Paris, May 19 (IANS) The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony will take place on September 22 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France Football confirmed on Monday. A major new feature will see all existing men’s trophies (best goalkeeper, best young player, best scorer) also be awarded to the women’s category.

The Ballon d’Or will be announced a month earlier than usual this year: while the last ceremonies were held at the end of October. The evening will take place in the same prestigious venue: the Theatre du Chatelet, in the heart of Paris. The players nominated for the trophies will be announced in the first half of August.

The trophy is organized by France Football and 30 players are nominated for the Ballon d’Or and their names will be submitted to the vote.

The votes are made by journalists. There are 100 for the men’s Ballon d’Or, and 50 for the women’s Ballon d’Or. Each country in the top 100 of the FIFA rankings (top 50 for women) has a journalist representative who votes for the winner of the most prestigious individual trophy in the world of football. Each journalist must elect a top 10, each place of which awards points to the nominated player. The player with the most points is named Ballon d’Or.

Three hierarchical criteria are considered by Ballon d’Or voters. First, individual performances and decisive and impressive character. Second, the team aspect and trophies won. Finally, class and fair play. The criterion related to an individual’s entire career has disappeared from the voting process since the 2024 edition.

At the 2024 edition of the awards, Rodrigo won the 2024 Men’s Ballon d’Or trophy and in doing so, became the first Manchester City player. Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati became the second woman to win the Women’s Ballon d’Or consecutively. Lamine Yamalt won the Kopa trophy for his incredible breakout season.

US Women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes and Los Blancos’ Carlo Ancelotti had won the honour of women’s and men’s coach of the year respectively.

Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez won the Yashin Trophy for his heroics that won Argentina their second consecutive Copa America honour.

Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane’s incredible goal-scoring prowess saw the duo share the Gerd Muller Trophy, which is awarded to the highest goal scorer. The duo ended their 2023-24 tally on an astounding 52 goals each.

–IANS

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