Barcelona president Joan Laporta makes bullish Ballon d’Or claim

In the next three months, it will be known who has won the 2025 Ballon d’Or – and multiple Barcelona players are in contention. Lamina Yamal, Pedri, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski have been nominated from Hansi Flick’s side, although they will have stiff competition – most notably from a former teammate in Ousmane Dembele.

Barcelona won a domestic treble last season, as they took home La Liga, the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup in Flick’s debut campaign. However, Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League success means that their players have an advantage in the race to claim the top individual award in men’s football.

Despite this, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has made it clear that one of his players should only be the winner of the 2025 Ballon d’Or award – and he picked out Lamine Yamal as his favourite.

“The Ballon d’Or has to go to a Barcelona player. Lamine is a great player and he shows it in every game. And what a Ballon d’Or winner does is show it in training. Hopefully Barça will win everything at the gala.”

Lamine Yamal is widely considered to be a leading candidate to win his first Ballon d’Or at the tender age of 18, with him and Dembele expected to finish as the top two. Raphinha and Pedri would not be far behind, given their impressive exploits throughout the 2024-25 season. Meanwhile, Lewandowski is likely to be further down the pecking order, despite scoring 42 times in 52 appearances for Barcelona.

The Ballon d’Or race is shaping up to be very close, with other PSG stars in Vitinha and Achraf Hakimi also in contention – as is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. Barcelona have a chance at their first award since Lionel Messi in 2019, but it will not be as straightforward as Laporta hopes.