It is the year 2025 and Ousmane Dembele is a Ballon d'Or winner. It's a reality that might require a little getting used to, as the Paris Saint-Germain superstar's path to this point has been far from smooth, but it is a fitting end point nonetheless.
PSG are the unquestionable kings of Europe, winning the European Cup in any format for the first time in their history – a significant feat not just for a team only founded in 1970, but one for the Qatari Sports Investment (QSI) project which has been hell-bent on continental domination since their takeover in 2011.
Luis Enrique's side will be remembered for years to come for their tiki taka-lite style based on fluidity and slick possession football, and at the forefront of their success has been Dembele.
With the Ballon d'Or now judged on a seasonal basis – as should have always been the case, thank you, France Football – it is a campaign that has logically concluded with Dembele lifting the prestigious Golden Ball in his homeland.
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Dembele's career has been a tale full of dizzying highs and disappointing lows. It seemed destined to play out that way from the very start. After all, he became the second-most expensive footballer of all time less than two years after making his senior debut, and it's not as if he had a standout reputation during his days as a youth player.
After impressing in France's fifth tier with Rennes' B team, Dembele was promoted into the first-team fold for the 2015-16 season, though had to wait until November to make his debut. He ended that campaign with 12 goals and five assists in only 26 Ligue 1 appearances, averaging 0.8 contributions per 90 minutes. Albeit the sample size was small, it was still enough to convince Borussia Dortmund to spend €35 million on him in the summer of 2016, and after one further fantastic season at Signal-Iduna Park, Barcelona forked out a staggering €135m to sign him.
Such a step arguably came too soon for Dembele, whose intricate style and idiosyncratic flair meant he was a diamond in the rough that still needed sanding down a little. The environments of Rennes and Dortmund, well-renowned for their youth development away from the spotlights, were more suited to that. Moving to a club as big as Barca – where he was considered the heir to Neymar, no less – removed that safety blanket.
Dembele didn't seem ready to grow up, but Barca needed instant impact. These were two timelines that couldn't coexist, and both parties suffered for it. The player lived a lifestyle that resembled an adolescent who wasn't earning millions – a source previously told GOAL of his fast-food diet – and the club demanded only a two-year pro that he live up to the standards of an absurdly inflated transfer fee.
On his part, Dembele has admitted to "wasting" most of his time at Camp Nou and took ownership of that. Even when it seemed to come together for him after Xavi was appointed manager in 2021, there were still question marks over his ability and availability. It wasn't really until he signed a new contract in 2022, one which helped facilitate his exit a year later, that the world started to see the vision, a player project nearing completion in the heart of Catalunya, and at that point he chose to return home to France instead.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportA key change of position
Once more, Dembele moved club as a replacement for Neymar, though with the stakes considerably lower this time. PSG were entering an era based more on team ethic rather than around superstars, hence the departures of the Brazilian and his good buddy, Lionel Messi. There was also a reluctant acceptance that Kylian Mbappe would leave in 2024.
In a supporting role to Mbappe, Dembele put up some unspectacular numbers as PSG won a domestic double and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for only the second time up to that point in the QSI era, only falling to a Borussia Dortmund side that cheated death several times over across the tie.
It was only upon Mbappe's exit that Luis Enrique was finally able to build a team in his own perfect image. With Barcelona, whatever vision he had was dictated by Messi and their 'MSN' frontline, while the form of national players meant his hands were tied to an extent while Spain boss. This was the time to build from the ground up, and even then it took a few months of the 2024-25 season to come across his best system.
It's easily forgotten that PSG were almost eliminated from the Champions League at the league phase, with their 4-2 comeback win against Manchester City on the penultimate matchday hailed as a turning point for the season. Until then, Dembele had largely played on the right wing and was halfway to a season-end tally of 35 goals and 16 assists, but it wasn't until he transitioned into a No.9 that he stepped it up another gear.
This wasn't quite the same as Pep Guardiola making prime Messi the striker in his fabled Barcelona side of 2010-11, though it was similarly transformative nonetheless. PSG already had other dynamic wingers in Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola to lean on, while the January addition of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was an inspired one. Luis Enrique had assembled a frontline of two-footed dribblers who were equally maverick and selfless, who could score themselves and assist others.
