The Ballon d’Or ceremony marked the end of the past football season. Gianluigi Donnarumma was recognized as the best goalkeeper, Lamin Yamal took home the Best Young Player award, and the top prize went to Usman Dembélé after an outstanding season. But while journalists have had their say, what were fans actually talking about in livestreaming?
Using the newly updated Streams Charts Chat Analyzer, we tracked mentions, discussions and sentiment across YouTube Live, Twitch, and Kick to find out.
For this piece, we analyzed chat rooms across three major livestreaming platforms from June through September 2025. Altogether, we found discussions (or at least mentions) of Ballon d’Or 2025 nominees on over 35,000 channels, involving more than 600,000 users. We uncovered plenty of interesting insights and, much to the disappointment of some experts, Raphinha didn’t even make the top 10 most discussed players.
The statistics and insights below were generated using Streams Charts Chat Analyzer, which, following a recent update, now covers YouTube and Kick in addition to Twitch. Try it for free or get full access.
Among the Ballon d’Or 2025 nominees, the most discussed (by a wide margin) was Lamin Yamal, who captivated fans with his skillful and graceful play for Barcelona and the Spanish national team last season. Over nearly four months, he outpaced Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé in total mentions by 73%.
Interestingly, only two nominees were discussed by more than 100,000 users: Yamal and Premier League star Mohamed Salah. Mbappé came close, but didn’t quite reach the mark.
Looking at the channel metric, the number of chat rooms where players were discussed, it’s interesting to see that British players stand out: Harry Kane, striker for Bayern and the England national team, and Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer. Neither ranks among the top four in total mentions, which suggests their discussions were more focused, whereas some more popular players are frequently mentioned in meaningless spam messages.
Some other interesting observations: the top ten nominees clearly outpaced the rest, as the player in 11th place had fewer than 77,000 mentions. Surprisingly, the award winner ranked only 10th in terms of discussion, while his PSG teammate Vitinha, who finished third in the Ballon d’Or, barely made 15th place. Even more striking: Raphinha, who rounded out the top five in the award, didn’t even reach the top 20 in discussions.
For context, let’s look at how the top five players in our ranking were discussed over the past couple of months. In general, the trends clearly depend on news directly related to the players, though this isn’t a hard rule.
For example, for Barcelona and Real Madrid players, the main talking point in the past two months was the start of the Champions League, with Mbappé standing out after scoring two penalties against Marseille. Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah sparked discussion for very different reasons, following rhetorical questions directed at UEFA in connection with the death of Palestinian player Suleiman al-Obeid.
Another interesting case is Cole Palmer. He saw a share of mentions in July after Chelsea’s win at the FIFA Club World Cup, but his spike in mid-September wasn’t related to football at all: he was mentioned on the channel of Moroccan streamer and big football fan Ahmed Sabiri in connection with the song “Cold Palmer”, the player’s nickname.
We’ll wrap up our chat analytics overview with the Yamal case. We analyzed how the player was discussed in chats over the past two months. Filtering out typical spam, here’s what we found:
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Although Yamal is a polarizing figure in football, most mentions were positive or neutral.
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Ballon d’Or chances were the main topic, often discussed with a negative slant.
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Many discussions revolved around fantasy leagues and football sims.
Overall, our chat analytics reveal that the conversation around Ballon d’Or 2025 nominees in livestreaming reflects a mix of fan sentiment and topical events. Lamin Yamal clearly dominated discussions, while other top players saw spikes tied to specific moments, matches, or even off-field events.
These insights highlight how fan engagement in livestreaming offers a complementary perspective to traditional media coverage and award outcomes. Metrics like mentions, chat-room reach and sentiment provide a nuanced picture of how different generations of football fans interact with the sport online, showing that popularity in conversation doesn’t always align with formal accolades, and that off-field contexts can significantly shape a player’s digital footprint.
