The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony saw more awards handed out than ever before, although much of the night’s discourse surrounded the triumphs of Ousmane Dembélé and Aitana Bonmatí for the most lucrative prizes.
While Bonmati claimed her third Ballon d’Or Féminin despite others, including Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey, arguably outperforming her in 2025–26, Dembélé triumphed for the very first time, having never previously been nominated for the award.
The Frenchman played a pivotal role in Paris Saint-Germain’s quadruple-winning campaign, and prevailed by the biggest margin of votes since Karim Benzema in 2022.
However, many more were recognised during France Football’s busiest ceremony to date, including the sport’s brightest starlets. The inaugural women’s Kopa Trophy was won by Barcelona’s Vicky López, and there was no doubt as to who would claim the award in the men’s category.
Ballon d’Or runner-up Lamine Yamal became the first player to win the Kopa Trophy twice, after the award was first dished out in 2018. Unlike the most illustrious prize, the Kopa Trophy winner is not voted for by journalists, but by former Ballon d’Or winners, including Lionel Messi.
For the 2025 award, 27 of 31 former winners cast their vote, and here’s an overview of who voted for who.
Full Breakdown of 2025 Kopa Trophy Votes by Former Ballon d’Or Winners
Yamal may not have dominated statistically like Dembélé, Raphinha and Mohamed Salah, but the teenager‘s outstanding level of performance for a superb Barcelona team meant he was close to becoming the first-ever teenager to win the Ballon d’Or.
And while the likes of Désiré Doue and João Neves contributed heavily to PSG’s dominance last term, there was only going to be one winner of the 2025 Kopa Trophy—awarded to the season’s standout U21 performer.
Yamal received a first-place vote from 24 of the 27 former Ballon d’Or winners amid a dominant triumph. Robert Baggio, Ruud Gullit and Pavel Nedvěd were the only exceptions, as they each opted for Doué. Gullit curiously left Yamal out of his top three and explained that he wanted someone else to win the award after the Spaniard’s triumph last year.
There were plenty of Barcelona greats in Yamal’s corner, such as Messi, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Hristo Stoichkov and Ronaldinho, but previous allegiances were irrelevant for the majority, who had no choice but to label the star winger as their No. 1.
Real Madrid legends Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema and Luka Modrić also voted for Yamal.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Michel Platini and Kevin Keegan abstained from voting.
2025 Kopa Trophy Votes Breakdown
READ THE LATEST ON THE BALLON D'OR 2025—NEWS, NOMINEES AND RANKINGS
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2025 Kopa Trophy Voting Revealed: Who Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, Ballon d'Or Winners Chose.
