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FEATURE | The case for PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé winning the Ballon d’Or

With just a matter of hours until the announcement of the Ballon d’Or, there are quite a few names in the mix for the highest individual award in football. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha find themselves amongst the contenders after leading Barcelona to a domestic treble, as is reigning Premier League Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah. There’s also Vitinha, who is looking to become the second-straight Iberian midfielder to win the award after Rodri last year. However, arguably, no player is better placed to win the Ballon d’Or than Ousmane Dembélé.

Born in Vernon, France, to a Mauritanian-Senegalese mother and a Malian father, Dembélé developed at Rennes’ academy and eventually made his professional debut in November 2015, where he won the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season. These performances attracted the interest of Borussia Dortmund, where he excelled in Germany and guided BVB to a first trophy in five years, thanks to a Man of the Match display in the DFB-Pokal, whilst he was also named to the Bundesliga Team of the Season and awarded the league’s Rookie of the Season award. After just one year in Dortmund, Dembele made the move to Spain in 2017, joining FC Barcelona for €105m plus a reported €40m add-ons.

The stage looked set for Dembélé to explode onto the scene and establish himself as one of the best players in world football and fill Neymar’s void in attack; instead, constant injuries and inconsistent decision-making plagued his tenure in Catalunya. However, after bouncing back under Xavi and finishing as the league’s top creator with 13 assists, Dembele cut his time in LaLiga short and joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2023. Dembélé struggled to assert himself in his debut season in Paris, but the departure of Kylian Mbappé would open the door for him to become the leader of PSG’s attack.

Positional shift unlocks Dembélé’s potential

Operating in a false 9 role, Dembélé was able to finally click on all cylinders and showcase his world-class potential. He was no longer the failed wonderkid, but a world-class player who could take a match by storm. When PSG were in danger of missing out on the UEFA Champions League knockout round, Dembélé stepped up and led them to victory in their final league matches, scoring their first goal in a 4-2 comeback win vs. Manchester City before grabbing a hat-trick vs. Stuttgart. He kicked off 2025 by scoring a stoppage-time winner as PSG defeated Monaco 1–0 in the 2024 Trophée des Champions, and he never looked back, becoming the first PSG player to score back-to-back hat-tricks in official matches.

Dembélé equalised against Liverpool in the Champions League Round of 16 before finding the mark in the penalty shootout, whilst he’d also provided a goal and an assist to lead PSG past Arsenal and into the Champions League Final, where he bagged two assists in a 5-0 victory against Inter Milan. Dembélé would end the campaign as the joint-top scorer in Ligue 1 and the Ligue 1 Player of the Year, bagging 33 goals and 15 assists in all competitions. It’s why many pundits like Nico Cantor and Jeyhan Bhindi began to deem Dembélé as the rightful heir to the Ballon d’Or, propping him up with praise.

He missed the start of the FIFA Club World Cup due to injury but returned in time for the knockout round, scoring in a 2-0 win against Bayern Munich in a 4-0 win against Real Madrid, although he was unable to lead them to victory against Chelsea in the final. He returned to action a month later, and once again, he stepped up when his team needed him, assisting Goncalo Ramos’ 94th-minute equaliser to force a penalty shootout against Tottenham Hotspur, before converting from the spot to lead PSG to victory in the UEFA SuperCup. And after blanking in his first two Ligue 1 matches, Dembélé was back to his best on August 30, assisting Joao Neves’ opening goal and scoring two penalties in a 6-3 win against Toulouse.

Better than Mbappé?

“Dembélé deserves to be the next Ballon d’Or winner,” says ex-Ligue 1 defender Chris Mavinga. “Left or right foot, it doesn’t matter for him; it’s very difficult to defend a player like this, because when you think he’s left-footed, he goes right, and when you think he’s right-footed, he goes left. He has the skill, he has the speed.”

The ex-DR Congo and France youth international made 140 appearances in MLS and 70 in Ligue 1, operating both as a centre back and a left back and facing off against the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gonzalo Higuain, Eden Hazard, and Nani. However, Mavinga’s toughest individual meeting came in January 2016, when he defended against a 17-year-old Dembélé.

“Dembélé was flying. I played against Mbappé, and I said to my friend back in France, ‘You know what? Dembélé is better than Mbappé.’ Every one of my pals said I was crazy, but I said, ‘Ask most players, and they’ll agree with me.’ Now, we can see that he’s going to be the next Ballon d’Or winner, and a lot of people are now seeing that I was correct. Whether he’s on his right or his left, he can do everything from running to pressing to dribbling; you cannot stop him. I would say he was my toughest opponent – he was unbelievable,” he said.

At 28 years of age, Dembélé has already won seven trophies with Barcelona, eight with Paris Saint-Germain and a World Cup with France. For the first time ever, he’s one of the 30 nominees for the Ballon d’Or – can he come away with the ultimate prize later today?