Each year, the detailed publication of the votes of the 100 jurors of the Ballon d'Or reserves its share of surprises. And this 2025 edition has not derogated from the rule. In the aftermath of the coronation of Ousmane Dembélé, France Football unveiled all the ballots this Saturday, allowing to analyze trends … but also aberrations. Because in the midst of the rankings dominated by the world's major stars, a particular vote made observers jump. Does an unexpected choice that it relaunches an old question: does the selection of jurors really guarantee the credibility of the most prestigious football trophy?
Mctuminay, first… in the Ballon d'Or
This above -ground vote came from an Scottish journalist, John Greechan (Edinburgh Evening News), who simply placed Scott Mctuminay in first place in his ranking, ahead of Ousmane Dembélé, Mohamed Salah or Lamine Yamal. An obviously legal choice – all the names can be classified in any order – but which shocks by its lack of sporting logic. If MCTOMINAY was an important element of Naples in the conquest of Serie A, but to see him get ahead of the great figures of world football is a patriotism assumed more than an objective judgment.
And he is not the only one. The Georgian juror, for example, offered first place to the Parisian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, however far from the performance standards of Dembélé or Salah this season. This type of nationalist vote disrupts the hierarchy and weakens the credibility of a prize supposed to reward individual performance at the highest level. It is precisely to limit this kind of excess that France Football had, since 2022, restricted its jury in the first 100 countries in the FIFA ranking.
Patriotic votes that distort the ballot
But it is clear that these measures were not enough to eradicate the inconsistencies. Despite the desire to professionalize the jury, “patriotic” bulletins continue to arise and weigh on the final classification. Some observers believe that the review could go further by sanctioning voters whose choices are too far from sporting realities. Moreover, Trinité-et-Tobago, Namibia and Armenia were excluded from the panel this year for this kind of drifts.
These unlikely votes recall the years 2010, when some micro-state journalists placed local players in their top 5 ahead of Messi or Ronaldo. France Football may have strengthened its criteria, the problem has not completely disappeared. And if he does not always alter the podium, he poses a background question: how to preserve the prestige of the Ballon d'Or in the face of such questionable choices? An interrogation which, too, returns every year … at the time of the revelation of the votes.
