Table of Contents
With the 2025 Ballon
d’Or nominees all revealed, we look at the key stats behind the 30
players who are in contention for the men’s award on Monday 22
September.
Jude Bellingham
Bellingham scored 15 goals and assisted 14 more for Real Madrid
between August 2024 and July 2025, making him one of just six
La Liga
players to reach double figures for both goals and assists across
all competitions in that time.
He also ranked third among La Liga players for open-play chances
created in this period (97), behind only Raphinha (120) and
Vinícius Júnior (107).
Ousmane Dembélé
Paris Saint-Germain star Dembélé either scored (35) or assisted
(14) 49 goals in 53 competitive appearances for the French club
between August 2024 and the end of July 2025. Fourteen of those
goal involvements came in the 2024-25 UEFA
Champions League, which PSG won for the first time.
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Donnarumma kept a clean sheet in over a third of his competitive
appearances for PSG between August 2024 and the end of July 2025
(34%), keeping out 71% of opposition shots over a season in which
the French club won the Ligue 1 and UEFA
Champions League titles.
Désiré Doué
Doué played a key part in Paris-Saint Germain’s phenomenal
2024-25 season. The 20-year-old was involved in 30 goals across all
competitions between August 2024 and the end of July 2025 (16
goals, 14 assists) – only Lamine Yamal (39) was involved in more
competitive goals while aged under 21.
Denzel Dumfries
Internazionale’s Dumfries scored 11 competitive goals between
August 2024 and July 2025 – no defender from the top five European
leagues managed more.
He netted twice and got three assists across Inter’s two-legged
Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, becoming only the
third player to contribute 5+ goals in one UCL semi tie.
Serhou Guirassy
Guirassy plundered 13 goals in 14 UEFA Champions League
appearances last season for Borussia Dortmund, finishing 2024-25 as
the UCL’s joint-top goalscorer alongside Raphinha.
He converted an exceptional 32% of his shots in the competition,
helping him score more goals in a single UCL/European Cup campaign
than any other BVB player in history.
ViktorGyökeres
The Swedish striker scored an outstanding 54 goals in 52
appearances for Sporting CP in 2024-25.
Thirty-nine of those came in the Primeira Liga, the highest
tally by any player in the Portuguese top-flight since Mário Jardel
for Sporting in 2001-02 (42). Gyokeres’ form earned him a move to
Arsenal.
Erling Haaland
Haaland netted 34 goals in 48 appearances for Manchester City
across all competitions between August 2024 and the end of July
2025 – no Premier
League player scored more.
Of the 17 players to net at least 15 competitive goals for
Premier League clubs in that timeframe, Haaland had the best
minutes-per-goal ratio (119).
Achraf Hakimi
Full-back Hakimi created 108 chances from open play between
August 2004 and the end of July 2025 across all competitions. That
was more than any other defender to play for a club in the top five
European leagues, while only Raphinha (120) created more among all
players.
Harry Kane
Kane won his first-ever major trophy as Bayern Munich won the
German
Bundesliga crown in 2024-25. The English striker scored 26
goals in their title-winning campaign, winning the top scorer award
in the competition for the second season running.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
The only player on this list to win two league title winners
medals last season, Kvaratskhelia played a part in Napoli’s Serie A
success as well as Paris Saint-Germain’s Ligue 1 victory, also
lifting the Champions League in May.
Robert Lewandowski
No player scored more non-penalty goals than Barcelona forward
Lewandowski (24) in Europe’s top five leagues last season (level
with Kylian Mbappé). That’s quite an achievement at 36 years
old.
Meanwhile, only Alexander Sørloth had a better minutes-per-goal
ratio in La Liga in 2024-25 than Lewandowski’s goal every 93.5
minutes.
Alexis Mac Allister
The Liverpool midfielder started the most sequences leading to a
goal in the Premier League last season (13), with six more than
anyone else. He also started the second-most sequences leading to
shots (49) and had the third highest xG from sequences he started
(5.6).
Lautaro
Martínez
Inter’s Argentine striker scored nine goals in the Champions
League last season: a joint-record for an Inter player in a single
campaign in the Champions League/European Cup, level with Hernán
Crespo (nine in 2002-03).
