Who is the best player in the world this season? (2024 - ‘25)

Who is the world’s best player for the 2024/‘25 season?

  • Total voters
    238
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Malkovich said:
I think who will win is either Salah or Yamal

Because they have a 'brand'. If the sporting result is close enough, the player with a brand will receive more votes than Raphinha
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If Dembele stars in the final, he will almost certainly win it, and I think there's a good chance he wins it even if he doesn't star in the final but PSG win the trophy anyway. If Inter win, that is the only scenario when the other candidates come into play, IMO. Obviously an Inter player can win it if Inter are victorious, but I don't think they have a stand out candidate like Dembele

Awards are about narratives, and the PSG story is too strong to ignore if they win in the final - look at them doing it with all these hard working, selfless youngsters, instead of disgusting reprobates like Neymar and Mbappe......
 
Kwabs said:
If Dembele stars in the final, he will almost certainly win it, and I think there's a good chance he wins it even if he doesn't star in the final but PSG win the trophy anyway. If Inter win, that is the only scenario when the other candidates come into play, IMO. Obviously an Inter player can win it if Inter are victorious, but I don't think they have a stand out candidate like Dembele

Awards are about narratives, and the PSG story is too strong to ignore if they win in the final - look at them doing it with all these hard working, selfless youngsters, instead of disgusting reprobates like Neymar and Mbappe......
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All it matters is who the captains will vote for, and it will be Yamal if he maintains this level to start next season
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't really get the Dembele plaudits. He's looked nowhere near as good as the likes of Yamal or Salah whenever I've watched PSG. I don't even think he's the best winger in his own team, never mind the world.
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If PSG win the final (& French Cup final), he's on for the Treble as the team's top scorer. Think he has the most assists, too(?)

Basically he's having an extremely productive season.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't really get the Dembele plaudits. He's looked nowhere near as good as the likes of Yamal or Salah whenever I've watched PSG. I don't even think he's the best winger in his own team, never mind the world.
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Good thing he doesn't play as a winger then.
 
Malkovich said:
All it matters is who the captains will vote for, and it will be Yamal if he maintains this level to start next season
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I mean, I've made it clear that I think Yamal has been the best player in the world this season, and I've said multiple times that I think that he's better than Salah. But who the best player is and who will win the Ballon D'Or are two different questions.
 
If they follow the criteria generally used and PSG win the UCL, it's hard not to elect Dembele (top scorer in Ligue 1 and for PSG in the UCL):

The criterion is usually: ucl title + team's most productive attacking player

I don't see a problem with choosing Dembele. That was my vote in the poll.

Dembele is a good player, on the level of Vini Jr, but he doesn't look like the best in the world. So there's that. He's not a dominant player like Messi, Cr7, etc. Mbappe is better than him. So perhaps the criteria will be ignored by some voters. And voters prefer a more dominant player like Salah or Raphina (dominant in statistics). Or a young prodigy like Yamal. If Inter won, it would increase their chances.
 
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MexicanCowboy said:
I honestly hope Lamine doesn't win it yet. He's too young for that.
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I agree... also he doesn't deserve it just yet either...

Whilst he has had a stellar season, quite a few others have had better seasons.

Would be saying different if he managed to put that last min chance in the net though!
 
Bruno Fernandes with the same number of votes as Salah is weird in my opinion..
 
The fact that Bruno is even on the list of options is ridiculous. I don't even know if he's among top 50:confused:

Lamine is definitely nr1.
 
Polar said:
The fact that Bruno is even on the list of options is ridiculous. I don't even know if he's among top 50:confused:

Lamine is definitely nr1.
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While I agree he shouldn't be on the poll list, questioning his inclusion in the top 50 is (to use your own word) ridiculous and just blatant denial.
 
Not sure, but I don't think I'm far from the truth. Bruno probably wouldn't be in the starting eleven of ten of the best clubs in the world, and then he's not far from being outside the top 50.
 
