Ballon d'Or 2025: Nominees revealed for the Golden Ball with Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal and Vitinha all in contention

The Ballon d’Or. Love it or loathe it, it’s the award every footballer in the world dreams of one day winning. And now, after a memorable 2024-25 campaign, the shortlist of nominees for the 2025 Golden Ball has been announced.

There are a host of top names vying to claim the prize that Rodri took home in 2024, with performances over the past 12 months – including at the recent Club كأس العالم – having been taken into account when selecting this year’s list of potential winners.

Who will take home the prize? Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele is the favourite with the bookmakers after his electric form in front of goal fired the French side to the treble, including their first-ever Champions League title, though he could face competition from within his own dressing room, with Vitinha and Achraf Hakimi among a clutch of PSG stars who have genuine cases to win themselves.

Elsewhere, Lamine Yamal truly announced himself as the game’s next superstar with his outstanding performances for برشلونة, while both his team-mate Raphinha and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah returned remarkable goal and assist numbers on the way to securing league titles for their respective sides.

We will have to wait until the ceremony in Paris on Monday, September 22 to find out who will come out on top; for now, here are the players who have been shortlisted for football’s ultimate individual honour:

There are a host of top names vying to claim the prize that Rodri took home in 2024, with performances over the past 12 months – including at the recent Club World Cup – having been taken into account when selecting this year’s list of potential winners.

Elsewhere, Lamine Yamal truly announced himself as the game’s next superstar with his outstanding performances for Barcelona, while both his team-mate Raphinha and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah returned remarkable goal and assist numbers on the way to securing league titles for their respective sides.

We will have to wait until the ceremony in Paris on Monday, September 22 to find out who will come out on top; for now, here are the players who have been shortlisted for football’s ultimate individual honour:

One of England’s brightest hopes in a generation, the midfielder has been nominated again after finishing on the podium in 2024. The midfielder netted 15 goals and registered 15 assists in all competitions in 2024-25, but Madrid’s failure to win either the Champions League or La Liga makes a victory unlikely this time around.

The favourite for the Ballon d’Or, if you trust the bookmakers, after a remarkable season that saw PSG win the Champions League and Ligue 1 while Dembele developed into the player he was always meant to be. The Frenchman won every competition there was to win, and scored 37 goals along the way, while also providing 16 assists. He has finally arrived.

PSG’s goalkeeper played a key role in their multiple triumphs, notably the Champions League. While it has now been 62 years since Lev Yashin became the first, and thus far only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or, there is always a place for the world’s best shot-stoppers on the shortlist of nominees, and Donnarumma separated himself from the pack in 2025 thanks to his outstanding performances in the European knockout rounds.

Doue wasn’t always a guaranteed starter for PSG, but whenever he got on the pitch, he made sure not to waste a minute. That resulted in the summer signing from Rennes enjoying a debut campaign to remember, capped by his performances in the knockout rounds of the Champions League. He scored a grand total of 16 goals, and also provided 16 assists, culminating in a brilliant brace in the Champions League final as انتر were blown away.

Inter reached the final of the Champions League, and while they were ultimately unsuccessful, Dumfries enjoyed a sterling campaign, playing 47 times and registering 17 goal involvements from a wing-back-cum-winger position. The highlight of his season came in the epic semi-final win over Barcelona, where he either scored or assisted five of Inter’s seven goals across the two legs.

Guirassy enjoyed a truly remarkable debut campaign for Dortmund. The 29-year-old scored a staggering 38 goals in 50 games, including 13 in 14 Champions League games as the الدوري الألماني giants reached the quarter-finals. He netted a hat-trick against Barcelona at that point, but it wasn’t enough, and his Ballon d’Or nod is likely to be just that, a nod.

Arsenal’s next great striker hope. An absolute revelation since arriving at Sporting CP from Coventry City in the summer of 2023, Gyokeres’ hat-trick to down Manchester City in the Champions League back in October was his true breakout moment, as the Sweden striker’s goal-scoring exploits went on to earn the global headlines they deserved. He hit 63 goals in all competitions, a number that is next to impossible to ignore in this voting.

While he perhaps enjoyed a lower-key season than he would have liked, Haaland still netted 34 goals in all competitions for Manchester City as they endured a difficult season by their immense standards. As such , he is unlikely to challenge the frontrunners for the Golden Ball.

