Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Ballon d'Or
Josh Lawless
A surprise Ballon d'Or announcement had fans in agreement after it was teased online.
The 30 nominees for the 2025 France Football prize were released in August, with the official ceremony taking place on 22 September 2025 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris
as Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal and others await to see if they have been crowned the best player in the world.
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But on Sunday, the official Ballon d'Or account told fans to "stay tuned" and said there would be an announcement on Monday afternoon.
There was no hint as to what news would be disclosed but in the replies to the post, plenty of fans had the same reply.
Many joked that the pending announcement was for Robert Lewandowski to finally receive a Ballon d'Or following his incredible exploits in 2020.
On X, one fan replied: "2020 Ballondor to Lewa or we don't care."
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A second said: "BALLONDOR 2020 for Lewandowski?"
A third wrote: "PLEASE GIVE LEWANDOWSKI HIS 2020 BALLON DOR."
Another user added: "2020 Ballon d’Or to be given out to the deserving winner ??!!"
The upcoming Ballon d'Or ceremony will be the 69th but the 2020 edition was completely cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused mass disruptions.
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But plenty felt as though Lewandowski, then at Bayern Munich, was completely robbed after 47 goals in 44 games for club and country - winning the Bundesliga and Champions League.
He did still collect the FIFA Men's Best Player for 2020 but the outrage was so strong that Luis Suarez, the 1960 Ballon d'Or winner, offered to give him his.
Suarez told Carrusel Deportivo: "Give Lewandowski the Ballon d'Or, damn it! If not, I'll give you mine!"
A year later when the award resumed in 2021, Lionel Messi won his seventh Ballon d'Or as Lewandowski had to settle for second place and the Gerd Muller Trophy after another stellar year.
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In his acceptance speech, Messi said that Lewandowski ought to have been given the Ballon d'Or for his achievements.
“Robert, you deserve your Ballon d'Or," Messi said after finishing 33 points ahead of Lewandowski.
"Last year, everyone was in agreement to say that you were the big winner of this award”.
Despite being hard done by, Lewandowski told Sport Bild that he is not "angry or wistful because this trophy is still missing" and would "not feel offended" if he received the gong years later.