After being touted as one of the most wide open Ballon d’Or races of the past two decades, the event on Monday night ended up being somewhat of a procession. In front of an expectant crowd, Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele became the first French player to win the award while playing in Ligue 1 since Jean Pierre-Papin in 1991.
Softfootball reported that the Frenchman finished just ahead of teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, who continues to wow the world with his talents on the wing for both Barcelona and Spain, while another PSG player, Vitinha, capped a remarkable rise to prominence by taking the third spot on the list, and PSG celebrated both their stars.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward was the favorite to win the award for the first time and did just that, with the Frenchman presented the award by Ronaldinho in Paris and was well celebrated by the club as seen on their X handle. The France international was widely regarded as the best player on the best team in Europe last season, with Dembele scoring 35 times during Paris Saint-Germain’s historic treble triumph.
Vitinha was third and Mohamed Salah came fourth, as the wait for the first Premier League winner since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008. Cole Palmer in eighth was the highest-ranked English player in the voting, with Harry Kane perhaps unfortunate to only be 13th having scored more than 40 goals for Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
In his first time making the 30-man shortlist, Scott McTominay came 18th in the voting. That was two places behind Vinicius Jr, who narrowly missed out on winning the Ballon d’Or last year to Rodri. Jude Bellingham and Alexis Mac Allister both finished just outside the top 20, as did Fabian Ruiz despite winning the Champions League with PSG.
By his lofty standards it was a quiet season for Erling Haaland, even if he did still manage 34 goals in all competitions. Manchester City’s struggles in the Premier League and Champions League mean the striker has to settle for 26th in the Ballon d’Or race this year.
Michael Olise came 30th in his first time making the final shortlist for the award, while Liverpool duo Florian Wirtz and Virgil van Dijk finished 29th and 28th respectively, but how did the rest of the 30-man shortlist fared when all the votes were counted? Check out the official rankings below:
Ballon d’Or 2025 rankings in full
30th: Michael Olise
29th: Florian Wirtz
28th: Virgil van Dijk
27th: Declan Rice
26th: Erling Haaland
25th: Denzel Dumfries
24th: Fabian Ruiz
23rd: Jude Bellingham
22nd: Alexis Mac Allister
21st: Serhou Guirassy
20th: Lautaro Martinez
19th: Joao Neves
18th: Scott McTominay
17th: Robert Lewandowski
16th: Vinicius Jr
15th: Viktor Gyokeres
14th: Desire Doue
13th: Harry Kane
12th: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
11th: Pedri
10th: Nuno Mendes
9th: Gianluigi Donnarumma
8th: Cole Palmer
7th: Kylian Mbappe
6th: Achraf Hakimi
5th: Raphinha
4th: Mohamed Salah
3rd: Vitinha
2nd: Lamine Yamal
1st: Ousmane Dembele
Real Madrid made headlines for boycotting last year’s ceremony after news of Rodri’s triumph leaked on the day of the ceremony. Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe were nominated for Los Blancos this time around but did not show up for the Award.
