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Real Madrid will miss the 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony, continuing a boycott that began last year.
The Spanish giants pulled out in 2024 after Vinícius Júnior was overlooked, even though the club won Best Men’s Club and Carlo Ancelotti was named Coach of the Year. President Florentino Pérez and the board say the voting system doesn’t treat their players fairly, and that issue hasn’t gone away.
This year, there’s also a practical problem: Real face Levante just a day after the gala, making travel tricky. Add to that the fact they have no real contender for the trophy – despite Kylian Mbappé’s 44-goal season – and skipping the ceremony made sense.
PSG will also miss the gala, but for a different reason: their rescheduled Classique against Marseille happens at the same time.
The French Professional Football League (LFP) has confirmed that Sunday’s Ligue 1 match between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain has been postponed because of bad weather.
Citing article 548 of competition regulations, the LFP said: “When a match cannot start due to bad weather, it is postponed, or if it is stopped completely, it resumes the following day (unless there are exceptional circumstances), from the minute it was stopped, at a time set by the LFP.”
The game will now be played on Monday at 19:00 (GMT+1).
French outlet RMC reported that PSG pushed for a later date, as the rescheduled time clashes with the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris, where nine of their players, including Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, are nominated.
Real’s absence, however, is clearly a protest and shows just how far the club’s presence in the Ballon d’Or has slipped since Karim Benzema won in 2022.
