Ballon d’Or 2025: Why Thierry Henry believes there is a better candidate than Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane

Thierry Henry has backed Raphinha’s claim to win the 2025 Ballon d’Or, largely due to his goalscoring exploits in the Champions League.

The Brazil international netted twice in Barca’s 3-1 second leg of defeat of Benfica last night to take his tally in Europe’s elite club competition to 11.

The Catalans’ 4-1 aggregate win means they advanced to a quarter-final against either Borussia Dortmund or Lille.

And Henry believes Raphinha has edged ahead of the likes of Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane in the race for the game’s biggest individual prize.

“Raphinha is ahead, with the Ballon d’Or.”

Thierry Henry believes the Barcelona star is an early favorite to take home the prestigious award 👇 pic.twitter.com/6t6V4meq0J

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 11, 2025

Henry backs ‘complete’ Raphinha

Speaking on CBS last night, the former France striker said: “He [Raphinha] is up there because of what he is doing in the Champions League. He has 11 goals in the Champions League.

“Mo Salah is a great contender for it, Harry Kane is a contender.

“Raphinha is on a lot of goals with just one penalty. I’m not saying Kane shouldn’t have penalty [stats] and Mo Salah is having a season in the Premier League that we will never see again.

“But I’m saying if a guy has the same amount of goals than your guys scored without penalties, it’s not bad, it is outstanding.

“What he is doing on top of defending, when people talk about being complete, as a striker you have to know how to put pressure on also and press well and Raphinha has it all.”

Flick backs up Henry’s view

Raphinha has also played a key role in Barcelona topping La Liga, although they are level on points with Real Madrid and just one ahead of Atletico Madrid.

Blaugrana boss Hansi Flick spoke last week of Raphinha’s importance to his team.

The German said: “Raphinha for the Ballon d’Or? He is a candidate, yes. Of course, if he does well this season he could have a chance.

“He always helps us a lot, and if you see the goals he has scored it shows you how hungry he is. You see it, it’s good to see how focused he is. I’m happy with his level.”

The top scorers in this season’s Champions League:

• 11 Raphinha (Barcelona)
• 10 Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
• 9 Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
• 8 Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
• 7 Julian Alvarez (Atletico Madrid), Ousmane Dembele (Paris St-Germain), Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid), Vangelis Pavlidis (Benfica), Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)