Ousmane Dembele leaves no doubt that he has had a better year than he ever had before, succeeding to win the Ballon d’Or 2025, what seemed improbable only a few years ago. Where he was inconsistent and injured a lot, he complemented the departure of Kylian Mbappe by becoming the team’s front-line goal-getter and eventually took over the PSG attack.
In fact, it would be hard for anyone to miss the bouquet of brilliance that Dembele was throughout the year that saw him hit the net, as well as setting up many great attacking moves, 35 goals and 16 assists in 53 matches were a big factor in PSG winning all their domestic as well as foreign competitions.
This award is also a fulfillment of Xavi’s prophetic words from when he was Barcelona coach saying Dembele is the only player needed to be the best in the world. He now becomes the sixth French footballer to win the Ballon d’Or after joining the list of compatriots – Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane, and Karim Benzema.
The life of Dembele is not a story of only Sunshine. He was always involved in some sort of problem, whether it is with Rennes, Dortmund, or Barcelona, in addition to being constantly mocked for his wasteful finishing in front of goal, he had to fight against the downsides of his career at every step of the way. Moreover, Luis Enrique at PSG helped Dembele to transform himself significantly. The turnaround was so deep that it could be only captured in a documentary where the scene has the player committing to the coach’s style of work after a brief conversation.
The main point of his career was a project in the Champions League, especially the final against Inter Milan, when he went beyond limits of both defensive kinetics and creative attack. His qualities that made him better than Lamine Yamal, in fact, were not statistics, but his grown-up, controlled and impactful character.
Dembele’s Ballon d’Or is a trophy not only of his own success, but also of a journey through adversity, development, and atonement.
