Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain is expected to beat off Barcelona star Lamine Yamal and win the men’s Ballon d’Or today. Aitana Bonmati could win her third straight women’s trophy.
According to AFP, the world of football will come together for a fancy event at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris to find out who will receive an award that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have held for so long.
From 2008 until 2023, that pair won the Ballon d’Or 13 times.
Last year, Manchester City midfielder Rodri won the trophy, which is the most important individual accolade in football. He led Spain to victory at Euro 2024.
Rodri is not a contender this year because he had a bad season last year with injuries. Instead, 28-year-old Dembele is the favorite from a list of nominations that is mostly made up of Champions League winners PSG.
Nine players from the PSG team that won the European title for the first time by beating Inter Milan 5-0 are among the 30 nominees.
Along with Dembele, there are Desire Doue, Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz, and Vitinha. Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has since gone to Manchester City, is also a goalkeeper.
But Dembele seems to have the edge following a great season in which he scored 35 goals and filled the gap left in Paris by the departure of Kylian Mbappe.
That help led PSG to win all of their domestic games and make it to the final of the Club World Cup.
The French team had a great season, and so did Dembele, who went from being a winger to a center-forward.
Dembele told Le Monde, “It’s nice after what was a great season with PSG,” when asked what it meant to be a top contender for the award.
“I think it’s true that I’m one of the favorites, but we’ll see what happens.”
A lot of the PSG nominees won’t be able to go to the ceremony because their Ligue 1 game against Marseille was moved back 24 hours because of storms in southern France. But Dembele is hurt, so he might not be able to go.
Yamal, who is only 18 years old, stands out from the other finalists because he has become a star on the wing at Barcelona, where he is touted as the next Messi.
He earned the Kopa Trophy for best player under 21 at last year’s Ballon d’Or gala, just after helping Spain win the European Championship.
Last season, he scored 18 goals in 55 appearances across all competitions. Barcelona won La Liga and the Spanish Copa del Rey, but they lost to Inter in the Champions League semi-finals.
Yamal remarked recently, “I don’t want to win just one Ballon d’Or; I want to win a lot.”
The Lionesses or Bonmati?
People now vote for the Ballon d’Or based on what they did in the last season instead of the whole year, like they used to. Viktor Gyokeres, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, and Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who were crucial players in Liverpool’s 2024-2025 Premier League win, are also up for awards.
Mbappe and Vinicius Junior are also on the list. A year ago, Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony because they were angry that Vinicius Junior had not won the award.
A group of journalists, one from each of the top 100 countries in the FIFA global rankings, votes for the Ballon d’Or.
It is the top 50 for the ladies, and Barcelona and Spain star Bonmati is going for a treble, so the field looks wide open.
Bonmati, who is 27 years old, is a great player. She was selected player of the tournament at the UEFA Women’s Euro in July.
But Spain lost the final of that tournament to England on penalties, and Bonmati’s Barcelona lost the Champions League final to Arsenal in May.
There isn’t a clear star player on the England team that won the Euros, which might help her or her partner Alexia Putellas, who has won the tournament twice before.
Lucy Bronze, goalie Hannah Hampton, Alessia Russo, and captain Leah Williamson are also up for the award, as is Chloe Kelly, who scored the winning penalty in the final.
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