Mohamed Salah’s Rivals for the Ballon d’Or 2025 Golden Ball Award – Top Contenders Power Rankings | OneFootball

The 2024 Ballon d’Or Golden Ball award went to Rodri of Manchester City and Spain. He played a key role in 2023/24, both for club and country, contributing to City’s 4th consecutive EPL title and being named the player of the tournament at UEFA Euro 2024.

The award was not without controversy, however, with the Real Madrid delegation failing to make a show at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris. They vetoed it in protest at Vinicius Junior losing out. 6 days before the ceremony, Los Blancos manager Carlo Ancelotti said, “Vinicius Jr WILL win the Ballon d’Or, in my opinion. He will get the award. It’s not about tonight… It’s what he did last season. Tonight’s hat-trick can help his case for the next Ballon d’Or!” However, it was not to be.

But the question on all minds now is who will win the 2025 award? Can Mo Salah pip the others at the post? Let’s take a look at the Top 10 contenders, starting with the man himself.

1. Mohamed Salah – Liverpool

Mo Salah is currently second in the rankings behind Raphinha to win the 2025 Golden Ball award.  But as last year’s Ballon d’Or showed only too well, no bets are ever 100% certain. In terms of club and country (Liverpool and Egypt), Salah’s stats show that in 45 games, he has scored 34 goals and made 22 assists. With 27 and 17 respectively being for Liverpool, he is currently the leading goal scorer and chance creator in the English Premier League.

With this record, Mohamed Salah is a good bet in anyone’s language. But, as nothing is for sure when it comes to sports betting, Kate Richardson can lead you to some free expert betting tips at MightyTips. And once you’ve placed your bet, it might just be the one that turns out to be a good one!

2. Kylian Mbappe – Real Madrid

Our second nominee, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, will always be in contention in any competition. He has yet to win the Ballon d’Or, but surely it’s only a question of time, and 2025 could be his year. At the time of writing, the Frenchman has played 44 matches for Real Madrid and France, scoring 29 goals and notching up 4 assists.

Los Blancos are still in the Champions League and will face Arsenal in the quarterfinals, with the first leg taking place at the Arsenal Stadium on the 8th of April. Who’s the favourite to win over 2 legs?

Right now, the odds favour Arsenal at 5/4, but as we know, Real Madrid has a magnificent Champions League pedigree, and they could go all the way to the UCL final. If they do, there’s plenty of time for Mbappe or one of his teammates listed below to stake their claim for the 2025 Ballon d’Or Golden Ball.

3. Raphinha – FC Barcelona

If Mohamed Salah is to win, the strongest opposition he must overcome is the Barcelona forward Raphinha. After 45 matches played for Barcelona and Brazil, Raphinha has scored 30 goals and logged an impressive 17 assists. With 11 goals in the Champions League so far, he’s the competition’s top goal-scorer and stands an excellent chance of winning this year’s award.

4. Vinicius Junior – Real Madrid

This isn’t the last time you will see a Ballon d’Or nominee from team Real Madrid. When Rodri was awarded the Golden Ball trophy at last year’s ceremony, it came as a shock to many. But that’s what makes betting on this sort of competition so interesting.

Vinicius Jnr’s credentials to claim the prize at Paris this year might not be as strong as they were last year, but having played 42 matches for Los Blancos and the Seleção and scored 19 goals and made 11 assists, there’s no way he can be written out of the betting.

5. Lamine Yamal – FC Barcelona

At 17 years of age, Lamine Yamal is the youngest player listed among this year’s contenders for the Ballon d’Or, and if he wins, he will overtake Ronaldo Nazario, who won it in 1997 at the age of 21 years, 3 months and 5 days. Our new young prodigy plays for Barcelona and Spain and, to date, has taken part in 40 matches overall, scoring 11 goals and rotting up 17 assists, 11 of which were for Barcelona, making him the leading chance-maker in La Liga this season.

If he doesn’t beat Mohamed Salah of Liverpool or Real Madrid’s Raphinha to the trophy, at least he has many years before him to try again.

6. Harry Kane – Bayern Munich

The first of two Bayern Munich players to vie for this year’s Golden Ball award is Harry Kane. Having failed to win any trophies in the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur, Kane transferred to play for Die Roten in the German Bundesliga in August 2023. With 42 matches under his belt at the time of writing, he’s scored 42 goals and has made 10 assists – 8 goals more but 12 lay-ons less than Mo Salah.

At 31 years of age, he’s the top scorer in the Bundesliga this season and joint second-top scorer in the Champions League. Whether he will win in 2025 is anyone’s guess, but he could be a good outside bet.

7. Robert Lewandowski – FC Barcelona

It’s perhaps surprising that with his amazing goal-scoring record, Polish-born Robert Lewandowski has never won the Golden Ball. Along with Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, he has won the Ballon’d’Or Gerd Müller trophy.

At 36 years of age, this could be his last chance, but having played 43 matches for Barca and Poland, scoring 35 goals with 5 set-ups so far this season, it could be his time to lift the award for the Golden Ball. The oldest player to do so to date was Stanley Matthews back in 1956. But, the demands of the game have intensified since then; however, along with Kane, he could be another good outside bet.

8. Jude Bellingham – Real Madrid

Most of the favourites that we think have a chance of lifting the Ballon d’Or Golden Boot have been forwards or strikers. Jude Bellingham, however, is a midfielder and a high-scoring one at that. In 42 matches for Real and England, he has scored 12 goals and laid on 14 assists. He also carries his weight as a defensive midfielder and is in with a chance to win the award at the Paris ceremony.

9. Jamal Musiala – Bayern Munich

From one midfield player to another. So far this season, Jamal Musiala has played 41 games for Bayern Munich and Germany, in which he’s scored 19 goals in all competitions plus 8 set-ups. He’s another young player, not as young as Lamine Yamal, but at 21, he could well be voted the best young player of the tournament.

10. Virgil van Dijk – Liverpool

Virgil van Dijk is neither a forward nor a midfield player. He’s a defender, and if he were to win, and admittedly, it’s more of an outside chance, it would be the first time since 2006 that a defender was voted Player of the Year, but it could happen. Manager of the Reds, Arne Slot, admitted it’s almost impossible to pick a fault with the way van Dijk plays, not only in the English Premier League but in all competitions, saying, “Virgil has a lot of game intelligence. He reads the game very well. He’s big, strong, and fast.”

Concluding Thoughts on our Favourites to win the 2025 Ballon d’Or Golden Boot

Up until 2023, the Ballon d’Or Golden Ball was, for a time, almost the exclusive property of Messi and Ronaldo. However, the Lionel Messi and  Cristiano Ronaldo era is now past, and this year’s trophy is likely to go to one of the players listed above.



Who it will be, we’ll find out later this year, but looking back at the candidates, it’s going to be well worth waiting for.