September 23 – Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembélé has beaten Lamine Yamal to lift the 2025 Ballon d’Or at a ceremony in the French capital last night.
The 28-year-old scored 35 goals and made 16 assists in 53 games for PSG on the club’s way to a historic quintuple, which included the UEFA Champions League, Ligue 1, Coupe de France and UEFA Super Cup and Trophée des Champions.
Dembélé was the joint top scorer in Ligue 1 with 21 goals and was named the French top flight and Champions League’s player of the year, earning his first nomination for the coveted Ballon d’Or.
Despite missing out on the FIFA Club World Cup after PSG’s loss to Chelsea, voters determined he had done more than enough to earn football’s greatest individual accolade, completing an extraordinary career turnaround after he had been decried as a wasted talent at Barcelona not two years ago.
Barcelona’s own Lamine Yamal, still only 18-years-old, placed second after another stunning year for FC Barcelona and Spain. He didn’t leave Paris empty-handed, though, as he took home his second KOPA trophy in a row – the award given to the best young player in Europe.
PSG’s Vitinha came third in the ranking with performances for his club during a historic season buffed by Portugal’s Nations League success.
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah only did enough to finish fourth despite a record-breaking season in the Premier League – showing just how much weight the Champions League holds in decision making for the award.
Rounding out the top five is FC Barcelona and Brazil forward Raphinha, who was particularly impressive on the goalscoring front last season, finishing as joint top scorer in the Champions League.
Despite having a record nine nominations, PSG players were mostly absent on the night due to their rescheduled Le Classique fixture against Olympique de Marseille, which was moved to Monday night due to poor weather over the weekend. To add insult to injury, the French champions lost that game 1-0.
Dembélé, who is currently out of action due to a hamstring injury, was able to attend the ceremony in Paris – and was in tears as he stood on the stage.
For the second year in a row, Real Madrid didn’t show face at the event, claiming they were ‘focused on Levante’, who they play this evening.
The relationship between Europe’s most successful club and the Ballon d’Or has become increasingly frosty since the snub of Vinicius Junior at last year’s event – Manchester City’s Rodri claiming the award instead.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]