Thierry Henry snubs Mo Salah as he names his favourite for Ballon d’Or

Thierry Henry reckons Mo Salah and Harry Kane are Ballon d’Or contenders, but the current frontrunner is Barcelona star Raphinha.

There is a lot of football to be played before the 2025 Ballon d’Or is handed out, with the ceremony in October in Paris, so much could change in the race for the prize.

Players will go a long way to winning that race by the end of the current season, though, as being part of league title and Champions League winning sides will massively boost their cause.

Henry feels it is Raphinha’s performances in the Champions League that have edged him ahead of his rivals so far in the argument to be the next Ballon d’Or winner.

The former Leeds winger has scored 11 goals in just 10 Champions League outings this season, including two in the 3-1 win over Benfica on Tuesday night.

The Brazil international is now on 27 goals in all competitions this season, and Henry feels that because he does not take penalties and he has other duties to carry out other than scoring goals, his figures are even more impressive than his competitors.

‘Raphinha is ahead, yes, with the Ballon d’Or,’ Henry said on CBS Sports. ‘Because of what he is doing in the Champions League, he is on 11 goals in the Champions League.

‘Mo Salah is a great contender for it, Kane is a contender and [Ousmane] Dembele it depends.

‘Raphinha is on a lot of goals with only one penalty. And I’m not saying Kane shouldn’t have penalties. Mo Salah is having a season in the Premier League that we will never see again, but I’m saying if a guy has virtually the same amount of goals as you guys score but without penalties, I’m not going to say that’s bad what you did, it’s outstanding, but this guy, I have to talk a bit more about him

‘What Raphinha is doing on top of defending and pressure. When people talk about being complete, as a striker you need to know how to put pressure on and defend, and help your full-back and press well, it’s a lot of things that you need to do and Raphinha has it all.’

Barcelona knocked out Benfica to book their spot in the quarter-finals, where they will take on either Borussia Dortmund or Lille.

Salah’s Liverpool were beaten by PSG, who will go on to play either Club Brugge or Aston Villa in the last eight.

Kane’s Bayern Munich handsomely beat Bayer Leverkusen over two legs to secure a quarter-final meeting with Inter Milan.

The England captain is having yet another great goal-scoring season, with 32 to his name in all competitions, 10 of which have come in the Champions League.

No Englishman has won the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001, but if Kane could win the Bundesliga and Champions League with Bayern then he would be in with a chance.

Currently eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and into the quarters of the Champions League, it is not out of the question.

However, despite Henry’s tip and both Kane and Salah being in the running, the favourite with the bookmakers to win the 2025 Ballon d’Or is Real Madrid and France superstar Kylian Mbappe.

The 26-year-old has scored 29 goals in all competitions so far this season and will hope to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night when Real take a 2-1 lead into the second leg of their last 16 tie with Atletico Madrid.