PSG winger Ousmane Dembele was the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or and managed to edge out Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal for the top individual award in world football
PSG star Ousmane Dembele showed his class as he even thanked his former club Barcelona while accepting the 2025 Ballon d’Or award in Paris. Ahead of the ceremony, everyone expected that Dembele would be battling with Lamine Yamal for the prestigious prize.
As he arrived at the Chatelet Theatre it was clear the fans in attendance wanted the home favourite to win and so it proved. After scoring a whopping 33 goals in all competitions for Luis Enrique’s side and winning the Champions League, Ligue 1 and the French Cup, it was hard to argue that he was not a deserved winner.
Before the ceremony began, the Ballon d’Or confirmed that the voting journalists from the top 100 FIFA ranked nations were asked to consider three criteria for deciding their votes. Individual prizes, team prizes and the class of the individual.
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And Dembele proved he ticked all three boxes in an emotional acceptance speech. Referencing his old club Barca, the 28-year-old said: “I am a little stressed to be honest.
“I have received this award from one of the biggest legends of all time [Ronaldinho], I can’t believe this. This is an award thanks to the collective.
“I want to thank all my team-mates. I want to thank FC Barcelona, the club of my dreams.
“I played with Lionel Messi, I want to thank him too, I learned so much from him. To have been able to play with Lionel Messi… I have learned so much from him.
“I want to thank [Didier] Deschamps. Let’s hope we can win the World Cup too.
“I want to thank my hometown Eure. Every time I get the chance I go back.
“The people in my neighbourhood helped me to this moment. To my mother, I want to thank you – you have always been there for me, mama.
“To my family, we have experienced so much together. We have been through it all. We will always be together.”
Dembele was able to attend the Ballon d’Or ceremony due to injury ruling him out of the rearranged Ligue 1 fixture against Marseille on Monday evening. Sadly for Dembele, his teammates lost in the south of France 1-0 thanks to an early Nayef Aguerd goal.
The Frenchman’s PSG team-mate Vitinha, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Barcelona’s Raphinha rounded off the top five on a night that was dominated by PSG and Barcelona. Arsenal’s women won club of the year while the Gunner’s new striker Viktor Gyokeres won the Gerd Muller Trophy.
England Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman picked up the Johan Cruyff Award and confirmed that she would be remaining in England for a long time.
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