Debates over who is the best right-back in world football throw up a whole host of contenders for the crown, but right now it’s difficult to look past Achraf Hakimi were a World XI being selected. The PSG star has been a consistently high performer for half a decade across his spells at بوروسيا دورتموند and Inter, and he looks to be getting even better. A staggering season saw the right-back contribute 30 goal involvements, and he helped the Champions League winners keep 26 clean sheets.

It finally happened: Kane won a trophy! The England captain yet again showed his goal-scoring instincts remain at a high level despite having turned 31 as he fired Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title, allowing him to celebrate the long-awaited first silverware of his career. A staggering tally of 48 goals and 14 assists for club and country make him a genuine contender here.

Kvaratskhelia’s goal and assist numbers don’t quite match the level of his play at times during the 2024-25 season, but the Georgia winger contributed towards two different title triumphs, for PSG and Napoli, while playing a key role for the French side en route to them winning the Champions League. A tally of 15 goals and 13 assists is still mightily impressive, though it falls behind some massive numbers on this list.

After Lewandowski missed out on the Ballon d’Or shortlist in 2024, it seemed like the Pole’s long and, thus far, fruitless bid to pick up a Golden Ball was over. However, having been reunited with his former Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick at Barcelona, the 36-year-old rolled back the years to become one of Europe’s most potent No.9s once again in 2024-25, netting 44 goals in all competitions. He is ageing like a fine wine.

Mac Allister became Liverpool’s glue in midfield as they won the Premier League under Arne Slot. While not as flashy as some of his team-mates, the Argentine dictated from deep, and contributed 13 goal involvements, including a stunning strike against Tottenham that all-but sealed the title with four games to go.

Another Champions League runner-up, Lautaro enjoyed a remarkably strong campaign for Inter, as he netted 24 goals in all competitions. He scored in all but two of their European knockout games, though he also tasted disappointment in الدوري الإيطالي, as Inter were pipped to the title by Napoli. Silverware tends to win players the Ballon d’Or, and Lautaro, sadly, hasn’t got any to show for 2024-25.

Mbappe may not have enjoyed the start to life at Real Madrid that he or the club’s fans wanted, but he still scored his fair share of goals, and looked to have taken his game to another level after scoring a stunning hat-trick against Manchester City in February that was seen by many as a true announcement of his arrival at Santiago Bernabeu. A tally of 46 goals is incredible, but will it be enough given the club’s failures in La Liga and Europe?

A first nomination, McTominay has gone from being bombed out of مانشستر يونايتد to inspiring a title triumph and becoming a cult hero in Naples. Thirteen goals and six assists from deep in midfield is truly remarkable. He couldn’t win this, could he?…

Nuno Mendes’ talent has been evident for a few years now, but the part he played in PSG’s Champions League run seemed to elevate the Portugal international to new heights among fans around the world. The ex-Sporting CP star earned plaudits for the way he shut down Mohamed Salah against Liverpool in the last 16 before scoring goals in both legs of the quarter-final victory over Aston Villa. Seven goals and 12 assists from left-back mark him out as a special talent, as does his role in Portugal’s Nations League triumph.

One of the signings of the season, Joao Neves landed at PSG after his €60m (£50.5m/$65m) move from Benfica and immediately looked at home at the heart of the Parisiens’ midfield. The archetypal modern No.6, Neves is able to combine the physical side of the game with a classiness in possession that also allows him to contribute in the final third. Without him as the glue, PSG would never have enjoyed the season they did.

Olise has slotted straight in at Bayern and made himself more than at home. Onlookers who watched him at كريستال بالاس will have seen his twinkling feet and sparkling dribbling, but few will have predicted a season in which he contributed 43 goal involvements in 55 games and became a Bundesliga champion. A fine season, and a deserving nomination.

It proved to be a season of two halves for Palmer, as he kicked-off the campaign in the same form in which he had finished the previous one while leading Chelsea up to as high as second in the Premier League table. His output, however, took a steep downturn following the turn of the year, which coincided with the Blues also falling away in the title race before eventually recovering to finish fourth. Anyone who doubted Palmer, however, was made to eat their words as he produced two sparkling performances in finals to see out the season, first in the دوري المؤتمرات and then at the Club World Cup, where his display against PSG was truly outstanding.

