Ballon d'Or 2025 results leaked? Lamine Yamal, Ousmane Dembele or Raphinha? France Football's chief editor drops MASSIVE HINT

Monday (September 22) is a big day for football lovers across the world as the 2025 Ballon d'Or awards are set to be announced. By 9 pm local time in France, which is roughly 12:30 am in India, the results will be out for all to see. However, like every year, rumours have already stared to float around about who the winner would be. Interestingly, this seems to be the most closely fought Ballon d'Or race in recent years and not surprisingly, the internet is buzzing with multiple theories from netizens.

Ousmane Dembele, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal are the frontrunners to win the award in the men's category although Harry Kane, Mohammad Salah and Declan Rice are also there in the race amongst some other big names. Naturally, the main rumours are revolving around Dembele and Yamal with Raphinha also getting a decent slice of tweets in his favour.

Criteria for selecting the winner

There are three main conditions that a player has to fulfill to emerge as the winner of the Ballon d'Or award for the year. France Football's editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia revealed what they are to the media today (September 22) morning.

1) Individual performances are weighed up, both in terms of statistics and the quality of their impact

2) The number of trophies won for both club and country during the year

3) The player's behaviour both on and off the pitch will be evaluated in equal measure as his performances and silverware

Who seems likely to win?

As things stand, Dembele and Raphinha appear to have an edge because Yamal's behavioural pattern has been a bit and on off during the last 12 months. Also, it won't be wrong to say that both Dembele and Raphinha have a better argument in their favour for being chosen as the winner as opposed to the teenage Spaniard.

Ballon d'Or 2025 nominees

Ousmane Dembele (PSG & France)

Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG & Italy)

Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid & England)

Desire Doue (PSG & France)

Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan & Netherlands)

Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund & Guinea)

Erling Haaland (Man City & Norway)

Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal & Sweden)

Achraf Hakimi (PSG & Morocco)

Harry Kane (Bayern Munich & England)

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG & Georgia)

Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona & Poland)

Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool & Argentina)

Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan & Argentina)

Scott McTominay (Napoli & Scotland)

Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid & France)

Nuno Mendes (PSG & Portugal)

Joao Neves (PSG & Portugal)

Pedri (Barcelona & Spain)

Cole Palmer (Chelsea & England)

Michael Olise (Bayern Munich & France)

Raphinha (Barcelona & Brazil)

Declan Rice (Arsenal & England)

Fabian Ruiz (PSG & Spain)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool & Netherlands)

Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid & Brazil)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)

Florian Wirtz (Liverpool & Germany)

Vitinha (PSG & Portugal)

Lamine Yamal (Barcelona & Spain)