For years, Ousmane Dembélé was football’s great “what if?” The French forward arrived at Barcelona in 2017 for a staggering fee but never lived up to the billing, his career blighted by injuries, inconsistency, and whispers of wasted potential.
Now, at 28, Dembélé has rewritten his story. Crowned the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner in Paris, he became only the sixth Frenchman to lift football’s most coveted individual prize — and the first since Karim Benzema in 2022.
The statistics behind his season at Paris Saint-Germain are extraordinary: 35 goals, 14 assists, and a treble that included the club’s long-awaited first Champions League title.
He was Ligue 1’s joint top scorer, named player of the year in both France and Europe, and led PSG to the Club World Cup final, where they narrowly lost to Chelsea.
But the turning point came in December 2024, when coach Luis Enrique — also named coach of the year — shifted him from the wing to a central striker role against Lyon.
By then, Dembélé had scored just five goals. From that moment, he exploded, netting 30 times in five months and dragging PSG to historic success.
On the stage in Paris, tears streaming down his face, Dembélé held the golden trophy that once seemed destined for others.
His victory was all the more poignant because he missed PSG’s league match that same night with injury — a reminder of the fragility that once defined his career.
For PSG, it was the culmination of a remarkable turnaround: they paid just £43.5m for a player Barcelona once valued at £135m. Now he is the world’s best.
Spain’s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal finished runner-up, taking the Kopa Trophy for best young player, while PSG teammate Vitinha came third and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah was fourth. Last year’s winner, Rodri, failed to make the shortlist after an injury-hit season.
For Dembélé, though, the Ballon d’Or is more than an individual accolade. It is the exclamation mark at the end of a redemption arc — the story of a footballer who went from being written off as a disappointment to becoming the finest player on the planet.