Dembele was the standout. Sixteen of his 21 league goals came between December and March, ensuring PSG sprinted away from the false-dawn challengers of Marseille and could focus on the Champions League. The only knockout match in which he did not score or assist was their 1-0 loss to Liverpool in the first leg of their last-16 tie. Beyond the numbers, he appeared to carry himself in a completely different way, shedding his previous skin of frustration and confusion to don something more bold and confident, befitting a team from one of the world's fashion capitals.
He was even leading the press like a marathon-hungry maniac, with Thibaut Courtois, fresh off of Madrid's 4-0 defeat to PSG in the Club World Cup semi-finals, revealing: "I told him after the game that he was pressing a lot and he told me that's what he had to do. On a clearance, I have half a second to think about where I'm going to shoot, because they're pressing you."
At long last, Dembele has realised his potential and then some. Even the most ardent of his supporters and believers could be forgiven for giving up on him even a year ago. The narrative has only added to his case for the Ballon d'Or, and he will be remembered as the face of 2024-25 when we're old and grey. That counts for something.
AFPOvertaking Mbappe
The stories of Dembele and Mbappe have been intertwined for almost a decade now. They both announced themselves on the European stage during 2016-17, with the latter's Monaco beating the former's Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-finals. From that point on, Mbappe felt like the more promising of the two, and that is generally how it's played out.
At no point from 2017 to 2024 did anyone consider Dembele the superior or more accomplished player, especially given the credit in the bank Mbappe was able to lean on for helping France lift the 2018 World Cup.
For the first time, the two were paired at club level when Dembele headed to PSG, though the close friends only played alongside one another for a single season before Mbappe's long-awaited switch to Real Madrid.
Their fortunes since have only helped Dembele's Ballon d'Or credentials, with PSG becoming a cerebral team who ended their wait to clinch the Champions League, and holders Madrid lost their sparkle with Mbappe in the side even despite his individual successes.
Mbappe has consistently been billed as a future Ballon d'Or winner, someone who would scoop up Golden Balls once the Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo duopoly came to an end. There is irony laced all over Dembele lapping the Madrid attacker like Gareth Bale rounding Marc Bartra in the Copa del Rey final to reach this particular finish line first.
AFPRinging endorsements
Mbappe does not seem bitter about the unravelling of a pseudo-rivalry, rather is happy for how his friend has come on leaps and bounds, revealing in June: "My choice [for the Ballon d'Or] is clear: I vote for Dembele." He is not alone in sharing that opinion, obviously.
Of the more biased voices, PSG chief Nasser Al-Khelaifi has said: "Ousmane's season is magnificent. There is no doubt that he won't win the Ballon d’Or. If he doesn't win it, there is a problem with the Ballon d'Or. He has done everything." Luis Enrique, meanwhile, said after their 5-0 Champions League final win over Inter, a match in which Dembele did not score: "I'd give the Ballon d'Or to Mr Ousmane Dembele. The way he defended tonight… Only that can be worth the Ballon d'Or. This is how you lead a team. Goals, titles, leadership, defending, how he was pressing. Ousmane is my Ballon d'Or. No doubts at all."
His national team manager, Didier Deschamps, agrees with his club boss:. "Of course I support Dembele. Of course, if you ask a Spaniard, they won't tell you the same thing. It's clear that Dembele is the one who deserves [the Ballon d'Or]." France team-mate Ibrahima Konate concurred: "We talk about Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe… But no one talks about Ousmane Dembele. He has delivered an exceptional season. I have honestly no other words to describe it. Nobody expected it. I'm the happiest man for him. In all honesty, the most deserving Ballon d'Or winner is Ousmane Dembele."
Paul Pogba, now of Monaco, commented: "For me, Dembele will always be ahead of Yamal! I support Dembele 100 percent. He won the Champions League, he was very important this season. If he doesn't win it this year, he'll never get it. [Achraf] Hakimi and Vitinha were very good too. But Dembele is the favourite for the Ballon d'Or."
Someone without such skin in the game is Bale, who too put PSG's rise down to the forward-thinking exploits of Dembele. When asked if the Frenchman was the Ballon d'Or frontrunner, he said: "Yes, I think so. I think you also have to look what the teams have won. I think everyone obviously talks about individuals, but I think if you are winning those trophies as well, you're winning the Champions League, obviously they've won their domestic treble… It's hard to see anyone else from the season he's had. He's transformed them into trophies as well as the season he's had. It does make him the frontrunner by some way in my opinion."