Excellent for the first time
Tears on stage: PSG star wins Ballon d’Or
Updated on September 23, 2025 – 8:07 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
As every year, the balloon d’Or is awarded in autumn. This year a player won who was never allowed to take the price home before.
The winner of the Ballon d’Or 2025 is called Ousmane Dembélé. The Frenchman of Paris Saint-Germain prevailed on Monday evening at the award ceremony in Paris against stars like Lamine Yamal (FC Barcelona), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain) and Mohamed Salah (FC Liverpool). Dembélé had won the triple of the championship, trophy and champions League with PSG.
The former BVB player was involved in 14 goals in 15 Champions League games, was a key figure, especially in the knockout phase, in which nine games scored four goals and prepared five more. He also struggled nationally with 34 scorer points in 34 missions.
For the 28-year-old Dembélé it is the first international solo award. Nationally, he was elected to the player of the season in Ligue 1 after the past season. When Dembélé thanked his mother in his thank you speech, the most emotional moment of the evening came: The offensive player had to interrupt his speech several times and buried his face in his hands.
The Germans nominated went empty -handed on Monday evening in all categories. Former Leverkusener Florian Wirtz from FC Liverpool took 29th place. He was the only German to make it to the final list of candidates. Harry Kane from FC Bayern Munich came 13th as the best Bundesliga professional.
The award is a choice of journalists. The prize, which is awarded by the magazine “France Football” together with the European Football Union UEFA, has existed since 1956 and has long been a award for Europe’s footballer of the year. At the same time, the World Association FIFA has honored world football players since 1991. Between 2010 and 2015, FIFA had been cooperated with the Amaury Group, which belongs to the “France Football”.