Future Contenders?
On Monday evening, Ousmane Dembélé was honored with what many consider the pinnacle of individual accolades in football—the 2025 Ballon d’Or. While opinions may vary on how this golden trophy compares to the prestige of lifting the Champions League or World Cup, it remains an achievement that many of the sport’s elite strive for. Dembélé has now joined a legendary cadre of past winners, but with each victor comes a list of contenders who narrowly missed securing the coveted award. Often, some of the most valuable players in the world are left applauding while trying to hide their disappointment as the Ballon d’Or winner is announced.
A prime illustration of this phenomenon is Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal. The 18-year-old prodigy received the Kopa Trophy, yet he did not clinch the most prestigious award of the night, despite being the most valuable player globally with a staggering market value of €200 million. Consequently, Yamal leads our list of the most valuable players who failed to win the Ballon d’Or at the peak of their market value. The table below highlights how some of the game’s greatest talents have come agonizingly close to winning this award over the past five to ten years, often despite their astronomical market values.
As indicated in the table above, Yamal has now become the fourth player in football history to miss the Ballon d’Or despite a market value of €200 million. This first occurred in 2018 when Kylian Mbappé lost out to Luka Modrić. Last year, both Erling Haaland and Vinicius Junior found themselves behind Manchester City’s Rodri, despite their exceptional market valuations. Similar misfortunes befell Neymar in 2018 and Raheem Sterling in 2019, who both finished behind Modrić and Lionel Messi, respectively, despite having the highest market values of their careers. The table reveals a total of nine instances where players with €150 million market values were unable to secure the French accolade.
Nonetheless, this list of athletes shouldn’t be counted out from winning the prestigious award in the future. For instance, Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala both missed out last year despite boasting market values of €140 million, along with Pedri this year, who faced a similar fate. There’s no reason to believe that any of these players won’t see their market values rise even further in the coming years, which would, in turn, enhance their chances of claiming the Ballon d’Or later in their careers.
