Ballon d’Or 2025: The Shockingly Talented Top Contenders Who Could Steal the Spotlight!

The Ballon d’Or is the biggest individual award in the world of football. This year’s ceremony is scheduled for 22nd September, 2025, which means we are a little bit more than a full month removed from it being awarded to the best player of the past year. The last year winner Rodri is out of contention after missing a full season of football, while the controversial loser of the last year’s edition, Vinicius Jr., is in contention but with slim chances of winning.

While the eventual winner will be decided between two names that have been in the new circles for months now, we’re not here to talk only about those names. We are here to discuss young and upcoming talent that could receive a few votes here and there, and make waves without winning the coveted award. Below you will find top talent in world football which is shortlisted for Ballon d’Or, that could make headlines during this year’s ceremony, but much more during the upcoming season.

Lamine Yamal

If you’ve been trying to bet on top soccer matches with Stake during the past year, the team definitely found its way onto your slips more than a few times. When it did, you’ve been looking for the latest La Masia prodigy Lamine Yamal to make a difference on the field. And boy did he make it. Yamal is the biggest talent in the world of football. The only player of this decade that can proudly carry the moniker of Lionel Messi. Barcelona found a new gem in their backyard and Yamal is one of the top candidates for Ballon d’Or. His nomination is a deserved one, as he was tearing it up for Barcelona both in La Liga and in the Champions League. Not to mention that he is one of the leaders of the Spanish national team at the tender age of 18.

During the season in Spain, Yamal has played in 35 matches, missing only three, contributing with 9 goals and 13 assists. In the Champions League he was instrumental in leading Barcelona to semi finals with 5 goals and 3 assists in 13 duels. While his stats are not through the roof as Lionel Messi’s were once upon a time, if you’ve been looking at Barcelona and Spain national team matches during the past 12 months, you can see that Lamine does much more than it gets recorded on the stats sheet. So, not only that Yamal is one of the top talents in football at the moment, he will have an opportunity to win the coveted Ballon d’Or at only 18 years of age. This would make him a record holder in the age category as the previous youngest winner was the legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo who was 19 when he won it back in 1997.

Florian Wirtz

Remember what we said? It is not about the players who will win it this year. It is about the up and coming talent that will receive a few Ballon d’Or votes this year, but will be the main stay during the award ceremony in years to come. One of the players that fits into this profile is Florian Wirtz. The German international is actually our dark horse to finish in the top three of this year’s voting. Wirtz already took home an offseason win as he completed his move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool in a transfer worth $133 million. The transfer fee and this move come as no surprise when you take a peek at the type of season Florian had during the past 12 months.

Wirtz was the tempo creator in Leverkusen and the player that started it all, and finished most of it. Bayer will have a tough task of replacing him. Yet, when you look at the way they’ve replaced Havertz with Wirtz, it shouldn’t surprise us if they already have a succession plan in place. Back to Wirtz, he played 31 matches for Bayern last year in the Bundesliga scoring 10 goals and contributing with 14 assists. As if that wasn’t enough he was even more clinical in the Champions League. The German played in 9 CL games scoring 6 goals in the process and adding 1 assist.

In the meantime he became one of the main players for the German national team. During their Nations League run, Wirtz played 8 games, scoring 4 and adding 4 assists. As you can see, he was instrumental for his club and national team propelling himself to be the leader on both fronts. It remains to be seen how he will adapt to the challenges of the Premier League, but with only 22 years to his name, he has plenty of time to become one of the team leaders on Merseyside, while remaining in the Ballon d’Or contention for years to come. If you plan on betting on Stake on the winner of the Ballon d’Or, make sure that you place a bet that has Florian Wirtz finishing in the top three. While that would be a surprise, we’re sure the odds are paying well for the risk you’d take.

Ousmane Dembele

While no longer a young player, Dembele has that aura about him where people still see him as a 20 year old tearing it up in Dortmund. It’s been a while since his time in Germany, across the shaky spell in Barcelona, to the path that led Ousmane to Paris. These days, Ousmane Dembele is one of the best players in PSG. A natural Kylian Mbappe replacement no one saw coming. The Frenchman had an amazing year in Paris taking home all available trophies minus the Club World Cup Paris team lost to Chelsea, and having a nice year with the French national team.

