Ballon d'Or 2025: Nominees set to be announced

How is the Ballon d'Or winner decided?

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The Ballon d'Or winner is chosen through a dual system of voting.

Firstly, journalists from France Football and fellow French publication L'Equipe work together to produce a combined list of 30 official nominees (for which we have gathered here today!).

This initial selection process sometimes also includes a small number of former players and is based on players' performances in the previous season.

Then, one football journalist from each of the top 100 Fifa-ranked nations is invited to cast votes for their top 10 players in order from that shortlist. The 10 players are awarded 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point based on ranking.

Once all journalists have submitted their top 10s, points are tallied and the winner of the Ballon d'Or is the player who accrued the most points in the voting, while the rest are ranked from second to 30th.

If players are tied on points, they are separated by the number of first place votes they received. If they are still level, the number of second place votes are used, and so on.

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