All you need to know about the 2025 Ballon d’Or award ceremony – When is it, where is it and who are the favourites to win it?

Anticipation has been building throughout the summer and now with the transfer window shut, all attention turns back to the most famous individual football award.

After a season of incredible footballing action across the world, it is time to look back and remember an amazing 12 months.

So, without further ado, we have all the information you could need about the much-lauded 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony.

Quite simply, the Ballon d’Or is the World Cup of individual football awards – there is no greater individual accolade in the sport.

The award has been hosted by France Football since 1956 for men, and the Ballon d’Or Feminin was first introduced in 2018.

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony will be the 69th edition of the awards as there was no award handed out in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ballon d’Or translates to “golden ball”, which refers to the trophy being made of gold and shaped like a football.

The 2025 Ballon d’Or award ceremony will once again be held at the stunning Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, on Monday, September 22.

Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo Nazario, Alfredo di Stefano, Kevin Keegan and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have won two Ballon d’Or awards each.

Englishman Stanley Matthews won the first ever Ballon d’Or in 1956, while Michael Owen is the most recent English winner, taking home the 2001 prize.

Spaniards Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas have both won two Ballon d’Or Feminin awards each.

Norwegian Ada Hegerberg won the first edition of the Ballon d’Or Feminin in 2018.

There has been no English winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin thus far, but Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead both came second, in the 2019 and 2022 editions respectively.

On August 7, 30 nominees were announced for both the Ballon d’Or and the Ballon d’Or Feminin.

These were chosen by a committee, made up of journalists from France Football and L’Equipe.

• Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid and England)
• Ousmane Dembele (PSG and France)
• Gianluigi Donnarumma (psg* and itally)
• Desire DOUE (PSG and France)
• Denzel Dumfries (Inter and Netherlands)
• Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund and Guinea)
• Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting CP* and Sweden)
• Erling Haaland (Manchester City and Norway)
• Achraf Hakimi (PSG and Morocco)
• Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England)
• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG and Georgia)
• Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona and Poland)
• Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool and Argentina)
• Lautaro Martinez (Inter and Argentina)
• Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France)
• Scott McTominay (Napoli and Scotland)
• Nuno Mendes (PSG and Portugal)
• Joao Neves (PSG and Portugal)
• Michael Olise (Bayern Munich and France)
• Cole Palmer (Chelsea and England)
• Pedri (Barcelona and Spain)
• Raphinha (Barcelona and Brazil)
• Declan Rice (Arsenal and England)
• Fabian Ruiz (PSG and Spain)
• Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
• Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool and Netherlands)
• Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid and Brazil)
• Vitinha (PSG and Portugal)
• Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen* and Germany)
• Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)

BALLON D’OR FEMININ NOMINEES

• Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea and France)
• Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride and Zambia)
• Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona and Spain)
• Lucy Bronze (Chelsea and England)
• Klara Buhl (Bayern Munich and Germany)
• Mariona Caldentey (Barcelona* And Spain)
• Sofia Cantore (Juventus* and Italy)
• Steph Catley (Arsenal and Australia)
• Comwa (Kansas City Current and Mali)
• Melchie Dumornay (Lyon and Haiti)
• Emily Fox (Arsenal and USA)
• Christian Roses (Juventus And Italy)
• Esther Gonzalez (Gotham FC and Spain)
• Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona and Norway)
• Patri Guijarro (Barcelona and Spain)
• Amanda Gutierres (Palmeiras and Brazil)
• Hannah Hampton (Chelsea and England)
• Pernille Harder (Bavaria Munich and Denmark)
• Lindsey Heaps (Lyon and USA)
• Chloe Kelly (Arsenal and England)
• Marta (Orlando Pride and Brazil)
• Frida Leonhardsen Maanum (Arsenal and Norway)
• Clara Mateo (Paris FC and France)
• Ewa Pajor (Barcelona and Poland)
• Claudia Pina (Barcelona and Spain)
• Alexia Whores (Barcelona and Spain)
• Alessia Russo (Arsenal and England)
• Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (Chelsea and Sweden)
• Caroline Weir (Real Madrid and Scotland)
• Leah Williamson (Arsenal and England)

*Denotes the player has since moved clubs

Ousmane Dembele is widely regarded as the overwhelming favourite to take the award after a season which saw him hit 35 goals and 16 assists in 58 matches in all competitions in a season that saw Paris Saint-Germain claim the Treble and reach the Club World Cup final.

His main rivals for the award are Barcelona wingers Lamine Yamal and Raphinha as well as PSG team-mate Vitinha.

Aitana Bonmati is among the favourites to take her third consecutive award but she will face stiff competition from English pair Alessia Russo and Chloe Kelly after their Euros and Champions League double, as well as Spanish team-mates Mariona Caldentey and Alexia Putellas.

As the 30 nominees have already been selected by the committee, votes will only be possible for the 30 selected players on the men’s side and on the women’s side.

One football journalist from each of the top 100 FIFA-ranked nations will cast a vote for their top 10 men’s and women’s players.

There is then a points system, which is tallied up and used to work out the winner of the Ballon d’Or.

The points are awarded as follows:

• First place: 15 points
• Second place: 12 points
• Third place: 10 points
• Fourth place: 8 points
• Fifth place: 7 points
• Sixth place: 5 points
• Seventh place: 4 points
• Eighth place: 3 points
• Ninth place: 2 points
• Tenth place: 1 point

The winner is simply the player with the most overall points, with the rankings revealed live during the ceremony from 30th downwards to reveal the winners.

Alongside the Ballon d’Or and Ballon d’Or Feminin, there will be a further eight awards presented on the night:

• Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 years old)

Currently held by: Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)

• Yashin Trophy (Best goalkeeper)

Currently held by: Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa and Argentina)

• Gerd Muller Trophy (Top goalscorer from 2024/25 season)

Currently held by: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England) and Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France)

• Socrates Award (For best humanitarian work)

Currently held by Jennifer Hermoso (Tigres and Spain)

Currently held by: Real Madrid

• Women’s Club of the Year

Currently held by: Barcelona

• Men’s Johan Cruyff Trophy (Men’s coach of the year)

Currently held by: Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid)

• Women’s Johan Cruyff Trophy (Women’s coach of the year)

Currently held by: Emma Hayes (Chelsea and USA)

The ceremony will be hosted by Masters of the Ceremony presenter Kate Scott and 1987 Ballon d’Or winner Ruud Gullit.