The Ballon d'Or 2025 power rankings are already here, with the drama of the 2024 edition fresh in our minds.
While the players involved in 2024’s Ballon d’Or ceremony were still recovering from the night’s celebrations, the bookies were already projecting the likely winners of the 2025 edition.
One notable absentee at the event was runner-up Vinicius Jr, along with anyone else connected with Real Madrid, for that matter, having been pre-warned that the winger was going to be snubbed for the main prize. It seems unlikely, however, that the Brazil international will have Rodri to contend with next time around – the latter having suffered a season-ending ACL injury early in the 2024/25 campaign.
But lurking ominously below Vini in this year’s rankings were the likes of plucky youngster Lamine Yamal, Madrid team-mate Jude Bellingham and the goal-hungry duo of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
Can Vini Jr exact revenge next time around? Will he even turn up if he does? Here are our current Ballon d’Or 2025 power rankings, along with the bookies’ odds.
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Ballon d’Or 2025 power ranking: the bookies’ odds for the award
All odds from William Hill.
1. Vinicius Junior (7/2)
Sure enough, the number crunchers at William Hill believe that Vini Jr will move into top spot at next year’s awards, so long as pesky football politics don’t get in the way again — right, Camavinga?
Next year’s award will be based solely on what happens this season and, with 15 goal involvements in his first 15 games of this season, the wideman’s not started badly.
Despite this being an individual award, and Vinicius making a strong start, team success undoubtedly plays a part, and the modern-day Galacticos seem to still be finding their feet somewhat. With no major men’s international tournaments this coming summer, a lot could rest on how his fellow Madridistas perform.
2. Erling Haaland (9/2)
Based on his first-season exploits with Manchester City, you’d be forgiven for thinking Erling Haaland might have climbed higher than fifth in the 2024 BDO rankings after his second season.
It’s difficult to shake the feeling that the towering striker’s Norwegian passport somewhat hampers him in a competition like this: he has a much smaller international stage to stamp memorable moments onto.
No such worries this year, and you can guarantee there will be a hatful of Haaland goals from this season to peruse 12 months down the line. He’ll be up there somewhere.
3. Kylian Mbappe
If Haaland has struggled for attention on the international stage, you could say the reverse has been true of Kylian Mbappe in previous seasons, shouting for attention in Ligue 1 before creating history with France at international level.
This year, in the cauldron of the Bernabeu, surrounded by names you expect you’ll still be mithering your grandkids about decades into the future, Mbappe finds his time to prove how truly great he is.
Fitting so many superstars into one team of 11 has proved a headache for manager Carlo Ancelotti, and one of Mbappe’s most memorable Madrid moments in a white shirt so far has been his endless offsides in a 4-0 drubbing by Barcelona, but there’s still plenty of football to be played yet.
4. Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal is still an adolescent, and won’t reach adulthood until after the curtains have closed on the 2024/25 season, but he is already operating at the very highest echelons of the men’s game.
We hadn’t even reached November before Yamal had made the Bernabeu his personal dancefloor in Barca’s convincing La Liga win and won the Kopa Trophy at France Football's extravaganza.
His spellbinding trickery, nonchalant control of the ball and eye for goal creation make him a box-office watch. La Masia may just have churned out another superstar.
5. Jude Bellingham
Taking the weight of expectation at Madrid in his stride, clinching a Champions League and La Liga double in his first season and scoring the most unlikely of overhead kicks to keep England at Euro 2024; it feels like Spain probably snatched the Ballon d’Or and the Henri Delaunay Cup from Bellingham in one swipe in Berlin back in July.
The 21-year-old has a job on his hands reproducing a similar season to his 2023/24 efforts, never mind going one step further, but he’s likely to feature prominently in these conversations for years to come.
In any case, he might be best placed sticking with the chasing pack, or else risk facing the wrath of a crestfallen Vini Jr in training the next day.
The others…
If Rodri's win proves anything, it's that players can emerge from nowhere to scoop this award.
Barcelona's Clasico thrashing of Real has put two more Blaugrana stars in the reckoning for a BDO, in the form of Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha. You can get a 12/1 on the Pole to get his long-awaited award after being cruelled snubbed twice, while Raphinha is 33/1 following his hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, with bookies seemingly confident that he could in fact repeat the feat deeper in the competition.
Bellingham coming third in the 2024 standings is a best for England since the days of the Golden Generation – and there are other Three Lions stars up for the 2025 orb. Harry Kane is 16/1 to upgrade on his Gerd Muller Trophy from the ceremony in 2024, while Cole Palmer and Phil Foden are 25/1 and 26/1 respectively.
Premier League leaders Liverpool are represented in the stakes, too. Mohamed Salah is 25/1 to become the first African since George Weah to win the Ballon d'Or, 30 years after the Liberian.
