On Monday, September 22, 2025, the 69th annual Ballon’d’Or ceremony took place in Paris, France, and we saw who would take the prestigious award and the title of best player of the season. First, let’s talk about how to win this prestigious award. To win, you have to have exceptional performances in the previous soccer season, you have to win significant trophies with your team, and you have to have exceptional sportsmanship on and off the pitch. Now, let’s talk about the winner of this prestigious award. He is the player who was a flop at Barcelona a few years ago, and one of the reasons for PSG’s amazing five title winning season: Osuamane Dembele. He was the rightful winner, as he had a fantastic season with thirty four goals and thirteen assists across all competitions for club and country this year. Besides that, his crucial role to PSG’s success also put him at the rightful spot to receive this award. Even though he won second place, Lamine Yamal is in some controversy for getting second place,, as his season stats consisted of eighteen goals and twenty one assists across all competitions with Barcelona. He also won the Super Cup, the Copa del Ray, and the LaLiga title. The person who got 5th place, and who some people say should have gotten second place, is Lamine Yamal’s teammate Raphinia, who won the same amount of trophies, but had a thirty-nine goal season and twenty-two assist season across all competitions with Barcelona. The biggest surprise was the rankings of the nominees, which follows:

30th: Michael Olise

29th: Florian Writz

28th: Virgil Van Dijk

27th: Declain Rice

26th: Erling Halland

25th: Denzel Dumfries

24th: Fabian Ruiz

23th: Jude Bellingham

22th: Alexis Mac Allister

21st: Serhou Guirassy

20th: Lautaro Martinez

19th: Joao Neves

18th: Scoot Mctominay

17th: Robert Lewandowski

16th: Vinicius Junior

15th:Viktor Gyokeres

14th: Desire Doue

13th: Harry Kane

12th: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

11th: Pedri

10th: Nuno Mendes

9th: Gianluigi Donarumma

8th:Cole Palmer

7th: Kylian Mbappe

6th: Archaf Hakimi

5th: Raphinia

4th: Mohammed Salah

3rd: Vitinha

2nd: Lamine Yamal

1st: Ousamane Dembele

Even though these seem like solid rankings, some have been upsetting, such as Michael Olise coming in 30th, Virgil Van Dijk ranking 28th, Pedri getting 11th, and finally, Raphinia in 5th. Let’s start first with Michael Olise at 30th. The reason for this placement is because even though he only had a nineteen goal, nineteen assist season, he created absolute magic on the field that should have deserved him higher ranking. The second one is Virgil Van Dijk coming in at 28th place. Even though he doesn’t score much, he was the brains of his team and one of the best defenders in this past Premier League season. The next one is Pedri placing 11th. Pedri is regarded as the best midfielder in the world, and he was the brains to Barcelona’s amazing season. Not only that, but he still had a good season with six goals, and eight assists at Barcelona, and one goal and two assists for Spain. Last but not least, the most controversial on the list is Raphinia, who ranked 5th. Not only did he have a great season with thirty-eight goals and twenty-three assists for club and country, but he also had a crazy redemption arc after his horrible stats last season, and was also considered a horrible player and a flop, signing at Barcelona only a few years ago.