Ousmane Dembele beats Lamine Yamal to 2025 Ballon d’Or

The 69th edition of the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony took place at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on Monday, 22 September.

Paris Saint-Germain winger Ousmane Dembele emerged the winner of the 2025 Ballon d’Or, beating Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal to claim football’s esteemed individual honour.

The Frenchman was instrumental to PSG’s quadruple win, including their first Champions League triumph last season.

He also helped the French giants to the Club World Cup final, where they lost 3-0 to Chelsea in New Jersey.

The 28-year-old hit 35 goals and 14 assists in 53 matches last season, and he was also the joint top scorer in Ligue 1 with 21 goals, winning the French and Champions League player of the year.

“I really don’t have the words. It was an incredible season with PSG,” said an emotional Dembele, who said his club coach Luis Enrique had been “like a father”.

“It is an individual trophy, but it was really the collective that won it,” added Dembele, who was one of nine members of the triumphant PSG team from last season nominated for the prize.

“The Ballon d’Or has not really been an objective for me in my career, but I worked hard for the team to win the Champions League.”

Yamal, who finished second in the Ballon d’Or ranking, retained his Kopa Trophy (Best Young Player) for the second year running, becoming the first player ever to do so.

The former Borussia Dortmund winger becomes just the sixth Frenchman to win this prestigious award. The previous winners are:

• Karim Benzema (2022)

• Zinédine Zidane (1998)

• Jean-Pierre Papin (1991)

• Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985)

• Raymond Kopa (1958)

Other men’s prizes awarded in Paris included the Men’s Kopa Trophy (Lamine Yamal), Men’s Yashin Trophy (Gianluigi Donnarumma), Men’s Johan Cruyff Trophy (Luis Enrique), Men’s Gerd Müller Trophy (Viktor Gyökeres) and the Men’s Club of the Year (Paris Saint-Germain).