Kylian Mbappé
Some dared to question the French superstar during his first
season at Real Madrid, but he ultimately scored more goals than any
other player in Europe’s top five leagues last season (31). Mbappé
also scored the joint-most non-penalty goals along with Robert
Lewandowski.
Scott McTominay
Serie A’s Player of the Season scored eight goals to break a 0-0
deadlock for Napoli last season, more than anyone else in the
competition, while he was also the overall top scorer among
midfielders (12).
Nuno Mendes
The energetic PSG left-back won the most duels (119), made the
second-most tackles (48), and made the joint-second most
interceptions (23) in the Champions League last season (119).
Joao Neves
PSG’s young midfield star made the most tackles in the Champions
League last season (57) and won the second most duels (107). Only
five players made more than his eight assists in Ligue 1, as
well.
Michael Olise
It’s not often that Bayern Munich sign a player from Crystal
Palace, but the German side will be glad they did. Olise created
the most big chances in Europe’s top five leagues last season, and
was second for assists (15), expected assists (12.5) and chances
created from open play (75).
Cole Palmer
The man they call “Cold Palmer” recorded five goal involvements
across two major finals for Chelsea, with two assists in the
Conference League final win over Real Betis, before two goals and
an assist in the Club World Cup final victory against PSG.
Pedri
Pedri, 22, made more line-breaking passes in behind the
opposition’s defence while under pressure from an opponent (11)
than any other player in the Champions League in 2024-25.
He also ranked top of Europe’s top five leagues for playing the
pass before a chance was created, having done so 58 times in
2024-25.
Raphinha
Of players from Europe’s top five leagues between 1 August 2024
and 31 July 2025, only Mohamed
Salah (57) registered more goal involvements in all
competitions than Raphinha (56 – 34 goals, 22 assists).
The Brazilian also equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 21 for
the most goal involvements in a Champions League season, and came
within one assist of equalling Luis Figo’s record of nine for the
most assists in a season in the competition.
Declan Rice
Caught the eye in a more advanced role for Arsenal, and 2024-25
was his best ever season for goals (9), assists (10) and chances
created (82) at club level. Rice also became the first player to
score two direct free-kicks in a Champions League knockout match
with his two sensational efforts against Real
Madrid in the quarter-finals.
Fabián Ruiz
Maintained a pass success rate of 90.3% over almost 4,000
minutes in all competitions over the period in question, playing in
every game in PSG’s run to Champions League glory. He also scored
some key goals, including one in the Champions League semi-final
against Arsenal
and two in the Club World Cup semi-final against Real Madrid.
Mohamed Salah
Salah registered at least 13 more goal involvements than any
other player in Europe’s top five leagues in 2024-25 (47), breaking
the record for a 38-game Premier League season in the process
(previously jointly held at 44 by Thierry Henry in 2002-03 and
Erling Haaland in 2022-23).
Virgil van Dijk
Only two players made more line-breaking passes in the Premier
League in 2024-25 than Van Dijk (403). The Liverpool captain topped
the division for the number of passes he played which broke all
three lines of the opposition’s structure, with
10.
Vinícius Jr.
In all competitions between August 2024 and July 2025, Vinícius
recorded more carries (moving at least five metres with the ball)
that he followed up with a goal or assist (20) than any other
player from Europe’s top five leagues. He also created more chances
following a carry (55) than anyone else.
Vitinha
Vitinha made more line-breaking passes while under pressure from
an opponent within four metres of him (137) than any other player
in the Champions League in 2024-25. Also, nobody in the competition
made more than Vitinha’s four line-breaking passes that led to his
side scoring a goal within 10 seconds.
Florian Wirtz
Only Mohamed Salah (18) and Lamine Yamal (13) recorded more than
Wirtz’s 12 assists from open play in Europe’s top five leagues. The
German was also one of only six players from those competitions to
reach double figures for both goals (10) and assists (12).
Lamine Yamal
Yamal, who only turned 18 last month, ranked first in Europe’s
top five leagues in 2024-25 for carries followed by a shot (56) and
carries followed by a chance created (35). He also completed 161
successful dribbles – 54 more than anyone else in Europe’s top five
leagues.
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