According to RMC, a Moroccan journalist has revealed that he was pressured before the Ballon d'Or vote not to rank Hakimi first.
A total of 100 journalists from around the world voted in the 2025 Ballon d'Or. Only one of them ranked Hakimi first: Mustapha Badri, general manager of Al Mountakhab Group and a Moroccan journalist, who without hesitation put the Paris Saint-Germain star and Morocco captain (27) at the top of his list. In his ranking, Yamal was second, in line with the final result, and Kane was only sixth.
Badri fully stands by his top-ten ranking, but in an interview with Africafoot last Saturday he made a troubling revelation. He described being pressured shortly before the final vote. He said: "I was contacted, and attempts were made to influence me and persuade me to vote against Hakimi and instead back another player, whose name I prefer not to reveal. I did not give in to these requests, but this experience shows that there are indeed attempts to exert influence around this kind of vote."
Badri continued: "There are pressure groups that try to contact journalists and steer their choices. I experienced this myself, but I did not fall into the trap... This is a form of lobbying and canvassing for support, which can sometimes lead to choices that stray from pure sporting logic." He also firmly believes that Hakimi should have won the Ballon d'Or because he "is not an ordinary player. He is an excellent defender and also an attacker with extraordinary technical qualities."
Badri's revelations come against a sensitive backdrop. The Amaury Group, the parent company of France Football magazine, announced last Saturday that it had filed a complaint over suspicious betting activity following a possible leak of the Ballon d'Or results.