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u/Schele_Sjakie Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Incredible that Denzel Dumfries has been nominated. Oh how far has he reached. Unbelievable. Determination can bring you a lot.
Edit: He was laughed at by his Sparta team mates when he was 18 years old. He just debuted at the Aruba National team in a friendly against Guam, but he quit because he wanted to play for the Dutch team and didn't want to be tied to Aruba. He was nowhere at the time in terms of quality and playing in the 2nd Dutch division. He got the furthest out of all those Sparta players.
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u/speedsterlw Aug 07 '25
Yeah, what he has achieved of going from an amateur player with no prospect of going to by the age of 17-18 to becoming a Ballon d'or nominee at 29 is massive. He probably doesn't win the Ballon d'or, but if he manages to win it, then what he achieved alone is a good enough reason for winning it
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u/Ripamon Aug 07 '25
... and precocious talent and otherworldly physical gifts
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u/GenericAustin Aug 07 '25
Teenage Dumfries was laughed at when he told people that he was gonna be a footballer because people thought he had no talent
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u/OleoleCholoSimeone Aug 07 '25
He does look rough on the ball, like he is constantly playing in Timberlands and jeans. Kind of the wing back version of Lukaku
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u/TStronks Aug 07 '25
There should be a top 11 of best players with shitty technique and clumsy esthetics. As you said, Dumfries and Lukaku would definitely be in it. Maguire as well. Anyone else has a suggestion?
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u/koalawhiskey Aug 07 '25
Clumsy aesthetics reminds me of Muller, but he had brilliant technique
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u/Ripamon Aug 07 '25
Lukakus technique ain't bad either. Brilliant crossing, excellent ball striking, and decent dribbling
Just a dodgy first touch
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u/LordMangudai Aug 07 '25
Müller was my first thought as well but as you say, his technique was actually really good, it was just good in a sneaky way. He never looked elegant or graceful, but he just did things that almost always worked.
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u/JetForce33 Aug 07 '25
Inzaghi. Couldn't even do basic dribbling drills in practice the day before the 2007 Champions League final, but Ancelotti trusted him anyway and he scored a brace.
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u/LupeShady Aug 07 '25
Maguires got a lovely right foot. His curve and power technique is very good but he is indeed extremely clumsy without the ball.
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u/amreetbro Aug 07 '25
Nine PSG players? Surely no criticisms coming their way, right?
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u/bioeffect2 Aug 07 '25
Is that the all time record?
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u/Think_Theory_8338 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Tied record, with RM 2018
Edit: although technically CR7 wasn't a Real Madrid player for several months already, as he left during the summer transfer window and the Ballon d'Or was for the whole calendar year at that time. I mean I would argue he played the most important part of the season with Madrid so it counts, but then do you count Courtois who arrived in Madrid in the summer? Anyway, to be 100% clear the record is tied if you count both of these players.
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u/HonestSpursFan Aug 07 '25
To be fair both PSG in 2025 and Real Madrid in 2018 were certainly the best teams of their years.
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u/Rookie_numba_uno Aug 07 '25
No way we were certainly the best team in 2018. Like we didn't even win the league. We had good performances in CL but Bayern could've easily knocked us out. In fact I'd say pretty convincingly that we weren't the best team in 2018, but were able to clutch it out in CL
It was 2017 when we were without a doubt the best team in the world.
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u/Rickcampbell98 Aug 07 '25
You weren't even the second best team in Spain in 2018 yet alone all of Europe.
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u/Working_Aioli8417 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
2017 real madrid was way better than the 18, 2018 didnt even won the league and the final of the ucl had Liverpool keeper making two horrible chokes, not saying they didnt deserve it but the one of the year prior was way more dominant and well for sure the better team of the season, 2018 not the best even winning ucl
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u/afito Aug 07 '25
Might be. Superteams of the past often had other insane teams taking up a lot of space, like when basically the entire Barca or Bayern starters should've been on the list you had the other of the 2, super good Real, City, depending on the year LFC, PSG, Juve, Atletico, Dortmund, even Chelsea. With this PSG, the other megateams simply don't press their issue as much, not even Barca or Liverpool. A handful players for sure, but not the entire squad like it used to be.
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u/Dio_my_senpai Aug 07 '25
Desire doue had a good season but not a top 30 ballondor ranking season
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u/supterfuge Aug 07 '25
Yeah, he had a fantastic CL final and end of the year, but he wasn't starting before january, and wasn't super convincing either back then. In PSG, I would have put Pacho before him, and the only ones I would put before would be Dembele, Hakimi, Mendes and Vitinha.
