Why Ousmane Dembele deserves the Ballon d’Or

The Ballon d’Or award can be simplified by a few things. Who delivered on the biggest European nights? Who changed the geometry of games every time they received the ball? Who turned a talented team into a trophy machine?

On all three counts, Ousmane Dembélé has the strongest case. He was the live wire and the metronome for Paris Saint-Germain in a season that ended with a clean sweep at home and the club’s first European crown. Add the individual honours that tend to follow a truly dominant campaign, and you have a profile that looks less like a campaign pitch and more like the minutes of a certainty.

Europe decided it

Ballon d’Or debates are often settled by what happens in Europe. Dembélé was named UEFA Champions League Player of the Season for 2024–25, recognition from the tournament’s technical panel that he set the tone across the continent’s hardest minutes. PSG’s 5–0 win over Inter in Munich was the exclamation point on a run where Dembélé’s speed, timing and decision making repeatedly ripped open defences that had spent a week plotting to stop him. He scored 8 Champions League goals, many in knockout rounds, and chipped in with crucial assists that altered ties.

The Ballon d’Or is calling… and Dembélé is answering with greatness. 🏆🇨🇵
5 titles. Countless moments of magic. Dembélé isn’t chasing the Ballon d’Or — it’s chasing him. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/stSXUTPNLi

— 365Scores (@365Scores) August 14, 2025

The treble context matters

Context matters in these votes. PSG did not just win in Europe. They wrapped up Ligue 1 with weeks to spare and added the Coupe de France, building a treble that no French club had previously achieved. They even claimed the Trophée des Champions and opened 2025 by lifting the UEFA Super Cup. Dembélé’s fingerprints were everywhere: 49 appearances, 33 goals and 13 assists across all competitions. Those numbers alone would put him in the conversation, but married to the trophies, they form a near-perfect résumé.

We have always known about the tools. Two-footed dribbling, acceleration in tight lanes, the self-belief to take the ball in crowded corridors. What 2024–25 added was relentless availability and repeatable end product. He was PSG’s outlet when they needed to break pressure, the chance creator when opponents camped in, and the runner in behind when the game tilted. His 21 Ligue 1 goals and six assists in just 29 league appearances turned the domestic title race into a procession. Even when he did not score, the gravity he created turned defenders and freed lanes for runners to hit.

Ousmane Dembele is the CLEAR favorite for the Ballon d’Or, almost 3 times more than 2nd-ranked Lamine Yamal 🤯 pic.twitter.com/arxd12NWAE

— 365Scores (@365Scores) June 3, 2025

Big games, bigger answers

When voters recall this campaign, they will land on the matches that shape legacies. The way PSG controlled pace in knockout rounds. The way Dembélé forced full-backs to make bad choices at the worst moments. The semi-final tie that turned on single actions where his first touch and body shape sold one story, then his second touch wrote another. It was not just sizzle. It was structure. He gave Luis Enrique’s side a release valve and a scalpel in the same body, which is a rare thing.

Domestic dominance is part of the brief

Ballon d’Or winners are not crowned on six or seven nights alone. Ligue 1 became proof of concept. PSG’s lead at the top, clinched with time to spare, told you about consistency. So did the way Dembélé’s form aligned with the club’s surge through winter and spring. That rhythm was recognised at season’s end when he was named Ligue 1’s Player of the Year and included in the Team of the Year. Those accolades usually tip close races.

The eye test meets the data

For all the romance of a slaloming run, the numbers endorse the eye test. Across league and Europe, Dembélé stacked up goal contributions and progressive actions that show up in any model trying to quantify threat. Champions League Player of the Season is one form of measurement. The treble is another. When your fingerprints are on the decisive entries in the biggest matches of the season, analytics and honours tend to agree.

At his best, Dembélé is a tactical problem that multiplies. He can start on the right and still threaten the left-side half space within two touches because he is comfortable finishing with either foot. He is one of the few wide forwards who can carry through the first line of pressure and then pick the disguised pass at the end of the action. Opponents who tried to double him often paid elsewhere, because the extra centre-back stepping out opened the cutback lanes PSG love to attack. In a season where Paris looked more balanced than at any point in the past decade, his profile sat at the heart of the game plan.

33 goals and 15 assists in 49 games across all competitions

Ousmane Dembélé has his best season EVER 🔥 pic.twitter.com/f4GVM7BUeR

— 365Scores (@365Scores) June 1, 2025

The leadership arc

There is also a maturity to how he played. This was not a season of heat-check dribbles for their own sake. It was one of choosing the right moments. The best wingers grow into tempo setters. They understand when the match needs a carry and when it needs circulation, when to stand up a full-back and when to bounce a one-two and sprint through the channel. Dembélé lived in that space all year for PSG. That is leadership in a side full of options, and it tends to be what separates very good seasons from Ballon d’Or seasons.

The competition, and why he edges it

This is a competitive ballot. Lamine Yamal has a case that would win many years. Others have stacked headline numbers or led domestic charges. What makes Dembélé’s argument stronger is that he married the biggest trophy in club football with the best-player award in that competition, then paired that with domestic honours. Voters have long rewarded that blend. If you ask the simple question of who was the most influential player on the best team across the highest-leverage games, you land in Paris.

Lamine Yamal’s time will come

Lamine Yamal is the closest challenger. He was the catalytic force of Barcelona’s title run and carried that form into Spain’s Euro triumph, collecting the Young Player of the Tournament and becoming one of the youngest champions in history. At 17 turning 18, he already bends games to his will with a calmness that belies his age. If this vote goes another way, it will be because enough jurors want to crown the sport’s next decade early. That would be understandable but premature. Yamal looks like a multiple Ballon d’Or winner in waiting, and this season places him as a very close second. The hierarchy, for now, should still reflect who owned Europe last season.

The present does not punish the past

If anyone worries about recency, there is no need. The ceremony arrives tomorrow, and nothing in the opening weeks of the new season should blur what happened from August to June. PSG have already begun a credible title defence in Europe. Dembélé’s current injury does not rewrite last season’s excellence, it simply pauses the highlight reel. Ballots reward completed work, and his dossier is complete in a way few others can match.

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By Nicky Helfgott – NickyHelfgott1 on X (Twitter)

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