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What we learned from FIFA Best voting: Messi loves Dembele and England back their own
The FIFA Best Awards may lack the lustre of the more historic Ballon d’Or, but nobody could accuse them of lacking transparency.
The prizes for the best women’s and men’s players in 2025 were awarded after a vote of the coach, captain and a media representative from each of the international federations, and the results — published here — offered some intriguing insights.
We analysed the best of them.
Dembele wins the crowd (including Messi)
If there was ever any doubt over Dembele collecting the main prize of the evening, the voting breakdown suggests it was misplaced. The PSG winger cleaned up among the polling of national captains, coaches and media representatives, collecting more first place votes than the rest of the field combined. Dembele was top pick for 325 of the 584 voters, in fact.
Some of football’s biggest names were Team Dembele. Former winner Lionel Messi was among them — the Argentine placed him first, with Kylian Mbappe second and Lamine Yamal third — along with Harry Kane, Granit Xhaka, Youri Tielemans, Ronald Koeman and Mauricio Pochettino.
The value of a Champions League final victory was made clear across the event. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, now with Manchester City, was named the best goalkeeper, making it six of last season’s PSG team in the FIFA Best XI of 2024-25.
England coaches back their own
There was nothing to stop allegiances dictating how anyone should vote and Thomas Tuchel placed two Englishmen in his three picks. Harry Kane was Tuchel’s top choice, followed by Cole Palmer and then, in third, Dembele.
Curious picks from Tuchel but he was hardly alone. Kane’s name cropped up repeatedly in the voting, with the head coaches of Bosnia, Colombia, Poland, Romania and South Africa all believing he had been the top footballer of 2024-25 after plundering 48 goals for club and country last season..
Palmer also won recognition, perhaps with his heroics in the Club World Cup final win over PSG fresh in minds over the summer. Captains of the Cook Islands, Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago all voted for Palmer to lead the way, as did the coaches of Grenada and Vietnam.
Tuchel’s approach was shared by Lionesses head coach Sarina Wiegman, who won the women’s coach of the year and backed her trusted defender Lucy Bronze as player of the year. In fact, Wiegman backed a trio of her own players for the main prize, with Alessia Russo and her Euro 2025 trophy-lifting captain, Leah Williamson, getting her her other picks.
Hayes has left Chelsea behind
If you needed a sign that USWNT head coach Emma Hayes is no longer wearing her Chelsea cap full-time, then here it is.
She chose Arsenal duo Mariona Caldentey and Russo followed by Temwa Chawinga, the Kansas City Current and Malawi forward. Chawinga was once again the winner of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) MVP award for 2025, having also won it in 2024.
In a show of true sisterhood, the NWSL’s top scorer with 15 goals in 23 regular-season appearances also received a first place vote from the captain of Malawi, also known as her older sister, Tabitha Chawinga who plays for Lyon.
Salah’s popularity is undimmed
There was a point of last season when Mohamed Salah appeared on course for the highest individual honours before Liverpool’s exit from the Champions League but he retained favouritism in little pockets around the globe.
Virgil Van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo, his Liverpool team-mates, all gave Salah their vote before life recently became unsettled at Anfield, acknowledging the efforts of last season’s PFA Player of the Year.
Salah also got the nod from his head coach with Egypt, Hossam Hassan, along with those from Kenya, Libya, Papa New Guinea, Palestine and Trinidad and Tobago.
Some Spanish awkwardness
In the women’s award, things may have gotten a little tense in Spain.
They have dominated the player award for the past five years and are never short of standout nominees. This gave national team captain Irene Paredes quite a lot of team-mates to pick from. But guess who missed out in her top three? Eventual winner, Aitana Bonmati.
Paredes instead went for Guijarro, Alexia Putellas, who finished in the top three having claimed the award in 2021 and 2022, and Caldentey.
Meanwhile, Spain coach Sonia Bermudez had a similarly tricky task whittling down her squad of incredible footballers. For Bermudez, it was Caldentey who edged it over Bonmati and Putellas respectively.
Martinez the shock coaching pick
There was only ever going to be one winner in the Coach of the Year category.
The affable Luis Enrique worked wonders with Paris Saint-Germain last season and justifiably won recognition from the vast majority of his peers. Arne Slot, Hansi Flick and Mikel Arteta also picked up a good few votes but it was the name of Roberto Martinez that surprised.
Across a judging period that saw him take charge of just 10 games as Portugal’s head coach, he attracted eight top picks after winning the Nations League final against Spain on penalties. As good an achievement as that was, perhaps not one to rival a Champions League triumph.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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