Paris Saint-Germain’s French worldwide ahead Ousmane Dembele has been named the boys’s Ballon d’Or winner for 2025, with Barcelona’s Spanish worldwide Aitana Bonmati claiming the ladies’s title for the third consecutive yr.
The pair have been awarded the trophies, recognised as essentially the most prestigious individual prizes in football, on the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France, on Monday.
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Dembele helped PSG to its first Champions League title in Could, and noticed off robust competitors from Barcelona starlet Lamine Yamal, who helped the Spanish membership to the La Liga title yr, instantly off the again of his starring position for Spain of their Euro 2025 triumph.
There was higher information for fellow Barca ahead Bonmati, nonetheless, as she turned the third individual, behind former French worldwide Michel Platini and Argentina legend Lionel Messi, to assert a hat-trick of titles.
Dembele succeeded Manchester Metropolis midfielder Rodri to turn into the sixth Frenchman to win it after Raymond Kopa, Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema.
Bonmati gained forward of her Spain teammate Mariona Caldentey.
Dembele tops Yamal for membership if not nation
The award capped a exceptional flip of fortune for Dembele, who at one level final season was snubbed by PSG coach Luis Enrique for disciplinary causes. However as soon as repositioned as a No 9, he turned a scoring machine and was inspirational in PSG’s historic Champions League marketing campaign. The French membership additionally accomplished a quadruple final season.
Dembele was praised after the Champions League remaining for the best way he contributed to PSG’s urgent and his means to defend in the course of the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan. He delivered 35 targets and 16 assists in 53 official matches final season, and was concerned in 14 targets (eight targets, six assists) within the Champions League in 15 appearances.
Dembele acquired the Ballon d’Or from former winner Ronaldinho and teared up throughout his acceptance speech, wherein he requested his mom to affix him on the stage.
“It’s unbelievable to win a trophy like this,” he mentioned in French. “I labored for the crew to assist win PSG’s first Champions League. To then be rewarded with a person trophy just like the Ballon d’Or is really distinctive.”
Barca ahead Yamal, who turned 18 in July, additionally helped Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey final season, in addition to the Spanish prime flight, and to succeed in the Champions League semifinals. Yamal was given the Kopa award for the perfect under-21 participant for the second straight yr.
“I have to carry on working to win different awards sooner or later,” Yamal mentioned by a translator.
Dembele was injured, however in a position to attend the ceremony in Paris, whereas his crew misplaced at Marseille 1-0 within the French league. He was one among 9 PSG gamers nominated for the boys’s award, together with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, ahead Want Doue, who scored twice within the Champions League remaining, and winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Bonmati rises from Spain defeat to assert third straight Ballon d’Or
Though Bonmati misplaced to England in a penalty shootout within the Girls’s European Championship remaining final summer season, she was named the perfect participant of the event, which she started simply days after being hospitalised for viral meningitis.
Bonmati’s spot kick within the shootout was one among two saved by England’s Hannah Hampton, who was voted the perfect girls’s goalkeeper.
“Third time in a row right here, and I nonetheless can’t imagine it,” Bonmati mentioned. “I owe Barcelona all the pieces. That is the membership of my life.”
She gained a home treble with Barcelona and in addition reached the Champions League remaining.
Barcelona has gained the final 5 girls’s awards, nevertheless it was anticipated that an Englishwoman would win for the primary time. England gained the Euros, and Arsenal took the Girls’s Champions League. However with 5 England gamers among the many girls’s prime 10 nominees, the very best positioned was Alessia Russo at third.
Different trophies at Ballon d’Or awards
Barcelona ahead Vicky Lopez gained the ladies’s Kopa trophy, and Sarina Wiegman, who led England to European victory, took the Johan Cruyff award for finest girls’s coach. On a fantastic night time for PSG, Luis Enrique gained within the males’s class.
PSG was voted the perfect males’s membership, and Donnarumma acquired the Lev Yashin award for finest goalkeeper. Donnarumma, whose shot-stopping within the knockout levels proved essential to PSG’s success, left for Manchester Metropolis in the course of the offseason. Hampton was topped the perfect girls’s goalkeeper.
The lads’s and ladies’s Gerd Müller trophies for the highest scorers went to Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor and Viktor Gyokeres, who joined Arsenal this summer season from Sporting Portugal after a prolific season.
