2025 Ballon d'Or Top Ten Salary Comparison: Mbappé Leads, Dembélé Third, Palmer at the Bottom

The 2025 Ballon d'Or ceremony has wrapped up, crowning 28-year-old Dembélé as the winner, marking his rise to stardom. German Transfer Market compiled intriguing statistics showing the annual wages of the top ten Ballon d'Or players in 2025, with Dembélé placing third, Mbappé leading, and Chelsea’s main attacker Palmer ranking last.

Annual salaries of the top ten Ballon d'Or players in 2025:

• Ballon d'Or first place, Dembélé/Paris, valued at €90 million, earning €18 million annually.
• Ballon d'Or second place, Yamal/Barcelona, valued at €200 million, with an annual salary of €16.7 million.
• Ballon d'Or third place, Vitinha/Paris, valued at €80 million, earning €11 million per year.
• Ballon d'Or fourth place, Salah/Liverpool, valued at €50 million, with an annual income of €21 million.
• Ballon d'Or fifth place, Raphinha/Barcelona, valued at €90 million, earning €16.7 million yearly.
• Ballon d'Or sixth place, Achraf/Paris, valued at €80 million, with a yearly salary of €13.2 million.
• Ballon d'Or seventh place, Mbappé/Real Madrid, valued at €180 million, earning €31.3 million annually.
• Ballon d'Or eighth place, Palmer/Chelsea, valued at €120 million, with an annual salary of €6.8 million.
• Ballon d'Or ninth place, Donnarumma/Manchester City, valued at €40 million, earning €13 million per year.
• Ballon d'Or tenth place, Nuno Mendes/Paris, valued at €80 million, with an annual wage of €10 million.

Fans joked that Palmer thought he had a guaranteed spot, and indeed he does—a "iron rice bowl." Looking at the other nine players in the Ballon d'Or top ten, they all hold "golden" or "silver" rice bowls, earning at least €10 million annually.