Neymar 'honk' Raphinha in 5th place in the Ballon d'Or: 'Too much bullshit'

Raphinha 's teammate on the Brazilian national team , Neymar criticized the Barcelona forward's position in this year's Ballon d'Or . In a vote organized by France Football , with the participation of 100 specialized journalists around the world—one from each top-ranked country in the FIFA rankings—he finished behind Ousmane Dembélé, Lamine Yamal, Vitinha, and Mohamed Salah.

Neymar's comment was made on a post by his friend and influencer Eduardo Semblano, from the Fui Clear profile. "Raphinha in fifth is just too much of a shame," wrote the Santos forward. The post showed this year's Ballon d'Or top 10 winners. "This is shameless. It's been around for years," Semblano responded.

Besides Raphinha, Vinicius Júnior was the other Brazilian representative for the World Player of the Year award. Runner-up in 2024, when he finished behind only Manchester City's Rodri, in an episode that resulted in Real Madrid boycotting the award, he dropped to 16th this season, in which the Merengue club won only the UEFA Super Cup.

Since 2007, when Kaká was the last Brazilian to win the French magazine's award, Neymar has finished in the top 10 the most times. Nominated for the first time in 2011, while still playing for Santos, he reached third place, according to the electoral college analysis, in 2015 and 2017. In total, he finished in the top ten on six occasions, but since 2021 he has not been among the finalists for the award.