The Ballon d’Or 2025 was a remarkable event with a new award category introduced and previous records broken. Starting from the 2025 Ballon d’Or, three categories of awards i.e Yashin, Gerd Müller, and Kopa Trophies, are being handed to the women's section as well. Hannah Hampton, Ewa Pajor and Vicky Lopez are declared inaugural winners of the awards, respectively. Sarina Weigman won the Best Women’s Coach title after guiding England to back-to-back Women’s Euro triumphs, while Aitana Bonmati, who ended up on the losing side with Spain in the final, won a third Ballon d’Or on the trot.
As anticipated by many from last season, Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or for the first time, while his closest rival for the honour, Lamine Yamal, took the Kopa Trophy instead, winning it back-to-back times. Dembélé was one of the prime contributors to Paris Saint-Germain’s historic Champions League success, along with a treble, which also gave his side the Best Club award. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was a key component to that success as well as he grabbed the Yashin Trophy, while manager Luis Enrique won the Best Coach award.
Full List of Ballon d’Or 2025 Award Winners
Gerd Muller Trophy (Women): Ewa Pajor
Gerd Muller Trophy (Men): Viktor Gyökeres
Yasin Trophy (Women): Hannah Hampton
Yashin Trophy (Men): Gianluigi Donnarumma
Best Coach (Women): Sarina Weigman
Best Coach (Men): Luis Enrique
Best Team (Women): Arsenal WFC
Best Team (Men): Paris Saint-Germain
Kopa Trophy (Women): Vicky Lopez
Kopa Trophy (Men): Lamine Yamal
Ballon d’Or (Women): Aitana Bonmati
Ballon d’Or (Men): Ousmane Dembélé
Record Breaking Achievements
Most Goals in a Single Season for Women's Category
Ewa Pajor was already a proven goalscorer at Wolfsburg, but her scoring prowess took on a different level when she swapped shirts for Barcelona last summer. Never before in nine seasons in Germany, the Polish striker crossed the 30-goal mark. Yet, the 28-year-old bagged a whopping 43 goals in 46 games in her debut season with the Catalan giants. That set a new club record for most goals in a single season for a Barcelona player, scoring at nearly a goal-per-game rate. Moreover, it marked the highest tally of goals that a player has managed in a season in winning the award in the women's Ballon d'Or history.
Most Goals in a Single Season for Men’s Category
The 2024-25 campaign is when Viktor Gyokores showed the peak of his powers to shatter the previous record for the top European goalscorer set by Manchester City’s Erling Haaland with his 52-goal haul in 2023. After hitting 43 goals in his debut season for Sporting CP, the Swede toppled that record to reach a staggering 54 goals in 52 games to win the Gerd Müller Trophy this year. Among the tally, 39 goals were scored in the league alone, helping Sporting retain the Portuguese title. Gyokores’s insane scoring season helped him to a move to Arsenal this summer, where he hopes to set more scoring records to make sure this won’t be his last individual honour.
First-ever recipient of the Inaugural Women's Yashin Trophy
From 2025, the Lev Yashin Trophy award is going to be handed out to goalkeepers in women’s football as well and the winner of the debut award went to Hannah Hampton. The 24-year-old experienced the best period of her career with Chelsea last season by winning the Women’s Super League title unbeaten and also clinching the Women’s Euro this summer with England. Hampton made a ground-breaking achievement by keeping 13 joint-leading clean sheets in the WSL that sealed her the award, but also for her performances with the Lionesses at the Euros, where she prevented the most goals among keepers in the tournament and made two crucial saves in the shootout at the final, earning Player of the Match.
First to win the Kopa Trophy back-to-back times
After becoming the youngest player to win the Kopa Trophy last year, Lamine Yamal set another stellar record of becoming the first player to win it for back-to-back seasons since the award started in 2018. It is a remarkable achievement considering the trophy is only given to players on or under 21 and the Spanish left winger won it twice, having only turned 18 in July 2025.The previous season was the best return for Yamal, both individually and collectively, with his 39 goal contribution (18 goals, 21 assists) in 55 matches helping Barcelona complete a sensational domestic treble and reach the Champions League final. Indeed, the wonderkid finished second in the Ballon d’Or ranking, nearly breaking the youngest winner record, currently held by Michael Owen at 21 in 2001.
Most Consecutive Ballon d'Or Wins in the Women's Category
In a league of her own, Aitana Bonmatí became the first player in the history of women’s football to win the Ballon d'Or three years in a row, surpassing the record of her teammate Alexia Putellas, who won it consecutively before her. Despite Barcelona's Champions League final loss to Arsenal and Spain's Euro 2025 final defeat to England, her standout performances, including being named the best player at Euro 2025 and in the Champions League, secured the award.
