Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or for leading Paris Saint-Germain to its first Champions League title and Aitana Bonmatí received the women’s award for a third successive year on Monday.
Dembélé succeeded Manchester City midfielder Rodri to become the sixth Frenchman to win it after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema.
It has been a remarkable turn of fortune for Dembélé, who at one point last season was snubbed by PSG coach Luis Enrique for disciplinary reasons. But once repositioned as a No. 9, he became a scoring machine and was inspirational in PSG’s historic Champions League campaign. The French club also completed a quadruple last season.
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In the Champions League final, Dembélé was praised afterward for the way he contributed to PSG’s pressing and his ability to defend during the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan.
Dembélé won ahead of teenage star Lamine Yamal. The Barcelona forward, who turned 18 in July, helped Barcelona win La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season and reach the Champions League semifinals. He also helped Spain win the European Championship in July 2024.
“I need to keep on working to win other awards in the future,” Yamal said through a translator.
Dembélé was injured and able to attend the ceremony in Paris while his team lost at Marseille 1-0 in the French league. He was one of nine PSG players nominated for the men’s award, including goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, forward Désiré Doué, who scored twice in the Champions League final, and winger Khvitcha Kvaratskhelia.
Bonmatí won ahead of her Spain teammate Mariona Caldentey. She’s only the third player in the award’s history to win three in a row after Michel Platini (1983–85) and Lionel Messi (2009-12).
Although Bonmati lost to England in a penalty shootout in the Women’s European Championship final last summer, she was named the best player of the tournament, which she began just days after being hospitalized by viral meningitis.
Bonmatí’s spot kick in the shootout was one of two saved by England’s Hannah Hampton, who was voted the best women’s goalkeeper.
“Third time in a row here and I still can’t believe it,” Bonmatí said “I owe Barcelona everything, this is the club of my life.”
She won a domestic treble with Barcelona and also reached the Champions League final.
Barcelona has won the last five women’s awards but it was expected an Englishwoman would win for the first time. England won the Euros and Arsenal took the Women’s Champions League. But with five England players among the women’s top 10 nominees, the highest placed was Alessia Russo at third.
Sarina Weigman, Luis Enrique win coach honors
Barcelona forward Vicky Lopez won the women’s Kopa trophy and Sarina Wiegman, who led England to European victory, took the Johan Cruyff award for best women’s coach. On a great night for PSG, Luis Enrique won in the men’s category.
PSG was voted the best men’s club and Donnarumma received the Lev Yashin award for best goalkeeper. Donnarumma, whose shot-stopping in the knockout stages proved crucial to PSG’s success, left for Manchester City during the offseason. Hampton was crowned the best women’s goalkeeper.
The men’s and women’s Gerd Müller trophies for the top scorers went to Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor and Viktor Gyokeres, who joined Arsenal this summer from Sporting Portugal after a prolific season.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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