Ousmane Dembele was named the 2025 Ballon d'Or winner on Monday night at a glittering ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. The French forward claimed football's most prestigious individual honour after a stellar season with Paris Saint-Germain, where he played a key role in the club's historic quadruple, including their long-awaited Champions League triumph.
Dembele beat Barcelona's Lamine Yamal into second place, with PSG teammate Vitinha finishing third. Mohamed Salah was the highest-placed Premier League player in fourth, while Chelsea's Cole Palmer came eighth. The ceremony was marked by the absence of many PSG players, who were unavailable due to a rescheduled Ligue 1 match against Marseille after their weekend fixture was postponed because of severe weather.
Lamine Yamal's father, Mounir Nasraoui, publicly criticised the decision, calling it 'not theft but rather moral damage to a human being'. Yamal did, however, win the Kopa Trophy for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, Rio Ferdinand praised Dembele's resilience in overcoming what he described as 'media character assassination'.
England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton won the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the best female shot-stopper. In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to former Liverpool manager Matt Beard, who died aged 47 over the weekend. 'The women's game sadly on Saturday lost a real trailblazer,' Hampton said. 'He lit up the room when everyone was in it.'
Notably, no representatives from Real Madrid attended the ceremony, mirroring their boycott in 2024. The highest-placed Madrid player was Kylian Mbappe in seventh, with Vinicius Junior 16th and Jude Bellingham further down the rankings.
