, with four assists to boot.
However, the fact that Madrid did not win either the league or the Champions League this season means it is hard to see the Frenchman making a real push this season. Particularly because France failed to win the UEFA Nations League, losing in the final to Portugal (more on that below). Even a stellar Club World Cup campaign feels unlikely to make the difference.
8 – Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG)
No goalkeeper has won the Ballon d’Or since Lev Yashin in 1963, still the only time a shot-stopper has won the award. Will Gianluigi Donnarumma be the one who bucks that trend? No, no he will not.
As we will discuss below, whilst performances over the season are important for Ballon d’Or voting, it has also been clear over the past few years how important moments and symbolism are since Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo moved outside of Europe. To that end, a goalkeeper would have to have had a series of truly astonishing performances in both the Champions League and an international tournament. And even then they will could still be overlooked. Like the rest of his PSG team-mates he takes a little bit of a blow from the Botafogo defeat.
7 – Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
At one point this season Salah looked like a great bet to win the Ballon d’Or, becoming just the second African player to win the award since George Weah in 1995. Unfortunately for Salah, whilst Liverpool did win the Premier League title, they were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG in the last 16.
On top of that, his own form tailed off and he did not manage to equal Thierry Henry’s legendary feat of 20+ goals and 20+ assists in one single Premier League season, even if no one in Europe can top his 47 league goal contributions. The Egyptian superstar will most likely have to wait to win the award he has admitted he wants.
6 – Achraf Hakimi (PSG)
Achraf Hakimi ended his season with nine goals and 12 assists in all competitions, a truly astonishing return for a full-back, albeit an extremely attacking one. Similar to another player we will talk about in a bit, Hakimi is so much more than a full-back; he completely transcends the position.
However, are voters, and indeed the general public, ready for a full-back to win the Ballon d’Or? Similar to goalkeepers, the answer is probably no. However scoring goals in big games will always help. He did that in the Champions League final and in PSG's most recent game at the 2025 Club World Cup.
5 - Nuno Mendes (PSG)
Mendes did not quite match up to Hakimi in terms of numbers, but he was equally critical to PSG’s historic treble. What he does have over Hakimi for this period in voting is international triumph, thanks to Portugal winning the UEFA Nations League.
Mendes was equally important for Portugal as he was for PSG, notably shutting down Lamine Yamal in the final of the Nations League against Spain. But as with Hakimi, can a full-back win? It seems unlikely.
4 – Raphinha (Barcelona)
The rebirth of Raphinha has been astonishing - 34 goals and 22 assists in all competitions. Those are bonkers numbers no matter who you measure up against. In any other year, you would have to think that he would be the front-runner.
But similar to what we have discussed before, does Raphinha have those moments that you need? Yes, he scored at the end of the second leg against Inter, but that might not be remembered in the same way given Inter went on to win the semi-final.
3 – Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)
Yes, Yamal had a poor Nations League and yes, Barcelona did not win the Champions League, or even reach the final. But despite this, Barcelona won La Liga and the Copa del Rey, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League, and Yamal was at the heart of it. The teenager finished with 18 goals and 21 assists across all competitions.
It is a tough decision between Yamal, Pedri and Raphinha but the fact that you could make a genuine argument for a 17-year-old being the best player on one of the two or three best teams in Europe is astonishing. Again, when we talk about moments, his performances against Inter will live long in the memory for everyone, including voters. If PSG keep struggling in the Club World Cup he is in with a chance but he still has ground to make up despite being a real moments king of this season.
2 – Ousmane Dembele (PSG)
The battle for the top has to be between PSG players and really it will probably go back and forth over the next few weeks at the Club World Cup. Because of the kind of player he is and the tendency amongst footballing society to lean towards attackers and goalscorers, Dembele seems like the obvious front-runner.
After all, 33 goals and 13 assists is a record anyone would be envious of. Dembele is right there, but it does hurt him that France did not win the Nations League. Indeed in the semi-finals, three of France’s four goals came after he was taken off. Does a strong Club World Cup override that? He certainly has benefitted from missing the first couple of games of the Club World Cup.
1 – Vitinha (PSG)
Rodri walked, so Vitinha could run.
Where Rodri was the anchor that held Manchester City and Spain together, Vitinha is the heartbeat of PSG and Portugal. Without him, the other organs simply cannot function.
The central midfielder’s rise is nothing short of outstanding and what is perhaps most impressive is that he went from strength to strength as the season went on, as the games got harder. On route to the final, PSG took out three of the top seven in England as well as beating the Italian champions in the final in record style. Vitinha might not have been the best player in every single game, but in the vast majority of them, he was in the top two or three players on the pitch.
Vitinha followed it up with a starring role as Portugal edged Spain to win the UEFA Nations League, scoring in the shootout to continue his golden summer. Right now, he is our leader in the clubhouse despite that defeat to Botafogo but things could change if things go south for PSG.