Mbappe to beat Salah to 2025 Ballon d’Or: Next 12 winners named

Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe will win the 2025 Ballon d’Or, at least according to AI.

Mo Salah is generally considered to be the leading candidate to win the prize this season after an incredible campaign with Liverpool that has so far seen him score 30 goals and lay on 22 more.

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The Reds are set to win the Premier League and are in the last 16 of the Champions League, yet Mbappe is the favourite to lift the prestigious individual prize this season, according to ChatGPT.

Indeed, Real Madrid, who felt wronged as Rodri beat Vinicius Junior to the 2024 prize, are poised to maintain an iron grip on the Ballon d’Or for much of the next decade, it claims.

Following the France star, Vini Jr (2026), Jude Bellingham (2027), Mbappe again (2028) and Endrick (2029) are favoured to take the award back to the Bernabeu.

Indeed, a six-year spell will only be disrupted by Erling Haaland, who is tipped to claim the prize at the end of the 2025/26 campaign as Manchester City get back to their dominant best. The Norway star is also said to be in line to pick up the prize in 2030, with Norway tipped to spring a surprise at the 2030 World Cup.

The next generation takes over

AI believes that a new generation of superstars will only really start to make an impression from 2031.

This is when Lamine Yamal will come into his own, with Florian Wirtz set to follow by winning the prize after a big move to Bayern Munich or the Premier League.

Warren Zaire-Emery is the man to beat in 2033, with Gavi claiming a second success of the decade for Barcelona 12 months later.

Endrick is expected to wrestle back the award for Real Madrid in 2035. Beyond this, AI is unwilling to make any predictions, with as yet unknown talent expected to come to the fore.

The Ballon d’Or, of course, is a very difficult prize to predict, with many variables set to come into play, yet Real Madrid are clearly favourites to be the dominant force in the next 10 years.