Polar said:
Not sure, but I don't think I'm far from the truth. Bruno probably wouldn't be in the starting eleven of ten of the best clubs in the world, and then he's not far from being outside the top 50.
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List them.

Actually never mind, I will

Barcelona
Inter
PSG
Arsenal
Liverpool
Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid
Napoli
Bayern Munich
Leverkusen

He'd get into some of these sides as a starter, come on.
 
Yamal is not the best player in the world currently. He is an absolutely crazy talent and will be very soon, but people are hyping him up because of his age and immense talent.

I mean, people in the actual Yamal thread are comparing his current level to prime Ronaldinho which is absolutely absurd :lol:
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Yamal is not the best player in the world currently. He is an absolutely crazy talent and will be very soon, but people are hyping him up because of his age and immense talent.

I mean, people in the actual Yamal thread are comparing his current level to prime Ronaldinho which is absolutely absurd :lol:
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He is the best player in the world, but that says more about the dearth of real talent right now than it says about him.

The Ronaldinho thing has already been discussed. He's obviously not as good as prime Dinho and I don't think that anybody said that he was. He's most likely better than 16/17 year old Ronaldinho though.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Yamal is not the best player in the world currently. He is an absolutely crazy talent and will be very soon, but people are hyping him up because of his age and immense talent.

I mean, people in the actual Yamal thread are comparing his current level to prime Ronaldinho which is absolutely absurd :lol:
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Who's better than him?
 
antk said:
People stating that Yamal's been the most important Barcelona player this season have surely not watched much more than their CL semi tie. Big recency bias.
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Not at all.

He's been their main man all season.

Their La Liga record when Yamal doesn't start games is putrid.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't really get the Dembele plaudits. He's looked nowhere near as good as the likes of Yamal or Salah whenever I've watched PSG. I don't even think he's the best winger in his own team, never mind the world.
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Dembele has been pretty exceptional since the turn of the year.

Also, he's not really been deployed as a winger lately. Enrique started using him as a false 9 with freedom to roam around, but he's been pretty pivotal to their possession game. Don't have the stats on me, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't in the top percentile for pressures applied by attackers too. He's ran his socks off lately. Their away goals vs Arsenal and Liverpool were a direct result of him dropping deeper to receive the ball and link up play(and then scoring at the end of it).

I don't think it's a coincidence PSG looked much worse without him vs Arsenal to start the 2nd leg.
 
Yamal has been the best player.

I think Dembele edges out Salah for the 2nd best player this season.

Raphina statistically may have had the best season, but I don't get how anyone can watch Barcelona this season and come away thinking Raphinha is their best player.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Who's better than him?
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As per this thread discussion, its opinions but in no particular order. Salah, Rodri, Raphinha, Dembele, Bellingham, Vinicius, Mbappe, Lewandowski.

One season of players form dropping slightly or being injured doesn't take away from them being some of the best in the world.

People are just getting carried away with the hype of such a young, crazy talented, teenage prodigy.
 
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Eddy_JukeZ said:
Yamal has been the best player.

I think Dembele edges out Salah for the 2nd best player this season.

Raphina statistically may have had the best season, but I don't get how anyone can watch Barcelona this season and come away thinking Raphinha is their best player.
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As a forward you can't be the best player in the world if you have 6 league goals in 31 games. Regardless of who has the most flair and talent, numbers still matter.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
As per this thread discussion, its opinions but in no particular order. Salah, Rodri, Raphinha, Dembele, Bellingham, Vinicius, Lewandowski.

One season of players form dropping slightly or being injured doesn't take away from them being some of the best in the world.

People are just getting carried away with the hype of such a young, crazy talented, teenage prodigy.
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The thread title is 'Who is the best player in the world this season? (2024 - ‘25)'

Yamal is the real deal already not some hyped up potential like most wonderkids. I saw many say "Yamal is the future of football" but he's already the present. I get that people are scared to declare a player at 17 the best in the world (and even as a Barca fan to have witnessed Messi, 'Dinho and co, I can hardly believe it myself) but we are witnessing it.
 
