Neymar and Ferran Torres react to Ballon d’Or rankings – ‘It’s taking the p***’

Paris Saint-Gerrmain star Ousmane Dembele reached arguably the pinnacle of his career this year, winning a domestic clean sweep and Champions League, before picking up the Ballon d’Or on Monday. As is usually the case, there were those who were not in agreement with the voting.

Not least Lamine Yamal’s father, who appeared baffled by the decision. However France Football were unequivocal that their jury had picked a clear winner for the 2025 edition of the Ballon d’Or and that Dembele’s crown was merited. Lionel Messi was in agreement, posting a comment under Dembele’s Instagram post saying ‘Great Ous!!! Congratulations, I’m very happy for you. You deserve it.”

If anything, it was the rankings below the top two that inspired as the most ire. Neymar was less  than impressed, and under a ranking of the top 10, commented that ‘Raphinha number five is taking the p***’.

Raphinha was the second ranked of the four Barcelona nominees, coming in 5th behind Lamine Yamal in 2nd. Pedri narrowly missed out on the top 10, coming 11th, and Robert Lewandowski finished 17th. Teammate Ferran Torres posted a picture on his Instagram story of Pedri’s ranking with a face-palm emoji, and an exploding head emoji, a clear sign of his surprise at the decision.

Meanwhile the Real Betis Twitter/X account quoted the post announcing Dembele’s victory posting ‘Admin will do it 10x if necessary. They are not ready.’ The quote a clear play on Vinicius Junior’s own post after missing out on the 2024 award, which has become material for many alternate uses of the phrase. No doubt it is unlikely to ingratiate Betis much with Madridistas, although that is probably low on their list of concerns.