Who should win the women's Ballon d'Or: Aitana Bonmati, Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly?

New York Times

07-08-2025

Who should win the women's Ballon d'Or this year?
Today, the 30 nominees for the prize were announced. On September 22, one will be crowned the best player in world football at a ceremony in Paris.
Five members of England's Euro 2025-winning squad make the list, along with six Barcelona players and United States representation from Lindsey Heaps and Emily Fox.
Here, The Athletic's expert writers have their say on who deserves the accolade. Let us know your picks in the comments below, too.
Some think the Ballon d'Or should go to the player with the biggest, shiniest trophies. This year, that's Alessia Russo: European champion with club and country and joint-top scorer in the Women's Super League (WSL).
The argument could stop there, but that would do her a real disservice. Russo is much more than just a winner, goalscorer, or burst of glitter — she has developed into a complete package.
Advertisement
Her link-up play and creativity, her intelligent movement and tenacity, matter just as much to her team-mates' goals as her own — take her vision and hold-up play to assist Lauren James' opener against the Netherlands. We mostly term defenders or holding midfielders as workhorses, but the effort she showed as the leader of England's press at the European Championship was superhuman.
Russo is more than just the finisher: she is willing to do the hard yards that make trophy runs possible. And, of course, she scores the important goals along the way too.
Cerys Jones
Aitana Bonmati has won a third of the six women's Ballon d'Or awards, and three in a row is now on the cards.
The 27-year-old midfielder has been the beating heart of Barcelona and the Spanish national team for years. She provides silk and steel, the control amid the chaos.
She was desperately close to winning Liga F, the Champions League, and the European Championship this year. That Barcelona and Spain fell just short in the latter two finals, against Arsenal and England, should not obscure her almost otherworldly brilliance.
Max Mathews
'If (during a match) you focus only on Patri, you can't help but smile,' Spain's Vicky Lopez said at a press conference in Lausanne this July. 'She may not put on much of a show, but if you watch her…'
Patri Guijarro did not win the Champions League with Barca or the Euros with Spain, finishing as a runner-up in both competitions, but how many players can say they were the best in a competition they did not win?
Even if Bonmati won the official award for best player at the Euros, Guijarro could just as easily have laid claim to it.
She was the only Spain player to convert in the final penalty shootout against England. She is a complete player, arguably the most consistent in Europe last season. She plays passes nobody else sees and helps bring out the best in her two Ballon d'Or-winning team-mates — Bonmati and Alexia Putellas.
Advertisement
Her understated midfield role means she will almost certainly miss out on individual awards. She is unlikely to appear in highlights packages and rarely scores or prevents goals, but she is the key cog in two of the best teams in the world — in much the same way as her compatriot Rodri is for Manchester City and Spain's men's teams.
Laia Cervello Herrero
The thing about Mariona Caldentey is that nothing good happens without her. The 29-year-old joined Arsenal from Barcelona with more than 20 trophies, yet somehow managed to announce herself to the world.
Her WSL stats — accomplished while operating abnormally deep in midfield — are brain-breaking.
She was first for shot-creating actions (104), progressive passes (199), passes into the penalty area (65), and expected assists (6.9). She was joint-third for goals plus assists (14), passes into the final third (142), key passes (43), tackles attempted (74), and tackles completed (54).
The numbers reflect a consummate footballing beast, a player who interprets (and subsequently devours) the game at a different pitch to those around her. Caldentey has delivered big moments, too — just think of her header in the Euro 2025 final and a performance for the ages against her former club Barca, as Arsenal won a first Champions League trophy since 2007.
Honestly, just bring out the Ballon d'Or now.
Megan Feringa
There have been points in Lucy Bronze's long and successful career when she has been the world's very best player. Right now, the 29-time major trophy winner is not the undisputed No 1.
But at the same time, the flying full-back is showing the next generation what it takes to continue playing at an elite level at 33 years old. It can mean strapping up your own thigh with tape mid-game or even playing, oh, I don't know, with a fractured tibia.
A treble winner with Chelsea last season and a European champion once again with England this summer, a Ballon d'Or for Bronze, who came second to Megan Rapinoe in 2019, would be a win for not just her achievements this year, but her career overall.