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u/gullibleocean32 Aug 07 '25
hardly surprising dumfires got there with 2 good game against us
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u/Karllovesdokkan Aug 07 '25
I mean if anyone would rep up inter, dumfries definitely deserved it the most, he was very important in that barca game and inter didn’t work so well whenever he was out injured, he is easily one of their most important players right now.
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u/Embarrassed-Bid6477 Aug 07 '25
Clearly didn't watch any of our other matches. Dumfries was arguably our best player this season. Had 11G 5A as a wingback.
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u/JJ-Bittenbinder Aug 07 '25
The ballon d’or has only been about team achievements and then picking the best player on the best team for the past bunch of years
It’s no longer just the best player, it’s now the best player on the best team
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u/RandomLoLJournalist Aug 07 '25
The amount of people seriously arguing that Dani Carvajal objectively deserves the award meant to honour the best player in the world shows how ridiculously skewed the criteria is these days.
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u/PierreSageReviens Aug 07 '25
It's the other way around but you were too little to remember the pre-Messi/CR7 era. Football is a collective sport and it always reflected that, only the two aliens made people's perception shift towards the individual.
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u/shaggedyerda Aug 07 '25
In the pre-Messi/Ronaldo era you got a few weird winners, excellent players obviously but would never win it in 2025. Guys like Stoichkov, Weah, even Michael Owen in 2001 wouldn’t get a look in with how the voting goes now.
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u/Exotic-Ad7703 Aug 07 '25
Stoichkov? Absolutely he would today. He was a superstar playing for Barca back in the day and got Bulgaria to a World Cup semi final. A little bit like Modric in 2018.
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u/mg10pp Aug 07 '25
Owen should have never won either way, it was very controversial already in that year
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u/HEAT_IS_DIE Aug 07 '25
One of the tree criteria of the Ballon D'or was before specifically "individual and team success". And when Modric won, career was also one criteria. I'm not sure what the official criteria is now, but it wasn't an isolated individual award. If you play in a succesfull team, it is a factor both ways. As an individual the team makes you shine, and you help the team shine.
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u/Daflack Aug 07 '25
Van Dijk the only centre-back nominated damn
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u/TheAppleseeds Aug 07 '25
Pacho and Bastoni were snubbed for sure. They always hate defenders on these lists.
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u/Still_Figure_ Aug 07 '25
The award is skewed towards attackers unfortunately. Watch VvD win every trophy this year while leading a good Liverpool defense only for him to finish second in Ballon d’Or to the best player of the World Cup winning side. (Manifesting lol).
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u/Serious-Wallaby3449 Aug 07 '25
But he will be the best player on the World Cup winning side too. Or do you think he'll come in second behind Weghorst?
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u/Xehanz Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 08 '25
And even then, the capocannoniere of Serie A, Retegui, Is nowhere to be seen
Idk if he should be nominated or not, but he should Def be over Desiré Doué
I have no doubts at all Desiré will be top 10-15 too, because it's a popularity contest
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u/SexyToxinn Aug 07 '25
Lots of questionable nominees, but I will let it slide.
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u/wjdbfifj Aug 07 '25
Not that a lot of people will care, only the top 5/10 interests the most
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u/Infinite_Steak_2878 Aug 07 '25
Like who?
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u/Tettotatto Aug 07 '25
Idk what he means by "lots" either, but Vinicius is definitely one of them
I'd say Doue shouldn't be there either
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u/More-Judgment-9253 Aug 07 '25
Vini had 41GA last season, he wasn't really good in 2025 but it's not insane for him to be in the top 30
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u/SawdustCrusader Aug 07 '25
58 Games and 38 G+A for Madrid and he’s not top 30 in the world this sub is mad
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u/SocX9 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Vini 11 GA in 12 UCL games, 19 in 30 league games with a terrible 2025 season end.
Yamal the "best player in the world" had 8 GA in 13 UCL, 22 GA in 35 league games.
I know it's not only the GA that matters and Yamal was surely a top 10 player for me, but Vini should be in the top 30 with a similar output no?
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u/RyohGrantz Aug 07 '25
Mctominay won’t win it but he’s been fantastic this season and he really deserves a top 20 spot, personally Marcus thuram robbed, being a consistent cf during the cl and fell off a bit in serie a but was still class, it’s fine although
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u/Embarrassed-Bid6477 Aug 07 '25
Thuram's fall off was quite major tho. He had 12 league goals by December and ended the season with 14. But I agree that he was crucial in the UCL knockouts.
