Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal Gets Bad Ballon d’Or News as PSG Star Backed to Win Award | OneFootball

The 2024-25 season is officially over for PSG after falling short of winning the FIFA Club World Cup and losing 3-0 to Chelsea on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Despite the loss, it doesn’t take away from the season the Parisians had, including Ousmane Dembélé.

Dembélé scored 35 goals and 16 assists this season in 53 appearances for the capital club. Moreover, he was part of a squad that won the treble, including the UEFA Champions League.

FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is the Frenchman’s main threat for the honor this year, with the teenager recording 18 goals and 25 assists in 55 appearances for the Spanish club. Moreover, Yamal won the league title, the Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa de España to bolster his candidacy.

Ousmane Dembélé is backed to win the Ballon d’Or

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Speaking live on L’Intégrale Sport on RMC Sport, Gaël Clichy revealed that, in his view, Ousmane Dembélé deserves the Ballon d’Or.

“The Ballon d’Or rewards players who are decisive: individual statistics need to be taken into account, which have been highlighted by CR7 and Messi,” Clichy said to begin making the case for Dembélé (h/t Le10Sport). “This year, Ousmane Dembélé has some pretty crazy numbers (52 matches in all competitions, 35 goals and 16 assists). And when he comes on during a match, he is sharp, with or without possession, when he presses…,” explains Gaël Clichy about the PSG forward.

“Even if he’s not at 90 goals in a year, for me today Dembélé is the clear winner (…) With Titi (Henry), we say that Ousmane is the most complete: he can score and assist, create chaos around him, contribute defensively with his pressing… Today, credit must be given to Ousmane for these pressing phases. Especially for players of this quality, he makes the work of the whole team easier. It’s rare to see a player like that get in sync with the team.”

It will be interesting to see if Dembélé did enough this season to edge Yamal and the media behind him to push his candidacy in a few months when the award his handed out.