A win for perseverance, patience, and at times, her utter dominance.
Caoimhe O'Neill
I've already made the case for Russo, but if I'm to back another English player, it's at the opposite end of the pitch.
Plenty of people come for Hannah Hampton's story — the goalkeeper who was told she could never play professional sport as a child, who fought to reclaim her England place after being omitted from multiple squads, who came under extra spotlight when Mary Earps retired from international football before this summer's European Championship — but they stay for her goalkeeping talents.
Advertisement
The 24-year-old doesn't specialise in either shot-stopping or ball-playing, but excels at both. Russo played a crucial role in that James goal against the Netherlands, but that was only possible because Hampton hit a pinpoint pass more than half the length of the pitch, a ball few outfielders would have had the right to strike so accurately, let alone a goalkeeper.
Her four penalty saves (yes, four) are the stops that will stick in people's minds, but England could not have even reached those shootouts against Sweden and Spain without Hampton being near-faultless throughout normal and extra time. It would be extraordinary for a goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or, but then so is Hampton.
Cerys Jones
I'm meant to make a case for Chloe Kelly in 100(ish) words — a task that feels impossible.
To start with, there's her penalty run-up — the England and Arsenal winger's purposeful arresting of attention, how she makes us wait and ultimately beg for the crashing of an inevitable tidal wave.
There are her crosses — deft moments of craftsmanship under blinding pressure.
And there is her sheer ability to shoot, which feels like a useless word to describe what happens when Kelly's foot meets synthetic leather.
More than anything, there is the Euro 2025 and Champions League winner's timing. Who else can transform a domestic and international season into her image, having only played in (at a stretch) half of it? Who else can be so reliable as to become a cliche in a matter of six months?
Sport has clutch players, and it has Kelly. A European champion of incorrigible, unflappable self-conviction with the talent to back it up.
Megan Feringa
I met Esther Gonzalez just weeks after she won the World Cup in Australia.
We were at renowned Spanish chef Jose Andres' Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards, New York, welcoming the then-30-year-old striker to NWSL's Gotham FC. At just 5ft 3in (161cm), Esther was soft-spoken and unassuming, almost too quiet for a newly crowned world champion.
Advertisement
But unlike her headline-grabbing team-mates Putellas and Bonmati, Esther carved out her legacy with quiet consistency to become one of Spain's most reliable goalscorers.
Known for her lethal precision and tireless work ethic, she delivered Gotham a championship soon after her arrival. Nicknamed La Reina, she brings both grit and grace to the pitch at national and club level.
Beyond her impressive goals and spatial excellence, she is a leader who inspires team-mates. She is the kind of player every team dreams of: consistent, fearless and clutch.
Asli Pelit
Arriving at Barca and standing out in your first year in a team full of stars and with two players who have won the last four Ballon d'Or awards — Bonmati and Putellas — is no mean feat. But that is exactly what Ewa Pajor did last season.
The Poland international arrived to try to fill the void left by Caldentey — they do not play the same position, but Caldentey brought versatility to the team and even played as a No 9 in many matches during the 2023-24 season. And she succeeded.
Pajor gave the team something it was missing: a centre-forward who could score goals. And nobody came close in that field. She was Liga F's Golden Boot winner with 25 goals — nine more than the two players in joint-second on the list, Putellas and Edna Imade — and Barcelona's top scorer, with 43 goals in 46 games across all competitions. It's hard to argue with that.
Laia Cervello Herrero
Emily Fox always dreamed of playing in Europe, and in the past 18 months, she's made that dream come true. After helping the U.S. win Olympic gold in Paris, she joined Arsenal and capped off the season by lifting the UEFA Women's Champions League trophy in Lisbon in May.
Fox was a No 1 NWSL draft pick in 2021, rising through the ranks at University of North Carolina despite early injuries, eventually leading Tar Heels to an ACC title and earning a USWNT call-up while still a sophomore in college. In the pros, she quickly stood out at Racing Louisville, then moved to North Carolina Courage, helping them win the 2023 Challenge Cup.
Advertisement
What sets Fox apart is her mental toughness, tactical intelligence and elite athleticism. She is a complete full-back built for the modern game. Now 27, she is arguably the best right-back in the women's game, delivering on a promise she saw coming since she was five years old.
Asli Pelit
(Top photos: Bonmati and Kelly; Getty Images)
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle