Former Barcelona and Brazil star Rivaldo has named the two players he believes have a better chance of winning the 2025 Ballon d'Or over Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. Salah is one of the frontrunners for the famous trophy, having helped Liverpool claim a 20th league title thanks to his 47 goal involvements in 38 games.
However, Liverpool's poor performance in Europe and failure to win a domestic cup is likely to hurt his chances of becoming only the second African to win the award after George Weah. With that in mind, Rivaldo has shortlisted the two players he believes will be ahead of the 32-year-old in the running.
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Instead of Salah, the 1999 winner has stated that he believes Camp Nou stars Lamine Yamal and Raphinha are in the strongest positions to claim the honours. The pair have been in sensational form as Los Cules reclaimed the La Liga title from Real Madrid this past term.
They also came agonisingly close to reaching the Champions League final, but were stopped by Inter Milan—helping Lautaro Martinez's chances of following in Lionel Messi's footsteps to become an Argentine winner.
Explaining his thinking, Rivaldo stated:
"Right now I don’t see anyone ahead of Lamine and Raphinha in the race to win the Ballon d’Or. Maybe if we look outside of Spain, Salah is a strong candidate for his season and Vinicius will always be there. All this will depend a lot on Barcelona and the conquest of collective titles, but both are having a great season.
"Yamal is showing great confidence in Barcelona and plays with a maturity much greater than his age. Raphinha is also a strong candidate for the Ballon d’Or. Especially for how he has been playing lately, scoring goals, giving assists and showing great confidence in the field. He is playing with creativity and determination, which makes him an outstanding candidate for the award."
Should Yamal claim the award, he would eclipse former Barcelona and Real Madrid star Ronaldo by becoming the youngest player to ever win the trophy. Meanwhile, a victory for Raphinha would make him the first Brazilian to earn the recognition of the best player in the world since Kaka in 2007.
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All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt - accurate as of 31/05/2025.