Ballon d’Or Power Rankings: Why Mohamed Salah deserves the individual prize over Ousmane Dembele or Raphinha

The European club season is ready and, unless you happen to be particularly exuberant about the importance of the club World Cup (you should not be), there is nothing more that the best players on the planet can do to earn themselves the balloon d’Or. On September 22 they will have their answer about who is expected to have had the best season. Between now and then that leaves enough time to debate.

And that can be very nice. Of course, the biggest prizes must be in team sports and are those who are won by the collective, but the assessment of whom the best football player has been on the planet in a certain season is hardly an exercise that merits misses.

This year of all years it promises to be all the more fun: there is no clear lock for the price as there in most years of Lionel Messi’s Pomp. At the beginning of 2025 it seemed like there could be with Mohamed Salah so imperious. At that time, few could have proposed the rapid rise of Paris Saint-Germain from the outskirts of Champions League set on the best side in Europe, so that Star Forward Ousmane Dembele is hard to win this prize.

Not that we will try to predict who wants the balloon d’Or. If you want to get an idea, check the opportunities. In total, it is more interesting who should win. What will that decide? Output is especially important and in view of the fact that the most valuable thing is on a football field to get the ball in the net, it is fair to say that this will be weighed heavily on those who let that happen by scoring or creating. Stopping the other team scores still has a lot, but perhaps in this season with a stunning output from Elite Forwards we will not watch another Fabio Cannavarro.

Although we do not want to dive deep into rings, it does matter that goals, assists and clean sheets lead to winning the biggest prizes. After all, the second criterion of Ballon d’Or is how a player contributes to “team performance and performance”. There will always be a balance to be hit between the team, the individual and even the third criterion of “class and fair play”; This is more art than science, although that is not an excuse for not applying a reasonable part of the latter to things.

Finally in this phase of the season it will be the raw output that mainly counts. When we follow the 2026 opportunities in season early in the season, their XG and per 90 statistics will give us an idea of ​​what could be to come for the rest of the season. However, before 2025 we know almost everything we can do. So here is how the contenders shake.

1. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool (+900)

Prior to this season, only two players in the Premier League history had registered 47 targeted involvement in the course of a season. Both needed 42 game campaigns to do it. Not Salah, who was able to illuminate the finish line and still match that record, ended his season as a whole with 34 goals and 23 assists. Liverpool’s early exit from the Champions League should not be kept against him, not when he has driven a non -annulated Liverpool to the most competitive competition of Europe in a canter.

2. Rephinha, Barcelona (+1000)

What a story this would be. At the start of this season, the Barcelona hierarchy did everything to get rid of Raphinha, nine months later he was the star of their title Triumph. The Brazilian was even better in the Champions League and corresponded to the target record of Cristiano Ronaldo with 21. If he had won it, it would probably have been enough to get him first.

3. Ousmane Dembele, PSG (-200)

The case for Dembele is fairly simple. His flourishing in one of the world’s best center striker was the biggest factor to become PSG a side that was able to win the Champions League. And he was brilliant who led the border and delivered some of his very best versions in the largest matches of the season. It is just the two above him it did it for a whole year in more competing domestic environments.

4. KHVICA KVARATSKHELIA, PSG (+1600)

The top three probably belongs in its own layer; From now on we rank players who are not entirely at Ballon d’Or level, but have been brilliant. Kvaratskhelia is certainly one of that, the other major change in PSG halfway through the season, making them a super team. The pure output is nothing on the players around him, but Kvaratskhelia brings his team to score positions and delivers with Elan.

5th Pedri, Barcelona (+3300)

The excellent midfielder of the season, and I don’t say it alone. “A player like Pedri is more important than Lamine Yamal, Raphinha or Lewandowski,” Toni Kroos said last month, before labeling him “the best in the world in his position.” His ball progression statistics were usually excellent, but it was in his full drive connection to tackle and intercepted that the 22-year-old many surprised.

6. Lamine Yama, Barcelona (+275)

In Pure Outputtermen, Yamal is a hair of the top three with 39 targeted involvement in his name. That is downright incredible for every player, let alone a 17 -year -old, but it is the narrative power to do what he did in the semi -final of the Champions League that has him as one of the favorites. On his current process it is a matter of when, not if, he becomes a member of that selected group.

7. Achraf Hakimi, PSG (+5000)

There is enough of PSG who earns a place around the top 10, but Hakimi aims for two reasons. First, his dynamics and backwards characterize the qualities on the side of Luis Enrique. Then there are the goals in the quarters, half and final. That all counts.

8. Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid (+3300)

A case could be made that the presence of Mbappe Real Madrid so destabilized to disqualify him from the Ballon d’Or list. Similarly, the integration of a new signing was not the only reason that Los Merengues, destroyed by defensive injuries, was struggling. They may have struggled more without the 42 goals of Mbappe.

9. Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool (+10000)

Van Dijk has been downright excellent this season and what he might have lost in half a meter of pace was more than made up for with the qualities he has developed on the ball in recent years.

10. Harry Kane, Bayern Munich (+10000)

This is fairly simple. Kane is second in Europe’s Big Five Leagues for target contributions in almost 1,000 fewer minutes than Salah. Even at 31 he delivers League-in-law and top 10 assists, now with trophies to go with it.