Mohamed Salah in the firing line as Neymar blasts 'joke' Ballon d'Or decision

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Former Barcelona star Neymar has claimed that it's a "joke" that Brazil team-mate Raphinha finished down in fifth and below Liverpool's Mohamed Salah in the Ballon d'Or rankings.

Ousmane Dembele lifted the prestigious award at Monday's ceremony in Paris, beating Barcelona's Lamine Yamal to the prize following an impressive 2024/25 season with Paris Saint-Germain.

PSG's Joao Neves finished third while Salah came in fourth, having enjoyed an incredible season at the Reds.



Adding to that, Salah found the net three times in five matches for Egypt last term.

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Despite this, Neymar fumed that Raphinha found himself below Salah in the Ballon d'Or race.

He contributed with a further four goals in seven games for Brazil.

Looking at the numbers, there wasn't much to separate Raphinha and Salah but Neymar was not pleased, hinting that the Barcelona man deserved a higher ranking than he received.

Responding to a post from @ofuiclear on Instagram showing the 10 top-ranked men's players, Neymar replied: "Raphinha in 5th is too much of a joke," along with a crying laughing emoji.

Before Monday's ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet, Raphinha suggested that he and Yamal deserved to win the Ballon d'Or after having exceptional seasons at Barcelona.

"In my opinion we both deserve it a lot, we'd be very happy that the Ballon d'Or goes to Barcelona," Raphinha said.

But I don’t know anything, there’s rumours but I don’t know."

Meanwhile, there was plenty of support for Salah to come out on top in Paris.

Former Egypt star Mido backed his case before he ended up losing out to Dembele, Yamal and Neves.

Posting on X, the 42-year-old declared: "I honestly believe that Salah should be the winner by the end of the night.

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"Give him what he deserves the Ballon d'Or."

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