Ballon d'Or 2025: Voting conspiracy emerges over star who insists 'I deserve it'

The 2025 Ballon d'Or will bring a brand new winner, with none of the favourites for the individual award having even secured a top-three finish coming into this year

The Ballon d'Or often carries complaints about the politics behind the voting process, but the discussion around Achraf Hakimi's hopes this year have added a new sub-plot. Morocco international Hakimi has found himself at the centre of a supposed "Pan African" push ahead of the 2025 ceremony at the expense of club team-mate Ousmane Dembele and fellow African figurehead Mohamed Salah, it has been claimed.

Paris Saint-Germain star Hakimi, 26, was one of the stars of the Moroccan side which reached the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup. At a club level, though, nothing compares to the Treble he won with PSG in the 2024/25 season.

According to Romain Molina, the Moroccan football federation stepped in ahead of the 2025 vote, attempting to leverage contacts across the African continent. "It even went up to the political level in Morocco, they mobilised the entire machinery of the state because it’s important for the country’s prestige," Molina said.

"People want Morocco to have its first Moroccan player to receive such an award. So that was clearly done, particularly at the African level. Now, the question is, 'Will it be effective?'"

Molina notes that the "African vote" has never fully existed in this sense, suggesting the efforts from Morocco might still fall short. "[The Moroccan federation] has absolutely colossal influence, but that’s at the level of football federations in Africa, not at the level of certain journalists or certain media. It’s something completely different," he added.

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One issue is that the front-runner for the award is one of Hakimi's club team-mates. Dembele is odds-on to win with some bookmakers, and PSG are not understood to have been giving their backing to right-back Hakimi in the same way as others.

Since the Ballon d'Or opened up to non-European players in 1995, just one African has come out on top. That was another former PSG player, George Weah, who picked up the award during his time with AC Milan.

African players have struggled to even reach the podium in recent years, even when starring for their clubs and national teams. Sadio Mane became the first since Weah to secure a top three finish, but he was a distant second behind Karim Benzema in 2022.

It is also rare to see defenders crack the top three. Virgil van Dijk finished a close second behind Lionel Messi after Liverpool's Champions League win in 2019, but no other defender has made it onto the podium since Fabio Cannavaro's win in 2006.

"When people put me in the Ballon d'Or debate, it's a dream I never thought about," Hakimi told Canal+ (via TNT Sports) in August. "If I have the chance to win it, I think I deserve it too.

"After the historic season I had - there aren't many players who have scored in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final - while it's more difficult as a defender. People think I'm a striker or a midfielder.

"But no, I play in a line of four, and I have to think about defending. The statistics I've had this year are not those of a normal defender. I think when a defender does that, he deserves more than a striker."

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