It is the day of nominations for the 2025 Ballon d'Or and like every year, France Football has announced the names of the players competing for the most coveted award, but that's not all.
There are many surprises and confirmations in the list of 30 players nominated by the French magazine, which also announced the candidates for the awards
Coach of the Year, the Kopa Award for the best player under 21 and the Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper.
"Johan Cruyff Trophy", Best Coach
The list of nominees includes, the Spaniard Luis Enrique of PSG, the favorite to triumph in this category after the treble won with the French team, the German Hansi Flick, who won all the trophies within Spain in his first season with Barcelona, the Dutchman Arne Slot, winner of the Premier League with Liverpool, the well-known Conte who triumphed in Serie A with the Neapolitans as well as Enzo Maresca, the Chelsea coach who won the UEFA Conference League and the Club World Cup with the London team. The absence of Simone Inzaghi, who has now moved to Al-Hilal, stands out as although he ended the season without a trophy with Inter, he led the Blues to the Champions League final and second place in Serie A.
"Yachine Trophy", the best goalkeeper
Gigi Donnarumma, the Italian of PSG, is of course the favorite among France Football's candidates for the award for the best goalkeeper of 2025. Italy's number 1 won the treble with the Parisians, followed by the Brazilian Alisson Becker of Liverpool, the Moroccan Yassine Bounou of Al-Hilal, the Frenchman Lucas Chevalier of Lille, the Belgian veteran Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid, the Argentine Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa, the Slovenian Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid, the Spaniard David Raya of Arsenal, the Belgian Matz Sels of Nottingham Forest and the Swiss Yann Sommer of Inter who had an excellent performance against Barcelona in the semi-finals and the Champions League.
"KOPA Trophy", the best player under 21 years old
The list of nominees includes Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona star who had a great season with the Catalans but won the trophy last year. Also in the race is former Juventus and Roma defender Dean Huijsen. The Spanish centre-back, of Dutch descent, was sold last year from Juventus to Bournemouth in the Premier League and joined Real Madrid this year. The other candidates are Spanish defender Pau Cubarsi of Barcelona, who is one of the favorites Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, French striker Désiré Doué of PSG, another strong candidate to take home this trophy, Brazilian striker Estevao of Chelsea, who plays for Palmeiras, and Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly, Portuguese midfielder Joao Neves of PSG and Portuguese Porto talent Rodrigo Mora of Porto.