Ballon d’Or 2025: How Ousmane Dembele went from frustration to football’s finest

The mind can play funny tricks but when Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or in 2001 I don't remember anywhere near as much fuss as the current iteration of the award.

It seemed to take on a new level of importance when the rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi grabbed a stranglehold on the gong as they battled against each other for the right to officially be called the best player in the world.

Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or in 2008, followed 12 months later by Messi and it was a full ten years later before Luka Modric broke the duopoly.

Messi still claimed another three and is on eight Ballon d'Or awards with Ronaldo on five. With a World Cup at the end of this season and both determined as ever there is no way you can say either is done in their quest for more individual honours.

Football is a team game and Rodri's success over Vinicius Junior in 2024 was a nod in that direction, but generally speaking, in the social-media world, a growing number of younger supporters are following players rather than teams which increases the prize's significance. 

It would be unfair to blame Americans for all of this but I was bamboozled by the reaction of the Madison Square Garden crowd during a visit to New York, where one evening of the trip was spent watching the Knicks against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Or, rather, it was the Knicks against Lebron James and most of those in attendance had come to watch him rather than their own team.

A football equivalent of the time – let's say Ronaldo – would have been hounded at every away ground in the country, while LeBron was being celebrated for his greatness rather than which jersey he was wearing.

This is the way football is heading whether those of us of a certain age think it is right or not.

The France forward has come a long way since his frustrating spell with BarcelonaCredit: Getty Images

So it is worth celebrating Ousmane Dembele's Ballon d'Or triumph earlier this week, beating Lamine Yamal to top spot with former Wolves midfielder Vitinha in third because it was a success for sacrificing himself for Paris Saint-Germain as much as his tricks.

Dembele has always had the potential to be a superstar and was compared to Ronaldo when breaking through at Rennes, scoring 12 goals in his debut season before jumping ship for Borussia Dortmund when he was 18.

One season later and after just 32 Bundesliga matches with six goals and 12 assists, Dembele was off to Barcelona for £135m to become the second most expensive player in history, replacing Neymar, who, earlier in the summer of 2017, jumped ship to PSG.

Barca was too much too soon for him and in six years with the club he never managed more than eight league goals in a La Liga campaign. There were moments of brilliance, maybe even weeks of it, but more often than not he flattered to deceive.

He was dogged by hamstring injuries and a lack of professionalism in his earlier days with former Barcelona teammate Samuel Umtiti admitted he had to ring Dembele every day to make sure he was awake following numerous late arrivals at training after all-night gaming sessions.

There were few tears at Camp Nou when Dembele's six-season stint came to an end and his first term at PSG was far from successful with just three Ligue 1 goals in the 2023-24 campaign.

He has scored only seven goals in 57 appearances for France and never notched at an international tournament, but he was the best player on the planet last season as he helped PSG to lift the Champions League for the first time.

The relentless pressing in his new centre-forward position was the making of Dembele. He still possesses the pace and trickery to play on the wing but returned 35 goals in 53 matches in all competitions as a striker and was the catalyst for PSG's dynamic displays.

Yamal's time will come but this was Dembele's year as he finally lived up to the hype. Much like his previous approach to training, it was better late than never.

Read more from Mark:

Palmer on the oche, K-boat racing and Timmy Trumpet: My week at the SBC Summit 

Champions League 2025-26 power rankings: All 36 teams from best to worst 

From the boardroom to the dugout: Langdon on a wild week in football 

End the transfer circus – it's time to get on with the actual football 

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.