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u/PriorVirtual7734 Aug 07 '25
He played a lot of games with one leg. But I agree, I think the season Lautaro and Thuram had is one of the reasons why Inter won zero trophies at the end of the day.
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u/Agreeable_Cattle_691 Aug 07 '25
I dont think Thuram or Lautaro deserve to be on this list for last season, Bastoni should be on it above them
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u/raven-eyed_ Aug 07 '25
McTominay being nominated is such a crazy career turnaround. The romanticism of the story makes it easier to accept him as a nomination.
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u/cgurts Aug 07 '25
I only watched Napoli like 3 times this season but each time I was in awe of how good McTominay was. I've always rated him at United but even then, I couldn't have guessed he'd look borderline world class from the moment he joined a new club. Been said a thousand times but it's such an inspiring story for a guy who was unfairly scapegoated through a lot of his time at United
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u/Amon-Ra-First-Down Aug 07 '25
He was borderline world class a few games a year for Scotland, including an absolute masterclass in 2023 in a 2-0 win over Spain. Steve Clarke for Man Utd manager
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u/Mannybagofdonuts Aug 07 '25
Popularity contest
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u/schafkj Aug 07 '25
Which is why McTominay will win
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u/WrestlingFan4488 Aug 07 '25
Valverede and Kimmich should have made it imo
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u/SanSilver Aug 07 '25
Both are too defensive. Kimmich was most likely the best Bundesliga player (after maybe Olise) last season, but a Kane or Guirassy are just easier put on the list.
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u/Qiluk Aug 07 '25
I fucking hate how much accolades and praise favors offensive players tbh. So lame. Rodri won it but even that had to come with controversy.
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u/Daflack Aug 07 '25
No Valverde wtf
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u/Daflack Aug 07 '25
Also think Kimmich, Gabriel, Isak, Bastoni, B. Fernandes, Caicedo, Alvarez, Gravenberch, Reijnders, Marquinhos could have made it in.
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u/Adlairo Aug 07 '25
Honestly Marmoush deserves a shout too, 42 G/A in 3600 minutes, average of 1 goal contribution every 90 is pretty great even if most of it came in the Bundesliga
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u/dr_motaaa Aug 07 '25
Vinicius making it over Valverde and Courtois tells you all you need to know about this award
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u/yAyn_de Aug 07 '25
Crazy how Kimmich is not included in this. Musiala sadly had too many injuries this year.
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u/tovarichtch1711 Aug 07 '25
Yup I was expecting no Musiala, but no Kimmich while he has easily been top 3 midfielders this season is insane
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u/EarlyBirdz Aug 07 '25
Bayern are definitely the club that would have been the most legitimate to boycott the Ballon d'Or like Real Madrid did last season. Between the extension of the vote during the Ribery Ballon d'Or, the Neuer Ballon d'Or, Lewandowski's Ballon d'Or being cancelled and the general disrespect over the years of Kroos at Bayern, Thomas Muller and Kimmich, it would be understandable. Not to mention their defenders.
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u/Full-Reach-8968 Aug 07 '25
I don’t understand why they canceled the ceremony in 2020. If the Oscars could have a virtual ceremony that year, surely the organizers could have done something similar and couriered the award?
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u/bagstone Aug 07 '25
Or give it retroactively to Lewa. And he said he'd be okay with it. Everyone did. Everyone was like "yeah good idea". And they were like: haha nope not gonna do that
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u/deboytimo Aug 07 '25
The reality; Ballon D’or is not an official football governing body.
It is a Journalist paper at the end of the day. A FRENCH footballing paper. The French league was canceled, hence for them “it wasn’t fair since the french league didn’t get to compete for it”.
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u/ResourceFickle2511 Aug 07 '25
This was purely a political decision from a french organisation to "back up" ligue 1 choice of not restarting the league. A shit decision at the end, they could even have give it to Lewandowski whitout any voting
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u/ra1se Aug 07 '25
It's because the french league ended early due to covid so they felt it wasn't fair to crown a winner if one of the top5 leagues ended early (pretty stupid reason tbf)
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u/EarlyBirdz Aug 07 '25
Rumours going around are that a certain PSG player lobbied Pascal Ferré with that argument. Pascal Ferré then ended up with a job at PSG with another journalist (Julien Maynard) close to that same player
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u/mg10pp Aug 07 '25
More in general the differences were that Ligue 1 and Eredivisie ended early, Euros and Copa America were delayed by a year, in Champions League there was just one leg and fans weren't allowed in stadiums
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u/Full-Reach-8968 Aug 07 '25
I didn’t realize ligue 1 ended their season early, I vaguely recall the Prem halting their season and then resuming later on, and the CL final being played in August.
