This is the 69th time the award has been organized by France Football magazine, to honor outstanding individuals, along with the categories of collectives, coaches and social contributions in the 2024-2025 season.
In addition to the Ballon d'Or for men and women, the gala also has many other categories such as the Yashin Trophy, the Best Young Player (Kopa Trophy), the Most Scored Striker (Gerd Muller Trophy), the Best Coach (Johan Cruyff Trophy), the Best Club and the Socrates Award for Social contributions.
This year, three new categories were added to women's football including the Yashin, Gerd Muller and Kopa awards.
Here is a list of the top 10 candidates for the 2025 Ballon d'Or category:
Ousmane Dembele
Paris St-Germain star Ousmane Dembele has directly contributed to 49 goals (35 goals, 14 assists) after 53 appearances for the club from August 2024 to the end of July 2025.
Notably, 14 of those come in the 2024-2025 Champions League - a tournament in which PSG won the championship for the first time.
Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal, who turned 18 last month, leads the top five European national championships in the 2024-25 season in dribbling and finishing (56) and creating chances (35).
He also successfully made 161 dribbles - 54 times more than the one behind him, a distance far superior to any other player in Europe.
Vitinha
Vitinha is the player who made the most defensive passes within 4m when being approached by the opponent in the 2024-2025 Champions League, with a total of 137 times.
Raphinha
From August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025, among the players in the top 5 European national championships, only Mohamed Salah (57) has made his mark on more goals than Raphinha (56 - including 34 goals and 22 assists) in all competitions.
The Brazilian star also equalizes Cristiano Ronaldo's record of 21 goals in a Champions League season, and is only one assist behind Luis Figo's record of 9 assists in a season.
Pedri
Pedri is the player who has made the most defensive passes under pressure from opponents in the 2024-2025 Champions League, with 11 times.
The Barcelona midfielder also leads the top 5 European national championships in passes that open up the opportunity to finish, reaching 58 times in the 2024-2025 season.
Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian's contribution to Liverpool's Premier League title in the 2024-2025 season is huge. He won the Golden Boot and Premier League Assists Award after scoring 29 goals and providing 18 assists in the tournament.
Kylian Mbappe
Some were skeptical about Kylian Mbappe in his first season at Real Madrid, but the French striker quickly responded.
The French international scored more goals than any other player in Europe's top five leagues last season, with 31 goals. Mbappe also leads the list of goalscorers who do not count penalties, equal to Robert Lewandowski.
Lautaro Martinez
The Argentine striker scored nine goals in the Champions League last season - a tally of Inter Milan's record for a Champions League/EU Cup in the European Cup - established by Hernan Crespo in 2002-2003.
Robert Lewandowski
No player has scored more goals (excluding penalties) than Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski (44) in Europe's top five leagues last season, equal to Mbappe.
This is an impressive achievement at the age of 36 for the Polish striker. In La Liga 2024-2025, only Alexander Sorloth has an impressive scoring efficiency than Lewy, with an average of 93.5 minutes/goal.
Nuno Mendes
The dynamic left-back of PSG was the player who won the most challenges in the Champions League last season (119), and ranked second in terms of tackles (48) and interceptions (23).
The Ballon d'Or was selected based on 3 criteria: individual performance, collective achievement and fair-play spirit.
The selection council includes 100 journalists from 100 countries to top the FIFA rankings (men) and 50 journalists from 50 leading countries (women). Each journalist will choose 10 players, scoring from 15 to 1. The person with the highest total score will win the prize.
