Fifa election
Nagelsmann and Kimmich did not vote for Dembélé
12/17/2025 – 2:05 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Former BVB player Ousmane Dembélé wins the world footballer election. However, the national coach and a Bayern star did not vote for the eventual winner.
National coach Julian Nagelsmann and national team captain Joshua Kimmich did not see the elected PSG star Ousmane Dembélé at the top in the election for FIFA World Player of the Year, but rather his Portuguese club colleague Vitinha. This emerges from the overview of the voting that the world association published after the award ceremony in Doha/Qatar.
Nagelsmann put the former Dortmund player Dembélé, who had already been awarded the Ballon d’Or in September, in second place ahead of Bayern striker Harry Kane. Kimmich put his club colleague Kane second, the DFB captain’s third choice was the Spaniard Pedri.
Incidentally, no German player received even one vote – this was because Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala and Co. did not make it onto the eleven-man shortlist that was previously determined by a panel of experts.
Bayern Munich’s currently injured goalkeeper icon Manuel Neuer was placed first by eleven voters in the keeper vote – including Kimmich and Nagelsmann, who still has to clarify his number one question for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma received the most votes among the goalkeepers.
Hansi Flick (FC Barcelona) made it onto the podium among the coaches following Luis Enrique’s (Paris Saint-Germain) clear victory; for Nagelsmann’s predecessor on the German bench, his former Bayern player Alphonso Davies (captain of the Canadian national team), among others, awarded the full five points; Argentina’s world champion captain Lionel Messi put Flick in second place. Nagelsmann voted for Mikel Arteta (Arsenal FC), Enzo Maresca (Chelsea FC) and Arne Slot (Liverpool FC).
DFB captain Giulia Gwinn had ranked the Spaniard Patri Guijarro ahead of her compatriot, the winner Aitana Bonmatí. Women’s national coach Christian Wück saw Alexia Putellas as another Spaniard and former world footballer at the forefront. Germany failed in the European Championship semi-finals against the Iberians. A German field player also did not make it onto the shortlist that could be voted on.
When it came to being chosen as world coach, Gwinn and Wück, like most people, agreed: England’s European champion coach Sarina Wiegman received full points.
The coaches and captains of the national teams as well as selected media representatives and fans were allowed to vote. Record national player Lothar Matthäus is still the only German to be voted world footballer in the history of the vote (1991). In the women’s category, however, there have already been several German award winners in Birgit Prinz, Nadine Angerer and Nadine Keßler.