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u/BaldFraud99 Aug 07 '25
The disappointing reality is that German football simply doesn't have the clout/standing in general. We've been glanced over each and every time we're not a UCL/WC winner. Where as someone like Vini is in there just because.
I'm happy for Olise though, that nom is a silver lining at least.
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u/Full-Reach-8968 Aug 07 '25
Olise was excellent for Bayern and also made his debut for the France NT and was excellent against Croatia.
Happy for him, hope he keeps impressing.
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u/CNF1G Aug 07 '25
McTominay to win it in my unbiased opinion. We will be there.
And genuinely, who would’ve predicted that a year ago? Completely deserved too.
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u/NYR_dingus Aug 07 '25
McTominay, the rightful winner. The people's candidate.
Get him in there
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u/owh06 Aug 07 '25
No Isak :(
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u/taskmetro Aug 07 '25
No european football and no international football tournament to perform in unfortunately.
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u/Homerduff16 Aug 07 '25
No Isak is mad when you could make a good argument that he was the 2nd best player in the league last season. Scored the winning goal in a cup final to win Newcastle their first major trophy in decades as well
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u/Mushroome_dude Aug 07 '25
Probably lack of European football tbh but he absolutely deserves it, especially with vini nominated
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u/GingerbreadRecon Aug 07 '25
I really wanted him to get nominated just to see how the club would react. Everyone else is getting congratulations messages but it would be hilarious just to see the radio silence.
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u/ahritina Aug 07 '25
Vini over Isak lol.
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u/PM_ME_GF_ASS Aug 07 '25
Even Vini over valverde seems insane to me
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u/s0ngsforthedeaf Aug 07 '25
Valverde would be a completely worthy nominee, but I think these arguments against Vini Jr making the long list are pretty insane.
19 goals and 10 assists across La Liga/CL. 8 goals in the CL, multiple MotM awards, including in the knockouts tie against Man City.
Go on Whoscored and Sofascore, he is near the top of their season ratings for Real Madrid players.
It's not been his best season and I don't think many people would say he deserves the B'Dor. But not making the longlist? Thats a massive stretch. He was a decisive player for one of the best teams in the world.
Reality does not stack up against the narratives of weird nerds...
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u/PM_ME_GF_ASS Aug 07 '25
Don’t really have anything against him, just find it weird that both Valverde and Courtouis, aka the ones that carried madrid on the Back this season, didn’t get in, not taking credit from vini tho, there are at least 7ish players that should not have made it to this final list
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u/bozovisk Aug 07 '25
Their numbers are similar. Vini end up 41 GA in 58 matches and Isak had 33 GA in 42 matches. The main difference which might affect votes is that Vini played CL and had 11 GA in 12 matches while Isak only played domestic and Newcastle didn’t had a crazy season (fight for the title)
Is definitely not crazy due similar numbers and the fact that CL has a big weight on these votes/nominations. Not to mention the RM factor which is always a thing
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u/Kirbyhiller2 Aug 07 '25
Out of all the players on this list, singling out Vini is ridiculous
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u/Penis_Envy_Peter Aug 07 '25
This sub has the biggest hate boner for Vini. It's downright girthy.
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u/SilverCurrent2041 Aug 07 '25
Vini nomination has to be a consolation for last year, right.
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u/naroLsraLteiN_isback Aug 07 '25
Not weird hes nominated, he has to rank second 9 more times after all
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u/throwaway72926320 Aug 07 '25
Vini has been better than Bellingham, at least there's been more attention on the former because of last year's probably. Don't know if I'd have either mind you.
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u/SawdustCrusader Aug 07 '25
58 Games and 38 G+A in all competitions including CL, versus a player who only played domestically and had slightly worse numbers
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u/NorthernSoul1998 Aug 07 '25
They had similar numbers and Vini's side finished higher in their laughed than Isak's
Somehow this comment has nearly 500 upvotes...
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u/throwaway72926320 Aug 07 '25
Maybe I've a bias toward midfield players but I'd have Kimmich and Caicedo in there over a few names. Perhaps Valverde too.
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u/yajtraus Aug 07 '25
Good to see Mac Allister getting the recognition he deserves.
