2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings: Barcelona trio gunning for Rodri’s crown
Rodri has won the Ballon d’Or after an exceptional 2024 for Manchester City and Spain, becoming only the third player not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to claim France Football’s prestigious golden ball since 2007.
But who will follow in Rodri’s footsteps next year? We know for certain that the midfielder won’t be retaining the honour, given his recent ACL injury will keep him out of action until next season.
With one eye on the season so far, and another eye on how we realistically expect things to play out from here, here’s our early edition of the 2025 Ballon d’Or power rankings. Keep checking back as we’ll be keeping this one updated throughout the campaign.
10. Emiliano Martinez
As is customary, let’s kick things off with a wildcard.
Will Emi Martinez win the Ballon d’Or in 2025? Almost certainly not, no. But then again no more than a few players are ever going to realistically challenge, so why not give 10th place to a rank outsider?
You might quibble with going for Martinez over players who have stood out considerably more so far this season, such as Cole Palmer.
But with no Champions League (or even Europa League) football and no major international tournament, the Chelsea star would have to do something outrageously extraordinary in the Premier League.
Martinez, on the other hand, has the platform. Aston Villa are practically through to the Champions League knockout stages already, and with three wins (and three clean sheets) so far they look increasingly likely to skip the play-off round.
Should Unai Emery’s men complete a historic fairytale, it’s difficult to look beyond their goalkeeper as the headline-grabber.
There are legitimate questions over whether Martinez is one of the best ‘keepers in the world on a week-to-week basis, but he’s got a Drogba-esque aura when it comes to finals and big occasions.
Ifs don’t come much bigger, admittedly.
9. Kylian Mbappe
As with Martinez, this one is less about what has been and more about speculating what will be. Except this one’s much more realistic.
Having produced a piece of performance art – An Ode To Being Offside – in his first cataclysmically disappointing first Clasico, Mbappe has otherwise made a decent, if not spectacular, start to life at the Bernabeu.
But we’re not including similarly decent Chris Wood, Ayoze Perez, Bryan Mbeumo or Christian Pulisic here, are we?
The Ballon d’Or is as much about PR, status and politics as it is about performances. And as Los Blancos’ most high-profile Galactico signing since Cristiano Ronaldo, Mbappe possesses that x factor.
And let’s be honest, it’s early days. There’s every chance his debut season with Real Madrid goes on to be a great success.
He’s proven himself a stupendously effective attacker over the years and we wouldn’t bet against him making himself decisive in the all-important latter Champions League stages.
8. Virgil Van Dijk
Runner-up in 2019 after his rock-solid performances in Liverpool’s Champions League victory, that ship might well have sailed for Van Dijk.
No centre-back has won the Ballon d’Or since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, but Rodri’s win has shown that the Ballon d’Or voting panel are open to a profile of player who’s not a glitzy attacker.
And Arne Slot’s Liverpool look more risk-averse and patient than Klopp’s Liverpool. That accentuates Van Dijk’s qualities, reminding us he’s still arguably the best player in his position in world football.
The Reds have made an excellent start on all fronts, and should they go on and win major silverware he’ll have a very strong case. Honourable mention for Mohamed Salah, too.
7. Harry Kane
Kane picked up the 2024 Gerd Muller Trophy, shared with Mbappe, for the player with the most goals last season – 52 for club and country.
Surprisingly enough, no player has claimed both the Ballon d’Or and that award since it was introduced by France Football in 2021, but there’s a rich history of the European Golden Shoe winner – from Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo to Karim Benzema – doing so.
With 14 goals in just 11 matches for Bayern so far this season, we’d expect Kane to challenge once again. And surely 2025 will be the year his trophy curse is finally put to bed?
6. Bukayo Saka
Mikel Arteta has built an excellent Arsenal team, but it’s becoming increasingly clear who their standout individual is.
Saka has been consistently quality for club and country for years now, admittedly with a question mark or two over whether he ever quite reached the level of Europe’s absolute elite.