After years of trying, PSG has finally won the Champions League and it was all thanks to Dembele. Ousmane has played in 15 games during PSG’s run to the final, scoring 8 goals and adding 6 assists in the process. He also appeared in 4 CWC matches scoring 2 and adding 1 assist. His domestic season was equally impressive. Dembele has managed to score 21 goals and pack 6 assists in only 29 matches. Unlike the first two players we’ve talked about, Ousmane didn’t have a stellar year with the French national team. He played in 7 Nations League duels scoring only 2 goals and adding 1 assist. It is obvious that he plays much better outside of the Mbappe shadow. While the Ballon d’Or race is still open, if he had to make a free super tip, we would place our money on Ousmane Dembele winning the Ballon d’Or for this year.

Kylian Mbappe

There is no arguing that Mbappe is the biggest star of the modern game. His move from PSG to Madrid was a source of a lot of drama. The year of adaptation didn't go all that too well, as Madrid missed out on the biggest trophies of the year. Both fans and pundits are speculating that Kylian is too much of an individual and that his presence is disrupting the team chemistry in Real Madrid the same way it did in PSG. While there might be some truth to it, we are not going to judge a player based on his debut season with a new team and in a new competition. The best part is that Mbappe had a stellar season with RM on an individual basis. Considering that Ballon d’Or is an individual award, there are no reasons not to include Kylian as one of the top contenders.

During the season in La Liga Kylian scored 31 goals in 34 duels giving him the coveted Trofeo Pichichi awarded to the best scorer in La Liga. He was also the leading man for his national team playing 6 Nations League duels contributing with 2 goals and 2 assists. He also had a good European year playing 14 CL duels and adding 7 goals and 2 assists. As we said, Real Madrid missed out on all major trophies this season, but that doesn’t take anything from the individual season Kylian just had. At the end of the day he has quadrupled the number of goals Lamine Yamal scored in La Liga and stats as these are taken into account by the voters, making Mbappe one of the Ballon d’Or candidates, while not a likely winner this year.

Mohamed Salah

Salah is no longer considered a talented footballer. Due to his advanced age he now possesses what we call class. Mo is one of the best football players in the world and he has been proving this year in and year out. Salah has been a talisman for the Liverpool Reds and he has had one of the best individual seasons in recent memory as far as the Premier League goes. The Pharaoh has played in all 38 of Liverpool’s Premier League duels. In addition to being an iron man, he’s also been lethal in front of the goal. The Egyptian has scored 29 league goals. While impressive on its own, what’s even more impressive is his assist tally which stood at 18 for the 2024/25 season.

Salah has been having those 10/10 seasons for almost a decade now with both Liverpool and Roma, but what he came close to this season was the coveted 20/20 year which was only achieved by the legendary Thierry Henry, while the 20 assists tally was only eclipsed by Cesc Fabregas as far as the PL competition goes. Salah was also up to standard in the Champions League playing in 9 Liverpool games scoring 3 goals and adding 4 assists. Considering that the Reds have dropped out of competition by the eventual winners, PSG, not much should be taken from Mo here.

The Pharaoh was also instrumental for the Egyptian national team playing in 6 matches for the World Cup qualifications scoring 6 goals in the process and adding 3 assists too. While the African national teams are often overlooked, this should not be the case with Salah and Egypt as they’ve been playing great, and with 4 matches to go have almost secured the World Cup qualification.

Raphinha

We can say that with Raphinha we have one of the most underrated players in the world. While not your prototypical superstar, Raphinha had a year to remember with Barcelona, and he is deservedly so in the contention for Ballon d’Or. The Brazilian ace has played 36 league matches for Barca scoring 18 goals and adding 9 assists. While this is impressive for a winger, what he did during Barcelona’s Champions League run is even better.

Raphinha has played 14 CL duels, scoring 13 goals and adding 9 assists in the process. These are some stellar stats, and if Raphinha ends up winning the Ballon d’Or we will not be surprised in the slightest. He has also been good for his national team playing in 11 of Brazil’s qualifying games for the World Cup scoring 5 times and having 2 assists. He’s been a consistent force in all games he’s played, and while it wouldn’t be a travesty for Raphinha not to win this year’s Ballon d’Or we just can’t see him staying in contention in years to come, which is not the case with the rest of the names on this list.

If you ask us, these are the players with the most talent, best stats, and a bright future in the Ballon d’Or contention in years to come. For some, such as Salah, Dembele, and Raphinha this might be their last chance of winning it. For Mbappe, Wirtz, and Lamine Yamal the show is only starting. The likes of Cole Palmer, Vitinha, Desire Doue, Lautaro Martinez, and Jude Bellingham some of the following years might prove to be a better chance to get closer.