FEATURE | The case for PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé to win the Ballon d’Or | OneFootball

It has been nearly seven decades since French journalists Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran conceived the Ballon d’Or, where football writers would gather around and vote every year for the best player in football. Since then, five Frenchmen have gone on to win the award and be recognised as the best player in men’s football; Raymond Kopa won it in 1958 with Real Madrid, whilst Juventus’ Michel Platini won it three years in a row between 1983 and 1985. Marseille striker Jean-Pierre Papin got his hands on the award in 1991, Juventus’ Zinedine Zidane won it in 1998 after guiding France to a maiden World Cup, whilst Real’s Karim Benzema came away with the award in 2022. Since then, Lionel Messi and Rodri have been recognised as the best male player in the game, both having won an international tournament in the previous months.

It remains to be seen who will win the 69th edition of the Ballon d’Or, but one thing’s for sure: there will be a first-time winner. None of the active players who have won a Ballon d’Or – Messi, Rodri, Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema – are amongst the 30 nominees for the 2025 Ballon d’Or. Out of all the nominees, however, nobody looks better positioned to come away with it than Ousmane Dembélé.

A mid-career revival for Dembélé

After breaking onto the scene with Rennes and Borussia Dortmund as a teenage talent, it looked like Dembélé had everything to become one of the best players in world football and transition into a superstar following his €145m move to Barcelona. Instead, recurring injuries, inconsistent performances and errant decision-making would mar Dembélé’s six years in Spain before he decided to return to his native France in 2023 and join Paris Saint-Germain. After a middling debut season at the Parc de Princes, Dembélé has been able to emerge as PSG’s new attacking talisman and fill Kylian Mbappé’s lofty footsteps following the latter’s move to Real Madrid. Operating as a false No.9, he has flourished with the freedom to drop deep and combine with teammates to great effect, wriggling out of pressure with his transcendent footwork and changes of direction.

Dembélé has spent the first decade of his professional career as a wildly entertaining player, capable of bewildering his opponents with his stepovers, body feints, and shoulder drops, but it wasn’t until the 2024/25 season that he managed to put two and two together and become a consistent difference-maker in the final third. He kicked off the new year by scoring a stoppage-time winner in a 1-0 win against Monaco in the Trophée des Champions, before scoring PSG’s first goal in a 4-2 comeback win vs. Manchester City.

With Dembélé leading the line, PSG went from the precipice of missing out on knockout round football to qualifying for the playoffs, with Dembélé bagging back-to-back hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League against VfB Stuttgart and Brest, as well as equalising the aggregate scoreline against Liverpool in the Round of 16 and scoring in the penalty shootout. He led PSG past Arsenal and into the final after scoring the sole goal in a 1-0 win at the Emirates and assisting Achraf Hakimi’s goal in the second leg, setting a new record for the most goal contributions by a Ligue 1 player in a single UEFA Champions League season (12).

Dembélé finished as the top scorer in France’s top-flight alongside Marseille’s Mason Greenwood with an impressive 21 goals, guiding Les Parisiens to a second-straight domestic treble and winning the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award. And when the lights were the brightest, Dembélé stepped up and led by example, providing two assists in the final against Inter as PSG demolished the Italian side 5-0 to conquer their first Champions League title, racking up a total of 33 goals and 15 assists in 49 appearances. And despite missing the FIFA Club World Cup group stage, he nevertheless returned from injury by grabbing a goal against Bayern Munich in the quarter-final and a goal and assist vs. Real Madrid in the semifinal, before being kept under wraps in a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in the final.

Man-of-the-match as PSG clinch another title

One month after that humbling defeat, Les Parisiens kicked off their 2025/26 season by taking on Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA SuperCup. Having only just returned to training a few days ago, PSG were dominated by a Spurs side that looked far more sharp, athletic, and aggressive on and off the ball, with the English side scoring two set-piece goals on either side of the break. However, PSG did not throw in the towel and started to finally mount the pressure in the final stages of the match, with substitute Kang-in Lee pulling one back in the 85th minute. And in the 94th minute, Dembélé fashioned an inch-perfect cross into the box, where Gonçalo Ramos was there to head home to force a penalty shootout – Ramos, Dembélé, Lee and Nuno Mendes converted their spot-kicks as PSG erased an early deficit and won 4-3.

It was yet another world-class display from Dembélé, who completed 39 out of 42 passes, four out of five long balls, and three key passes, won three out of four ground duels, and succeeded in two out of his three dribble attempts, prompting him to receive the Man of the Match award. He’s been involved in more goal contributions than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues this year, having racked up 27 goals and 10 assists in the calendar year, and he has staked his claim as one of the best in the business.

It’s seemingly only a matter of time before Dembélé will be picking up yet another award on September 22 and becoming the sixth Frenchman to take home the Ballon d’Or.

GFFN | Zach Lowy