Kylian Mbappe, Mo Salah Headline FIFA's The Best Men's Player 2025 Nominees List

FIFA announced the 11 nominees for its Best Men's Player award, a group that includes Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Ballon d'Or winner Ousmane Dembélé.

Ballots are open between now and Nov. 28. The voting share is divided equally between national team coaches and captains along with supporters and a select group of journalists.

By virtue of his Ballon d'Or triumph, Dembélé arguably has the inside track. He scored 21 goals and had six assists in Ligue 1 along with eight goals and six assists in the Champions League as Paris Saint-Germain won both competitions.

The Ballon d'Or and FIFA Men's Best Player yielded different winners in 2024, though, with Manchester City's Rodri claiming the former and Madrid's Vinícius Júnior earning the latter. The same was true in 2022 with Madrid star Karim Benzema and PSG's Lionel Messi splitting the two awards.

Salah won the Premier League's Golden Boot for the fourth time after scoring 29 goals in 2024-25. His 18 assists were also six ahead of the next-closest player.

His Ballon d'Or candidacy may have suffered from Liverpool exiting in the round of 16 in the Champions League. Salah's form tailed off in the second half as well.

FIFA's spotlight could instead shine on Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, the Ballon d'Or runner-up.

Yamal further asserted himself as the brightest young men's talent in the world by winning La Liga and helping Spain reach the final of the Nations League. Between La Liga and the Champions League, he had 30 goal involvements (14 goals and 16 assists) a season ago.

The 18-year-old already has three goals and four assists to open the current domestic campaign.