But those questions are becoming quieter as Hale End’s finest continues to get better and better and better.
The 23-year-old looks as though he belongs on the biggest European stages and has made several key contributions – seven assists, three goals – amid an otherwise awkward and injury-hit start to their 2024-25 Premier League title tilt.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name all 30 male nominees for the 2024 Ballon d’Or?
5. Raphinha
Who (apart from Leeds United fans) would have expected to see Raphinha up here?
The forward was okay in his first two seasons at Barcelona under Xavi, but he was certainly not the all-action Brazilian superstar he looks right now.
Raphinha is a player transformed under Hansi Flick, one of the leading lights of this irresistibly exciting new-look Barca side.
“I’ve never had a player like Raphinha in any of my teams. He gives his all. He puts his heart into it,” Flick said recently.
Not only is there the graft and intensity, but Raphinha has added end product too. Seven assists and 10 goals, including a hat-trick against Bayern and the one that capped off the 4-0 Clasico rout.
Were we talking entirely on the merit of the season so far, we’d be tempted to put Raphinha top. He genuinely might be the best player in Europe on present form. Keep it up for the entire campaign and there’ll be serious conversations.
4. Vinicius Junior
“I’ll do it 10x if I have to. They’re not ready,” Vini posted on Twitter after finishing runner-up to Rodri this year.
Let’s see. But his first Champions League hat-trick against Borussia Dortmund suggests he’s more than capable of bettering his excellent 2023-24.
QUIZ: Can you name every male runner-up in the history of the Ballon d’Or?
3. Erling Haaland
Having scored 52 goals in Manchester City’s 2022-23 treble-winning campaign, there’s a sense of Haaland being owed one. He was a tad unfortunate that year coincided with Lionel Messi’s career-capping 2022 World Cup triumph.
Without the current Ballon d’Or holder pulling the strings, if City are to enjoy success this year you imagine it’ll likely have more to do with Haaland bludgeoning the opposition (14 goals already) than the usual stifling control in midfield.
A non-tournament year will help Haaland’s cause too, given Norway’s struggles.
2. Lamine Yamal
Tremendously exciting in his breakthrough season at Barcelona as a 16-year-old, Yamal’s ascent has been as astonishing as it is rapid. He turned 17 years old just days before the Euro 2024 final and was one of the best players at the tournament, by any measure, regardless of age.
And now he’s continued that form into the 2024-25 campaign. There were serious questions over whether cash-strapped Barcelona would be able to compete with this new generation of Real Madrid Galacticos, but it turns out they didn’t need to buy one of the greatest talents in the world – just like Lionel Messi, he’s straight out of La Masia and they’ve developed him themselves.
Yamal’s devastatingly good finish to make it 3-0 in Barca’s Clasico mauling was yet another reminder of what we’re dealing with. When was the last time you saw a 17-year-old this good?
1. Robert Lewandowski
The third Barcelona player in our top five and completing their unstoppable front three – who are putting up numbers comparable to peak Messi, Neymar and Suarez – it’s the spearhead of their attack.
Robbed of a rightful Ballon d’Or when it was cancelled in 2020 – the year he fired Bayern to a treble with 55 goals in all competitions – there is surely no player of this generation more deserving of a golden ball.
He recently surpassed Gerd Muller to become the third all-time top goalscorer in Europe’s five major leagues, behind only Messi and Ronaldo.
Forget sentiment or a lifetime achievement charity award, Lewandowski remains one of Europe’s very finest players at the age of 36.
His game-changing brace in the Clasico takes his tally to 17 in all competitions, and he’s currently leading the European Golden Shoe race with 14 in La Liga.
Poland’s all-time top goalscorer may not be as mobile as he once was, but his intelligent movement and reading of the game works wonderfully as a foil for the legs around him.
Written off last season, Flick is once again getting the very best out of Lewandowski again.