So, I'm a bit late and I know people haven't been super interested in it, but the ballon d'or 2025 have been awarded. I'm very curious to hear you guys thought about it.

Here the top 10:

1. Ousmane Dembélé
2. Lamine Yamal
3. Vitinha
4. Mohamed Salah
5. Raphinha
6. Achraf Hakimi
7. Kylian Mbappé
8. Cole Palmer
9. Gianluigi Donnarumma
10. Nuno Mendes

My own thought is that Raphinha suffered terribly from the Spanish propaganda to get Yamal his ballon d'or. I mean, for me Raphina hasn't been less important than Yamal for Barcelona and he got way better stat. Of course, I agree Yamal is propably more talented overall but in term for importance and perfomance, he shouldn't be over Raphina.

As for Dembele, I think its deserved, best player in the team that won the CL, that make sense. Still think his situation this year was very similar to Vinicius last year so some might say the brazilian was hard done by how thing went last season.

Yamal shouldn't even be top 3 imo, but it's just media trophy

@quikzyyy For sure, media propaganda is a big part of these award nowaday and its dissapointing to see.

To be fair, the "official" criteria are pretty unclear and doesn't help much:

 Individual performances, decisive and impressive character;
 Team performances and achievements;

Class and fair play.

I mean, decisive and impressive character can be very different, player that dribble lots of players can look very impressive and talented but if they fail to be as decisive as their team-mates, for me, they shouldn't be as higher rated.

As for class and fair play, they are things that doesn't really affect play on the field so while I agree its serve as good example for the younger generation to have player who respect the spirit of the game as winner but for me it shouldn't be considering one of the main criteria for this award.

I honestly starting to think they should just get an award for the players with the best stat, assist and goal combined at this point.

The fact that Kane isn't even Top 10 despite record-breaking seasons at Bayern is wild to me. He's the best striker in the world.

My favorite was Vitinha, but I’m still glad Dembélé got it.

I think Yamal was carried to top 3 through hype.