Barcelona – Saba:
Spanish international Lamine Jamal, Barcelona winger, has won the award for the best football player in the world for the 2024-2025 season in the annual poll by the Madrid newspaper Marca.
A jury of 133 journalists from Marca, Spanish and international media outlets, as well as former players and coaches, announced the list of the top 100 players late Thursday evening, which included four Arab players.
Lamine Jamal, 18, won the award after a remarkable season with the Catalan club, winning the domestic treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup, in addition to reaching the Champions League semi-finals. He scored a total of 18 goals and provided 25 assists.
Jamal earned 3,310 points, far ahead of Ousmane Dembélé (3,100) and Vitinha (2,732).
Jamal, who finished fourth in Marca's ranking of the 100 best players of the 2023-24 season (behind Vinicius Junior, Bellingham, and Rodri Hernandez), moved up three places to win this year's award.
Ousmane Dembélé, the Paris Saint-Germain star, finished second, despite being the favorite to win the Ballon d'Or after leading his French club to their first-ever Champions League title, in addition to their domestic dominance.
Portuguese Vitinha, the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder, finished third, followed by Brazilian Rafinha, the Barcelona star, in fourth place, and Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, the Real Madrid striker, in fifth place.
Barcelona midfielder Pedri finished sixth, ahead of Egyptian Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool icon, who finished seventh, while Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, the Paris Saint-Germain star, finished eighth.
The top 10 list is completed by Paris Saint-Germain left-back Nuno Mendes and fellow goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, while Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior drops to 25th place after winning the newspaper's award for the best player in the world last season.
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