Ousmane Dembelé wins the Ballon d’Or after a season in which he made a decisive leap forward. Five figures on the PSG star’s award.
483.3
Ousmane Dembelé scored 35 goals in his fabulous 2024/25 season for Paris St. Germain – 21 in Ligue 1, eight in the Champions League, three in the French Cup, two in the Club World Cup and one in the French Super Cup.
But the number 35 only becomes truly remarkable when viewed in the context of another number: six. The number of goals Dembelé scored in 2023/24. That’s an increase of 483.3 percent.
0.81
Even within his now excellent season, a big leap is still noticeable. Until December 15, 2024, Dembelé had scored “only” five goals in 17 games, or 0.29 per match. The Frenchman then more than doubled that rate, scoring 30 goals in 37 games – 0.81 goals per game. This was no coincidence: from mid-December onwards, PSG coach Luis Enrique increasingly deployed his exceptional talent in the center of the attack. It was a change that could hardly have worked out better: between mid-December and mid-March, Dembelé scored 25 goals in 19 games across all competitions.
6
Dembelé is the sixth Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or. This puts the host nation at the top of the rankings for the most different winners. Before Dembelé, Raymond Kopa (1958), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991), Zinedine Zidane (1998), and Karim Benzema (2022). Until now, France shared the top spot with Italy and Germany, which has produced five Ballon d’Or winners to date: Gerd Müller (1970), Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980, 1981), Lothar Matthäus (1990), and Matthias Sammer (1996).
5
As big as the quality gap between the Premier League and Ligue 1 may be now, if you look at the Ballon d’Or winners list, it’s pretty close. Dembelé is the fifth player to have played part or all of the assessment period in the top French league. This was previously the case for Papin (1991), George Weah (1995) and Lionel Messi (2021 and 2023). The Premier League and its predecessor leagues have produced seven winners – even fewer than the Bundesliga (nine). Far ahead are Serie A (20) and La Liga (26).
10
Dembelé is the tenth player in soccer history to win the most important club title, the most important national team title, and the most important individual award in his career. Before him, Bobby Charlton, Müller, Beckenbauer, Paolo Rossi, Zidane, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Kaka, and Messi achieved the triple of Champions League, World Cup, and Ballon d’Or. Like Dembelé, none of these players achieved this triple triumph in the same year.