Dembele for me. If he performs and wins the CL, it's locked in. It's the least controversial pick and most people can understand why you'd give it him.

Wouldn't be against Lewa for his prolonged output over many years.

Yamal is probably the best right at this very moment, but Palmer was better start of season - so it shows you have to sustain that level, and i'm not sure Yamal has really. Bruno/Salah you can make valid arguments for, but very controversial choices a lot of people wouldn't accept.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Vini was one of the main reasons Real won the CL though.
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Which shouldn't be the be all end all. The best player in the world is the best player in the world. If Dembele wins the UCL this season he is not a better player than Yamal. Idk how anyone can watch the past 2 semi finals over the last 2 weeks and say that Dembele is a better player than Yamal.

If Enrique offered Dembele + 100 million for Yamal Barca wouldn't take it and if Enrique had the chance he'd take that deal every day of the week.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
As per this thread discussion, its opinions but in no particular order. Salah, Rodri, Raphinha, Dembele, Bellingham, Vinicius, Mbappe, Lewandowski.

One season of players form dropping slightly or being injured doesn't take away from them being some of the best in the world.

People are just getting carried away with the hype of such a young, crazy talented, teenage prodigy.
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The bolded ignores the thread question, which is 'who is been the the best player in the world this season?' You've listed people that are either injured or have been poor this season.

So we can eliminate Rodri, Vini Jr and Bellingham (hasn't been poor, per se, but I don't think anyone in their right mind would call him the best player in the world this season)

That leaves Salah, Raphinha, Dembele, Mbappe and Lewandowski.

Yamal's best performance level is better than any of these players' best performance level. I'm talking performances, not counting numbers.

I could make a possible exception for Mbappe and Dembele, when they are really humming, but I don't think we've seen the absolute best of Mbappe this season, for obvious reasons.

I've already said that Dembele has a great chance at the Ballon D'Or this season, but ask me to pick one player for my team between him and Yamal, and I'm picking Yamal.
 
I'd love for someone to define performance in an objective way. It doesn't have to involve numbers. But it should be objective enough that there's little room for debate using said definition.
 
adexkola said:
I'd love for someone to define performance in an objective way. It doesn't have to involve numbers. But it should be objective enough that there's little room for debate using said definition.
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Football is way too complex for that.
 
Scandi Red said:
Reminder that these are 4 completely different questions:

Who's the best player in the world?
Who's the best player in the world right now?
Who has had the best season?
Who will win the Ballon d'Or?

The answer to these 4 questions could be 4 different players.
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That's fair. Since the first one is probably one of Salah & Yamal, the second one feels like Yamal, the third one has to be Raphinha (who isn't a better footballer but his productivity combined with the overall effectiveness and big stage performances was insane this season)... and the fourth one can easily be someone like Dembélé :lol:
 
Lautaro Martínez won Copa América less than a year ago, and could win the champions league + serie A.

If he does end up getting those trophies, he should get all the awards.
 
George Owen said:
Lautaro Martínez won Copa América less than a year ago, and could win the champions league + serie A.

If he does end up getting those trophies, he should get all the awards.
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Yamal's won the Euros, and will likely win the Spanish double this year. Should he be geting the awards if Inter fail to lift either trophy?
 
George Owen said:
Lautaro Martínez won Copa América less than a year ago, and could win the champions league + serie A.

If he does end up getting those trophies, he should get all the awards.
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Copa counted for the award last year. It doesn't matter this year.
 
Querulous Megapode said:
Yamal's won the Euros, and will likely win the Spanish double this year. Should he be geting the awards if Inter fail to lift either trophy?
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Dembele in that case would be a good choice.

Champions league, Ligue 1 and french cup (potentially).

antk said:
Copa counted for the award last year. It doesn't matter this year.
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Ohh ok.
 
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