Dembele 1st, Yamal 2nd: The Ballon d’Or Top 30 in full

Tom Weber

• Updated: 23 Sep 2025 08:11 CDT
• 4 min read

News

The 2025 Ballon d'Or ceremony took place on 22 September in Paris, with Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele winning the prestigious trophy for the first time.

The France international dethroned Manchester City midfielder Rodri, who had won the 2024 edition over Vinicius Jr. It caused such a stir that Real Madrid boycotted the 2024 and 2025 ceremonies.

Dembele won the award after firing PSG to a historic treble that saw them become only the second-ever French team to win the Champions League.

Lamine Yamal, who won the Kopa Trophy for the second year running, finished as runner-up. Dembele's teammate Vitinha came third, but he was not able to attend the ceremony because PSG were playing Marseille in Le Classique.

Below, FootballTransfers lists the entire men's and women's top 30 ranking of the 2025 Ballon d'Or...

2025 Ballon d'Or ranking

The ceremony officially started at 9:00 pm CET, although France Football already revealed most of the rankings in the top 30 beforehand.

2024 runner-up Vinicius Jr only came 16th after last year's snub, which subsequently saw a significant drop in form from the Brazilian. Real Madrid as a club endured a poor 2024/25 campaign.

Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool, on the other hand, featured prominently. Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah made the list, while new signing Florian Wirtz was also present after a good season with Bayer Leverkusen.

Man City striker Erling Haaland had a somewhat disappointing season by his incredibly high standards and only came 26th.

Champions League winners Fabian Ruiz, Desire Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Nuno Mendes and Gianluigi Donnarumma unsurprisingly made the top 30 alongside Dembele and Vitinha.

Former Man Utd midfielder Scott McTominay reached an impressive 18th place after inspiring Napoli to the Serie A title.

On the women's side, reigning European champions Arsenal were naturally well represented, with Steph Catley, Frida Maanum, Emily Fox, Chloe Kelly, Leah Williamson, Alessia Russo and runner-up Mariona Caldentey.

Perennial WSL champions Chelsea also had several players in the top 30. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Sandy Baltimore, Hannah Hampton and Lucy Bronze all featured.

Despite their shock loss to Arsenal in the UWCL final, Spanish champions Barcelona also took up a dominant position in the list. Superstar midfielder Aitana Bonmati won the award for the third year in a row.