Vinicius 16th, Haaland 26th: The Ballon d’Or Top 30 IN FULL

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony is only a few hours away, and the first names on the prestigious 30-player list are being revealed.

Man City midfielder Rodri is the reigning Ballon d’Or holder after surprisingly beating Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr to the award in 2024. It caused such a stir that Los Blancos boycotted last year’s ceremony, and all of their players will also be absent again this year.

The 2024 edition officially ended the era of dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with neither expected to claim football’s biggest individual award ever again.

The favourites for the 2025 Ballon d’Or are Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Mohamed Salah.

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 will officially start at 9:00 pm CET, but France Football has already started revealing most of the names in the top 30, with the rankings of Erling Haaland, Vinicius Jr and Declan Rice now known.

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

Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool, on the other hand, feature prominently among the names already revealed. Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister have made the list, while new signing Florian Wirtz is 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 comes 26th.

Champions League winners Fabian Ruiz, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia have unsurprisingly made the top 30.

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

On the women’s side, reigning European champions Arsenal are naturally well represented, with Steph Catley, Frida Maanum and Emily Fox revealed so far.

Perennial WSL champions Chelsea also have several players in the top 30. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Sandy Baltimore will certainly be joined by higher-ranking teammates.

Despite their shock loss to Arsenal in the UWCL final, Spanish champions Barcelona also take up a dominant position in this list. Two-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati is again a favourite for the award.

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