Paris Saint-Germain star Ousmane Dembélé is tipped to hold off Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal and win the men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday, while Aitana Bonmati’s chances of claiming a third straight women’s prize hang in the balance.
The cream of world soccer — with some notable exceptions — will gather at the Théâtre du Châtelet in central Paris to discover who will be the latest winners of an award dominated for so long by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Those two won the Ballon d’Or 13 times between them from 2008 to 2023, with last year finally marking the end of an era when the award went to Manchester City midfielder Rodri after he captained Spain to Euro 2024 glory.
With Rodri not a contender to retain the most prestigious individual prize in soccer after last season was marred by injury, Dembélé has emerged as the favorite from a list of nominees dominated by PSG.
Nine members of the PSG team that won the Champions League, demolishing Inter Milan 5-0 in the final, feature among the 30 nominees.
There is Désiré Doué, Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Nuno Mendes, João Neves, Fabian Ruiz and Vitinha, as well as goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, now with Manchester City.
But Dembélé stands out after a magnificent season in which he filled the void left in Paris by the departed Kylian Mbappe, scoring 35 goals.
That contribution helped PSG to also complete a domestic clean sweep and reach the final of the Club World Cup.
It was a spectacular campaign for the French club and an even more extraordinary one for Dembélé, the 28-year-old winger turned center-forward whose previous most prolific season had delivered 14 goals for Barcelona in 2018-19.
“It is nice after what was a wonderful season with PSG,” Dembélé told Le Monde when asked what it meant to be a leading contender for the prize. “I think it’s true that I am one of the favorites, but we will see what happens,” he said of the award he has described as “the individual Holy Grail.”
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