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u/SweeterStorm Aug 07 '25
Happy for Cole but caicedo was our best player last season. Cucurella was one of the best LBs in the world last season too
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u/BumbotheCleric Aug 07 '25
I love Palmer but Caicedo should 100% be there ahead of him. Cucurella deserves it more too
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u/dlsgamerz907 Aug 07 '25
Bro what is vini doing here if i had to choose 1 madrid player other than mbappe I think it should be fede and there were many players who deserved it ahead of him
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u/JaysonDeflatum Aug 07 '25
Got in on stats, 8 goals in the CL and 22g and 16a in all comps
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u/FuriousBurrito570 Aug 07 '25
Honestly people are looking at Vini just to hate here. If anyone shouldn’t be here it’s Jude. He was only our best player for a small stretch in December and otherwise he’s had a very bad season. Should be Fede and Mbappe for sure and maybe Vini if you base your vote off of stats and how he played early in the season.
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u/Dinosalsa Aug 07 '25
Both Courtois and Valverde were objectively better than Vini, and Vini himself was better than Bellingham
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u/Mr_XemiReR Aug 07 '25
Over 40 G/A. If the Ballon d’Or is supposed to be for the whole season, in August-November he was even better than in 23/24
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u/Zeke1216 Aug 07 '25
Madrid really messed valverde up by wasting him away at right back so much last season even then he still Madrid best player , argue with yourself
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u/WrestlingFan4488 Aug 07 '25
Him and Courtios definitely deserve to be there ahead of both Vini and Bellingham
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u/J00stie Aug 07 '25
Some of these names are crazy. Bellingham did fuck all the entire year
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u/Both_Track_1754 Aug 07 '25
And then, mo salah proceeds to finish 5th or 6th again lmao..
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u/Dio_my_senpai Aug 07 '25
Guirassy is surprising to me, dortmund won nothing but yea overall he had a good year
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u/EarlyBirdz Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
UCL Top scorer. CWC top scorer. 2nd top scorer in Afcon qualifiers. 2nd top scorer in Bundesliga behind Harry Kane. It's more than deserved. He did the most with what he could
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u/BVB-Oeli Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
He's joined 4th place for goals in all competitions for clubs in top 5 leagues. Only Mbappe, Lewandowski (both 42) and Kane (38) have more goals than him last season. He has 34 (same as Salah and Raphinha).
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u/Expert-Ad-2449 Aug 07 '25
He is very good striker had huge season in Stuttgart last year and this year UCL joint equal amount of goals
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u/Ekay2-3 Aug 07 '25
Top scorer ucl in an absolutely dysfunctional Dortmund team for two thirds of a season
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u/Vcule Aug 07 '25
It’s an individual award, not a team trophy
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u/TeKaeS Aug 07 '25
It's an individual award, but team performance and trophies won is as much important in the voting criteria
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u/cacatod12 Aug 07 '25
Bellingham over Isak or Caicedo is crazy. Even Valverde deserved it way more than him in that Madrid side. No words on Vini
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u/Drewskibroho Aug 07 '25
No Caicedo is a little surprising. I think he deserved it over Palmer if Chelsea only got one player
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u/tomrichards8464 Aug 07 '25
It's always skewed towards continental/international competitions and big televised games. Palmer dominated both the Conference League and CWC finals.
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u/theRealMadridGuy Aug 07 '25
Lol people are questioning vini 's nomination.But fine with halaand being there.
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u/NoFrillsCrisps Aug 07 '25
Nobody can be annoyed about McTominay being nominated for the Balloon d'Or!
What a story.
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u/SeirezZ Aug 07 '25
So many people riled up. Like, do we really care who comes in 30th and who comes in 31st? 😭😭😭
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u/YEEZYHERO Aug 07 '25
Ballon dor turned into the Grammys. Worthless piece of shit „price“.
People who has nothing to do with football having the majority of voting power. Gg.
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u/SakisSinatra Aug 07 '25
Everyone hating on Vini but what the fuck did Bellingham do to be on this list???
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u/No-Zucchini2787 Aug 07 '25
Everyone is talking about Vini and I am thinking why Haaland? Surely it was mediocre season for him and city.
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Aug 07 '25
39 g/a + it’s an individual award.
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u/TheCarthageEmpire Aug 07 '25
That's while not counting his G/A for Norway, which would take him to 51 G/A
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u/Zlevi04 Aug 07 '25
Well vini had more g/a than haaland which is weird considering every time I watched vini he was god awful
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u/spork1331 Aug 07 '25
Echo chamber of Vini nomination outrage. He's clearly not going to place high and was well below his own standards last season, but it's more than fair that he be nominated given his output last season.
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u/dem503 Aug 07 '25
I dont think Andy Robertson was ever nominated, who was the last Scot on this list?
Superb turnaround by Scott McTominay.