{"id":55717,"date":"2025-09-23T10:08:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/tearful-dembele-crowned-ballon-d-or-winner-after-stunning-psg-season\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:01:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:01:45","slug":"tearful-dembele-crowned-ballon-d-or-winner-after-stunning-psg-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/tearful-dembele-crowned-ballon-d-or-winner-after-stunning-psg-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Tearful Dembele crowned Ballon d\u2019Or winner after stunning PSG season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 28-year-old Frenchman delivered 35 goals and 14 assists in 53 appearances last season, spearheading PSG\u2019s historic treble of the Champions League, Ligue 1 and the French Cup. He was also named Ligue 1 and Champions League player of the year, and played a decisive role in PSG\u2019s run to the Club World Cup final.<\/p>\n

Dembele, who received the award from Brazilian legend Ronaldinho, was visibly moved on stage. His mother joined him as he delivered an emotional speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I have just experienced is exceptional, I have no words for it, what happened with PSG,\u201d Dembele said. \u201cI feel a bit of stress, it\u2019s not easy to win this trophy, and to have it presented to me by Ronaldinho, a legend of football, is exceptional.”<\/p>\n

\"Dembele,<\/figure>\n

It is the first Ballon d\u2019Or for Dembele and makes him the sixth Frenchman to win the award, following in the footsteps of Karim Benzema (2022) and Zinedine Zidane, among others.<\/p>\n

{{PSG dominate Ballon d\u2019Or night
\n}}<\/p>\n

Dembele\u2019s triumph underlined PSG\u2019s dominance at this year\u2019s awards. The club was named Team of the Year, while manager Luis Enrique received the Best Coach award after guiding the Parisians to their first Champions League title. Enrique, who was managing PSG\u2019s Ligue 1 fixture against Marseille that evening, became only the second coach after Pep Guardiola to win trebles with two different clubs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was also honoured, winning the Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper after keeping 17 clean sheets across the campaign. Donnarumma has since moved to Manchester City, but his performances in PSG\u2019s treble run proved decisive.<\/p>\n

{{Bonmat\u00ed achieves historic hat-trick
\n}}<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, Spain and Barcelona star Aitana Bonmat\u00ed won the Ballon d\u2019Or F\u00e9minin for the third year in a row. The midfielder, who was hospitalised with viral meningitis just days before the Women\u2019s European Championship last summer, helped Barcelona to a domestic treble and was named the tournament\u2019s best player despite Spain\u2019s shootout loss to England in the Euro 2025 final.<\/p>\n

\u201cThird time in a row here, and I still can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Bonmat\u00ed said. \u201cI owe Barcelona everything. This is the club of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her win extends Barcelona\u2019s streak of women\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or winners to five consecutive years.<\/p>\n

{{Youth and scoring honours
\n}}<\/p>\n

Eighteen-year-old Lamine Yamal, runner-up to Dembele in the Ballon d\u2019Or voting, collected the Kopa Trophy for best player under 21. He became the first footballer to win the award twice, following another standout season for Barcelona and Spain.<\/p>\n

\"Lamine<\/figure>\n

In the goalscoring category, Arsenal\u2019s new striker Viktor Gy\u00f6keres claimed the Gerd M\u00fcller Trophy after netting 54 goals for Sporting CP and Sweden across 2024\u201325. On the women\u2019s side, Barcelona\u2019s Ewa Pajor received the same prize.<\/p>\n

\"Viktor<\/figure>\n

{{Humanitarian recognition
\n}}<\/p>\n

The Socrates Award went to the Xana Fundaci\u00f3n, a charity set up by Luis Enrique\u2019s family in memory of his daughter, who died of bone cancer in 2019. The foundation supports children with life-threatening illnesses.<\/p>\n

{{A French revival
\n}}<\/p>\n

Dembele\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or completes a remarkable turnaround for a player once plagued by injuries and inconsistency at Barcelona. Signed by PSG in 2023 for \u00a343.5m, he was transformed mid-season by Enrique\u2019s tactical switch to a central striker role. From December onwards, he scored 30 goals in all competitions, establishing himself as one of Europe\u2019s most lethal forwards.<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele capped the most prolific season of his career by winning the 2025 Ballon d\u2019Or, overcoming Barcelona teenager Lamine Yamal in Paris on Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000094927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000094927,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/acd74230-97f7-11f0-beff-6fe19e0dd9d4.jpg.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000094927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55717"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55717"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}