Paris Saint-Germain's French forward Ousmane Dembele won the men's Ballon d'Or
Ballon d’Or 2025: Ousmane Dembele and Aitana Bonmati win top prizes as Sarina Wiegman lands award for best coach
Lamine Yamal and Mariona Caldentey runners-up for Ballon d’Or; Sarina Wiegman and Luis Enrique won awards for best coach of year; Hannah Hampton and Gianluigi Donnarumma scooped keeper gongs; Alessia Russo third in women’s Ballon d’Or rankings as Arsenal claimed women’s club of year.
Dembele, the Paris Saint-Germain and France forward, took the men’s prize after leading his club to a treble-winning season and their first Champions League success. Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal,18, was runner-up after being voted the best young player.
A tearful Dembele collected the prize in Paris in front of a partisan crowd that chanted his name. If not for injury, he would have been playing for PSG in Marseille in a rearranged league fixture.
Barcelona and Spain midfielder Bonmati becomes the first woman to win the Ballon d’Or for three consecutive years. Lionel Messi and Michel Platini are the only men to have achieved that feat.
“It’s incredible this feeling. I never thought when I was a kid that I could achieve this because I didn’t think women’s football can exist,” Bonmati said.
“I had idols like Andres Iniesta and Xavi and when I was a kid I only saw them on TV. It’s incredible to be here and make history.
“But all of these trophies are because of collective work. We had a difficult season because we won some trophies, but we also lost some to amazing footballers.”
Arsenal and England’s Alessia Russo got the better of Bonmati in the Champions League and Euros finals, but finished third in the women’s rankings. Her club-mate, Mariona Caldentey of Spain, came second.
Lionesses head coach Sarina Wiegman was named best women’s coach after England’s triumph over Spain in Switzerland, while PSG boss Luis Enrique picked up the men’s Johan Cruyff award.
England and Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton won the inaugural award for best women’s goalkeeper, with Man City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma picking up the seventh edition of the men’s prize for his season with PSG.
Former Lionesses keeper Mary Earps was on stage presenting the award to Hampton, who took her spot as England’s No 1 ahead of the Euros, prompting her to retire from international football five weeks before the tournament.
Arsenal and PSG won the awards for women’s and men’s club of the year after their Champions League successes.
Viktor Gyokeres’ 63 goals for Sporting and Sweden last season earned him the men’s Gerd Muller Trophy. Barcelona and Poland’s Ewa Pajor, scorer of 48 goals, scooped the women’s award.
How best in the world Dembele finally lived up to his potential
“When used properly, he could become the best player in the world.”
This bold statement from former Barcelona boss Xavi back in 2021 contained a sentiment Ousmane Dembele had heard throughout his career.
Some raised their eyebrows and many doubted the mercurial Frenchman would ever be able to reach the heights predicted for him after becoming the second most expensive player in the world when he signed for Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £135.5m in 2017.
But, after a journey that has had many lows as he battled against injury, inconsistency and questions about his attitude, the 28-year-old has finally seen that prophecy come true after winning the Ballon d’Or – a prize he has long-since dreamt of.
As he thanked his family for their sacrifices in helping him win the top men’s award in Paris, Dembele broke down in tears, a sign of the ups and downs he has experienced throughout his career.
Dembele’s incredible 2024-25 season helped his club Paris St-Germain win a Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Champions League treble, before also reaching the final of the Club World Cup.
This bold statement from former Barcelona boss Xavi back in 2021 contained a sentiment Ousmane Dembele had heard throughout his career.
Some raised their eyebrows and many doubted the mercurial Frenchman would ever be able to reach the heights predicted for him after becoming the second most expensive player in the world when he signed for Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £135.5m in 2017.
But, after a journey that has had many lows as he battled against injury, inconsistency and questions about his attitude, the 28-year-old has finally seen that prophecy come true after winning the Ballon d’Or – a prize he has long-since dreamt of.
As he thanked his family for their sacrifices in helping him win the top men’s award in Paris, Dembele broke down in tears, a sign of the ups and downs he has experienced throughout his career.
Dembele’s incredible 2024-25 season helped his club Paris St-Germain win a Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Champions League treble, before also reaching the final of the Club World Cup.
He scored 35 goals and recorded 14 assists in all competitions and, after a quiet start to the season, was Europe’s most in-form forward according to the stats from the turn of the year.
His achievement can’t be underestimated either. He has seen off Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who recorded more goal involvements than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues last season, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, who scored more goals, and the brilliance of Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.
Dembele’s transformation began at Barcelona a couple of years before he joined PSG as he started to see things differently. But he loved the idea of being a star and he was invited to be ambitious at PSG.
Mbappe’s exit from the French club to join Real Madrid – ironically a move many predicted would cement his place as the world’s best player – proved the final piece in the much-puzzled-over jigsaw for Dembele as manager Luis Enrique told him, we now want goals from you and we want you to be egotistical.
The coaching staff just kept saying to him ‘Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or, Ballon d’Or’.
How Dembele thrived from Mbappe’s exit
In August 2023, PSG bought the France international for just £43.5m, and he scored six goals and made 14 assists as PSG won the league and cup double.
He was far from the main man though with the club’s record scorer Mbappe netting 44 in all competitions in the best of his seven seasons for PSG. It turned out to be his last as Real Madrid came calling.
A new-look PSG needed a new leader and talisman. Step forward Dembele.
And step forward he certainly did. His 51 goal involvements was more than twice his best in a single campaign in his whole career, while his 35 goals was 21 more than he’d managed before.
Last summer, manager Luis Enrique told Dembele that without Mbappe in the team he needed more goals from him to go with his large number of assists – carte blanche for the player to show a more selfish approach with less passing and a bigger desire to score.
In private, the coaching staff have frequently told him that if he managed to convert a decent percentage of the chances he creates, it could lead to collective success and then individual honours.
Dembele took it all on board and has relished playing in his new tactical role.
In 2023-24, he was mostly played on the right. There was no way of dislodging Mbappe from the central role.
Now he mostly operates as a false nine, inside, where he touches the ball more, enjoys a greater freedom to receive passes and participates in the build-up but with more chances to finish.
A new role and a new man.
