The victory was a testament to the great work done by PSG in 2024-25 as the club won the award for club of the year whilst Luis Enrique also won the men's Johan Cruyff Trophy for manager of the season and Gianluigi Donnarumma received the Yashin trophy for best goalkeeper.
On Monday night at the iconic Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, an emotional Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 Ballon d’Or over teen prodigy Lamine Yamal from Barcelona, making him the first men’s PSG player to win the accolade since Lionel Messi in 2021, someone he played with at Barcelona.
"I want to thank FC Barcelona, the club of my dreams," Dembélé said. "I played with Lionel Messi, I want to thank him too, I learned so much from him."
Last season, he most definitely put those words into application because the French star became a menace in front of goal. His numbers speak for themselves. The 28-year-old Dembélé scored 35 goals and earned 14 assists in 53 matches for PSG but most notably, the French attacker became the pivotal weapon that helped the club win the Champions League, Ligue 1 and Coupe de France. He also helped PSG earn a place in the Club World Cup final, where it eventually lost to Chelsea. Dembélé was also the joint top scorer in Ligue 1 with 21 goals and was the league’s and Champions League player of the year.
Despite the fact that PSG were playing on Monday night against Marseille, he was able to attend the award due to an injury.
The victory, was a testament to the great work done by PSG in 2024-25 as the club won the award for club of the year whilst Luis Enrique also won the men's Johan Cruyff Trophy for manager of the season and Gianluigi Donnarumma (now with Manchester City) received the Yashin trophy for best goalkeeper. It was a historic campaign from the French champions, who delivered the first continental title in club history and the first ever European treble by a men’s French team.
It’s not to say that it was exactly a rags-to-riches story as PSG, per Forbes, is the seventh most valuable club in the game. Owned by Qatar Sports Investments, which is a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, the nation’s wealth fund and chaired by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, PSG's president, who received the award for best club on Monday. We are talking about a club with almost $900 million in revenue so to win the Champions League was in many ways a title long overdue. But in this day and age of the modern game, there is no such thing as an easy route to silverware, especially when you face other European giants who are equally as wealthy, if not more. And that’s why Enrique arrived at the club, to make them forget about luxury and remind them that in order to be a champion, hunger needs to come from within.
For Dembélé, therefore, this was an important season because he also needed to make PSG fans forget about their prodigal son Kylian Mbappé, who had just left for Real Madrid, ironically enough for the purpose of finding his own, first Champions League title. Mbappé had an incredible season by his own accord, having scored more goals than any other player in Europe last season but the hunt for the continental title disappeared in the quarterfinal against Arsenal. The league was also lost to Barcelona. His departure from Paris wasn’t just a proverbial thorn in the minds of Parisians but it was also now left as a question mark: what will PSG do now?
Mbappé's departure was Dembélé's chance to help the club reclaim a new identity, a new journey and a new sense of relentless hunger. The path hasn’t been easy, especially with Barcelona as he didn’t quite live up to the adoration of the fans or management. His move to Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund was also met with pressure as he arrived to the club in 2017 to replace Neymar Jr., who had consequently moved to PSG. His career has almost always been about being a symbolic bandaid. Someone who needed to just soften the wounds of a superstar’s exit who preceded his arrival.
And that was the case in Paris as he came to the club to make sure, above all else, he could help PSG win the Champions League. The 2024-25 squad assembled by Enrique was one of extreme riches as it included Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi, the aforementioned Donnarumma, Vitinha and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who arrived halfway through the season.
So he had wonderful teammates, but in the end, it was Dembélé who creatively led the club to glory in the most fantastical way.
Dembélé's victory speaks of redemption as last season was the first time since he was a teenager with Rennes that he scored double figures in a league campaign. There was also a sense of maturity because after certain moments of indiscipline or attitude (he was the club’s most fined player due to tardiness) in the season, Enrique presented him with the option to either rise to the challenge and live up to the incredible expectations of those around him or to run away and become a lesser version of himself. Dembélé chose the former and worked hard on making sure he became more clinical as an attacker, especially since he was developing from being just a winger and more into a goalscorer.
So this award belongs to Ousmane Dembélé but it’s also a testament to the guidance of Luis Enrique and his coaching staff.
In the end, a tearful Dembélé thanked his mother, his family and marveled at the fact that Ronaldinho was the man who presented him with the award. There is a humility to him and it showed, but as far as his presence on the pitch, specifically from last season, the Ballon d’Or rightly belongs to Ousmane Dembélé.
Barcelona's Aitana Bonmatí wins record third Ballon d’Or Femenin
On the women’s side, Aitana Bonmatí made history by winning a third straight Ballon d’Or Femenin, a record in the women’s game. She joins Michel Platini (1983, 84, 85) and Lionel Messi (2009, 10, 11, 12) as the only players to have achieved this feat.
It was a tough call because Alessia Russo (Champions League winner with Arsenal, Euros winner with England) and Mariona Caldentey (Champions League winner with Arsenal, Euros finalist with Spain) truly deserved the recognition, but in the end, it was the Spanish midfielder from Barcelona who took the prize.
I have talked about Bonmatí for many years now. She is the most gracious women’s footballer in the game whose artistry is only championed by her ability to lead. Last season with Barcelona, she won every domestic title and despite losing in both the Euros final this summer to England and the Champions League to Arsenal, her formidable record proved worthy of her win.
Let’s also not forget that just before the Euros, Bonmatí was hospitalized while suffering from viral meningitis so Spain didn’t even know she would make it to the tournament. In the end, she came back and helped the team reach the final, significantly thanks to her wonderful, winning goal against Germany in the semis.
“To receive it from the hands of Andres Iniesta, one of my idols since I was little, alongside Xavi,” she said in her speech after receiving the award from the aforementioned Iniesta. “I learned my football from them, to this day I thank them for all that they have taught me. Thank you to them for everything that they have done in football.”
It would be insulting to simply compare her game to Iniesta or Xavi because Bonmatí is her own person but you can see how she is influenced by them. Just like the former Barcelona midfielders, Bonmatí is not particularly big or strong but her game is born out of artistry. When she plays, she paints and the pitch is her canvas. There is an elegance to her game that just can’t be replicated.
Now, she is also a history-maker.
Category: General Sports