His goal and assist numbers don’t jump off the page (seven goals, 10 assists), but anyone who watched Barcelona this season will wax lyrical about the levels that بيدري displayed for Hansi Flick’s side. Seemingly injury-free for the first time in years, the Spain star finally returned on the potential he showed as a teenager before fitness issues caught up with him, with many now touting him as the world’s best midfielder after his star turn in the Copa del Rey final.

There were those who argued against it early on, but it was clear for much of the campaign that Raphinha was the most decisive of Barcelona’s electric front-three, and his raw goal and assist numbers certainly help back that up. The ex-Leeds United winger would likely have been sold last summer if Barca had managed to complete a deal to sign Nico Williams, but the Brazilian shrugged that off to lead the Blaugrana to a domestic treble. A staggering tally of 64 goal involvements, and his status as a La Liga champion, make him a real contender.

Rice appears to be back to his very best at Arsenal. The England international stunned supporters with an incredible brace of free-kicks in the Champions League thumping of Real Madrid, but the Gunners endured disappointment in both Europe and the Premier League, ultimately ending the season trophy-less. Rice, though, can hold his head up high after an excellent campaign.

PSG were simply superb throughout the 2024-25 season, and Ruiz was ever-present, playing in every single Champions League game. He also scored a vital goal in the semi-final win over Arsenal, ending the campaign with 19 goal involvements from midfield. He is not a flashy PSG star like Doue or Kvaratskhelia, but he’s superb nonetheless.

Speculation over Salah’s future was finally put to bed after he signed a new two-year contract at Liverpool, and few can argue that it was not well deserved. ‘The Egyptian King’ rediscovered his best form and then some under new coach Arne Slot, leading the Reds to secure the Premier League title at a canter. Scoring 36 goals in all competitions saw him confirm his status as perhaps the best player Liverpool have had in the Premier League era.

The 34-year-old shows no signs of slowing down at Liverpool. He has signed a new contract, will be staying at Anfield for the foreseeable future, and played every game but one as the Reds lifted the Premier League trophy. An unlikely winner of the Golden Ball, perhaps, but a truly excellent defender still.

Upon confirmation of his surprise second-placed finish in the 2024 Ballon d’Or, Vinicius swore that “the world wasn’t ready” for what he hoped would become his revenge tour. The Brazilian clearly felt that he should have been up on stage with the Golden Ball rather than Rodri, and has attempted to stake his claim ever since. Certainly, the Real Madrid winger looked in electric form during the first half of the campaign, and there might not be a forward anywhere in world football who can match Vinicius in full flow. However, 2025 has not been a great year for the former Flamengo wonderkid, and an underwhelming Club World Cup campaign means a top-10 finish in the Ballon d’Or voting is unlikely to happen.

After being something of a surprise inclusion on last year’s Ballon d’Or shortlist, it would now be a shock if Vitinha were to miss out on a place within the top five in 2025 after a masterful campaign in PSG’s midfield. The ex-Wolves loanee was the beating heart of Luis Enrique’s all-conquering side, and earned Xavi comparisons as the French giants completed their treble by winning the Champions League. He then backed that up with some impressive displays as Portugal won the Nations League in June and during PSG’s run to the Club World Cup final.

Liverpool’s big-money signing of the summer enjoyed a brilliant final campaign with Bayer Leverkusen, contributing 16 goals and 15 assists as the club finished second in the Bundesliga. He was injured when Bayern Munich knocked them out of the Champions League, and that feels like no coincidence.

No player has won the Ballon d’Or before their 21st birthday in the almost-70 years of the award, but right now it would be a shock if Yamal didn’t break that record given he has another three seasons to get there! There is presently no greater talent in the game than the Barcelona teenager, who, as he showed in 2024-25, is only going to get better and better. He was outscored by two of his team-mates in Catalunya, but plenty of La Liga watchers will tell you that the 18-year-old was the most impressive attacking player in Spain. Coupled with his Champions League showings, which reached outrageous new heights against Inter in the semi-finals, he is now the top Golden Ball candidate within the Barca dressing room.