Cristiano Ronaldo breaks silence after not being nominated for the 2025 Ballon d'Or

football

Express newspaper

08/08/2025 10:59

Ronaldo has been left out of the list of nominees, as has Lionel Messi, for the second year in a row.

Cristiano Ronaldo has broken his silence after not being included in the list of nominees for the 2025 Ballon d'Or award for men.

Neither Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi were nominated for this award for the second year in a row.

The list of nominees is headed by PSG's Ousmane Dembele and Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, who are among the favorites to win this award.

Ronaldo scored 33 goals in all domestic competitions last season and won the Nations League with Portugal - an achievement that gave him an advantage over the previous year.

However, the 40-year-old football legend will again be absent from the ceremony to be held next month in Paris.

No player playing outside Europe's top five leagues has been nominated, although Arsenal's new signing Viktor Gökeres has been praised for his performances with Sporting Lisbon.

In 2021, Ronaldo appeared to criticize the decision to award the Ballon d'Or to Messi instead.

Last year, he declared that the men's award "has no credibility" after Rodri won it before Vinicius Junior.

So it's perhaps no big surprise that this time he didn't react as strongly as he might have in the past.

A few hours after the list of nominees was announced, he wrote a clearly implied six-word message on Instagram.

Alongside a photo of himself celebrating a goal for Al Nassr, Ronaldo wrote: "Keep pushing, there's more to do."

Who is nominated for the 2025 Men's Ballon d'Or?

The full list of 30 nominees:

Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain, France)

Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain, Italy)

Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, England)

Desire Doue (Paris Saint-Germain, France)

Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan, Netherlands)

Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund, Guinea)

Erling Haaland (Manchester City, Norway)

Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal/Sporting CP, Sweden)

Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, England)

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris Saint-Germain/Napoli, Georgia)

Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona, ​​Poland)

Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool, Argentina)

Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan, Argentina)

Scott McTominay (Naples, Scotland)

Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid, France)

Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)

Joao Neves (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)

Pedro (Barcelona, Spain)

Cole Palmer (Chelsea, England)

Michael Oliseh (Bayern Munich, France)

Raphinha (Barcelona, Brazil)

Declan Rice (Arsenal, England)

Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain, Spain)

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands)

Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Brazil)

Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain, Portugal)

Florian Wirtz (Liverpool/Bayer Leverkusen, Germany)

Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, ​​Spain)