2025 Ballon d'Or made all PSG and France fans especially happy with Ousame Dembele's win, in addition to other highly anticipated awards in other categories such as best goalkeeper (Gianluigi Donnarumma) and best coach (Luis Enrique). Even so, the traditional France Football award caused a lot of discussion on social media due to the injustices committed in the Top 10.
The main one was Raphinha's final position, which was only 5th place. Considered by many critics to be the best player in the world for a considerable part of Barcelona's 2024/25 season, it was surprising that the Brazilian number 11 only managed fifth place in the final list, having been surprisingly overtaken by Mohamed Salah and Vitinha. Apparently, LaLiga does not carry as much weight in the final vote.
Another clear injustice on the Ballon d'Or 2025 list is that Pedri was left out of the Top 10, having to settle for 11th place despite the impact he has had on Barcelona's midfield despite being such a young player. On the other hand, Barcelona was also "favored" with Lamine Yamal winning the Kopa Trophy for the second time in his career, which is a controversial award considering last year's win, breaking with the tradition of rewarding the young revelation of world football.
Finally, it is also worth noting the very high ranking of Cole Palmer, a player who won the Club World Cup with Chelsea without being the main star and experienced constant inconsistency in the last Premier League season, yet still finished in the Top 10 ahead of names such as Robert Lewandowski.
Ballon d'Or full 2025 final standings
- Ousmane Dembele
- Lamine Yamal
- Vitinha
- Mohamed Salah
- Raphinha
- Achraf Hakimi
- Kylian Mbappe
- Cole Palmer
- Gianluigi Donnarumma
- Nuno Mendes
- Pedri
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
- Harry Kane
- Desire Doue
- Viktor Gyokeres
- Vinicius Jr
- Robert Lewandowski
- Scott McTominay
- Joao Neves
- Lautaro Martinez
- Serhou Guirassy
- Alexis Mac Allister
- Jude Bellingham
- Fabian Ruiz
- Denzel Dumfries
- Erling Haaland
- Declan Rice
- Virgil van Dijk
- Florian Wirtz
- Erling Haaland
Other controversies surrounding the Ballon d'Or 2025
Not winning the Kopa Trophy made much of the soccer community happy due to Emiliano Martínez's lack of consistency last season, but the Aston Villa goalkeeper still managed to secure a place in the Top 10 among the world's best goalkeepers (finishing in 8th place) despite his constant inconsistency.
Finally, it is worth noting that Marta also suffered a huge injustice by only reaching 12th place in the ranking of the best female soccer players. Despite winning the Copa América and NWSL titles (and being the top scorer for Orlando Pride with 11 goals), the striker was still far from being ranked as the best in the world and inexplicably left out of the Top 10.