Ousmane Dembélé Wins the 2025 Ballon d’Or
Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or after a 37-goal, 15-assist season in which Paris Saint-Germain claimed its first Champions League title and a domestic double.
Timeline
- May 31, 2025: Paris Saint-Germain beat Inter 5–0 to win the Champions League for the first time.
- 2024–25 season: Dembélé finished with 37 goals and 15 assists and was named Champions League Player of the Season.
- September 22, 2025: Dembélé received the men's Ballon d'Or in Paris.
Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or on September 22, finishing ahead of Barcelona's Lamine Yamal and Paris Saint-Germain teammate Vitinha. The award followed the strongest statistical season of Dembélé's career and a historic campaign for PSG, which won the UEFA Champions League for the first time. [1][2]
UEFA credited Dembélé with 37 goals and 15 assists across the 2024–25 season. He moved from being known mainly as a wide creator to functioning more often as a central attacking threat, while still combining with teammates and pressing without the ball. That blend of output and tactical influence strengthened a candidacy built around team success. [1]
The Champions League was the defining stage. PSG beat Inter 5–0 in the final in Munich, the largest winning margin in a European Cup or Champions League final. Dembélé did not score in that match, but he assisted Désiré Doué and contributed to the pressing and combinations that drove the performance. UEFA later named him Player of the Season. [1][2]
PSG also completed a domestic double, adding France's league and cup trophies to the European title. Individual football awards do not follow one fixed statistical formula, and voters can weigh goals, assists, decisive matches, consistency and trophies differently. Dembélé's case joined elite production with the most successful club season in PSG's history to that point. [1][2]
The Ballon d'Or is decided by votes from journalists rather than directly by UEFA or a computer ranking. UEFA's report listed the top three as Dembélé, Yamal and Vitinha. The outcome therefore represents a comparative judgment about the award period, not an objective declaration that one player was best under every possible metric or tactical role. [1]
The award also completed a notable career turn. Dembélé had long been associated with dribbling, two-footed play and injuries, but his 2024–25 production was both prolific and sustained. Under Luis Enrique, his movement through central positions and work in PSG's coordinated press helped convert individual skill into repeatable chances for himself and others. [1][2]
The concise explanation is that Dembélé paired 52 combined goals and assists with PSG's first Champions League title and domestic double, then received UEFA's player-of-the-season honor. Those achievements gave voters a strong individual and team-based case. The Ballon d'Or recognized the full campaign, while the Champions League triumph supplied its most visible moment. [1][2]
Sources
- UEFA — Ousmane Dembélé wins the 2025 men's Ballon d'Or
- UEFA — PSG's 2025 Champions League final victory