Ballon d’Or 2025: Gary Lineker, Micah Richards discuss player to win award

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Ballon d’Or 2025: Gary Lineker, Micah Richards discuss player to win award

Former Barcelona striker, Gary Lineker and former Manchester City defender, Micah Richards have discussed on one surprise player that could win the 2025 Ballon d’Or.

Lineker backed Paris Saint-Germain’s Gianluigi Donnarumma to claim the top individual award if he has an “amazing” match in his side’s UEFA Champions League final with Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena on Saturday night.

However, the former England international jokingly says he doesn’t want the Italian to get the award because goalkeepers always get in the way of a goalscorer.

Talking with fellow pundits Richards on The Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “What a number of performances we’ve seen from Donnarumm in the Champions League.

“If Donnarumma has another amazing game in the final [of the Champions League] and is maybe the key figure, is it possible that we get a goalkeeper as the winner of the Ballon d’Or?’ Lineker asked Richards.

Replying, Richards replied: “That is not a bad shout.”

Laughing, Lineker immediately rebutted: “I think it’s a terrible shout.

“I don’t like goalkeepers, they always get in the way of the goalscorers,” he stated.

The only goalkeeper that have won the Ballon d’Or in the history of the award was the late Lev Yashin in 1963.