Ousmane Dembele, Aitana Bonmati win 2025 Ballon d’Or awards

Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele and Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati have been named the 2025 Ballon d’Or winners.

Dembele, 28, has won the award — the top individual accolade in football — for the first time in his career after playing an important role as PSG won their maiden Champions League title during the 2024-25 campaign, in addition to defending the Ligue 1 title and Coupe de France.

The France international provided a career-high 35 goals and 16 assists across 53 appearances in all competitions for Luis Enrique’s side.

Dembele joined PSG from Barcelona in the summer of 2023 in a €50million ($59m; £43.3m at current rates) move. The transfer brought an end to his six years at Barcelona, having joined the club from Borussia Dortmund for a then club-record fee of €135m.

He scored eight goals in 15 Champions League appearances as PSG won the competition for the first time in the club’s history. He provided a goal and an assist across the two-legged semi-final victory over Arsenal, before setting up two goals in the 5-0 win against Inter in the final.

Dembele finished as the joint-top scorer in Ligue 1 with 21 goals in 29 appearances as PSG lost just twice in the top flight across their title-winning campaign, and was named the league’s player of the season.

Bonmati claimed the award for a record third successive year.

The 27-year-old played a significant role for Barcelona and Spain last season, helping her club to a domestic treble — which included a sixth consecutive Liga F title — and the final of the Champions League.

She also played a leading role in her nation’s run to the European Championship final, where they suffered defeat to England on penalties. Bonmati scored the winning goal in Spain’s semi-final victory over Germany and was named player of the tournament, despite having her preparation disrupted by a viral meningitis diagnosis in late June.

Bonmati becomes just the third player in football history to win the Ballon d’Or three years in a row. Lionel Messi (2009-2012) and Michel Platini (1983-85) also achieved the feat, while no other women’s player has done so since the award’s inauguration in 2018.

The midfielder recorded 16 goals and 11 assists in all competitions for Barcelona last season, and featured in all 11 of her side’s Champions League fixtures. Scoring four times and assisting five, Bonmati played an important role for her side in the European competition and was named the player of the tournament, but fell just short of winning a fifth title with a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in the final in Lisbon.

In winning the Ballon d’Or, Bonmati ensured the award would go to a Spain and Barcelona midfielder for the fifth year in a row, with Alexia Putellas having won the honour in 2021 and 2022.

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal won the men’s Kopa Trophy — awarded to world football’s best player under the age of 21— for a second successive year, also finishing second in Ballon d’Or voting.

Spain international Yamal, 18, is the first player to win the award twice, after it was introduced in 2018. In the 2024-25 season, Yamal scored 18 goals and provided 25 assists in 55 games in a rapid rise as Barcelona claimed the La Liga title, the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey.

He continued his strong form into the beginning of the 2025-26 season, recording two goals and two assists in Barcelona’s first two La Liga matches, and assisted three goals across two matches while on international duty with Spain before being sidelined with a groin injury.

Vicky Lopez won the women’s Kopa Trophy to complete a clean sweep of the award for Barcelona and Spain.

The 19-year-old has recorded three goals and three assists in four league games to open the 2025-26 season off the back of a highly successful 2024-25 campaign. She scored 11 goals and recorded three assists in 33 games in all competitions as Barcelona won a fifth straight Liga F title and reached the final of the Champions League, where they were defeated by Arsenal.

Lopez also part of the Spain squad that reached the Euro 2025 final.

The victorious manager in that game Sarina Wiegman, claimed the women’s Johan Cruyff Trophy (coach of the year) after helping England defend their Euros title. PSG’s Luis Enrique won the men’s edition of the award following his side’s Champions League and Ligue 1 wins this year.

Hannah Hampton, who replaced Mary Earps as England’s No 1 this summer, won the Women’s Yashin Trophy — the award for the best goalkeeper. She won a second Women’s Super League title with Chelsea last season and was England’s hero in the Euros final, saving two penalties in the shootout. Gianluigi Donnarumma, who joined Manchester City on deadline day, won the men’s award after another successful campaign with PSG.

Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres, who joined in the summer from Sporting CP, and Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor each received the Gerd Muller Trophy, given to last season’s top scorers.

‘Bewitching dribbles and whirring movement’ – how Dembele won the Ballon d’Or

Analysis from The Athletic’s Conor O’Neill

Dembele was the best player for the best team last season. More often than not, ticking both boxes is enough to guarantee a gold-plated, jewel-encrusted ball for the mantlepiece.

Before last season, his latent talent was obvious, but a frustrating lack of consistency meant the 28-year-old was never — until now — even included in the 30-man shortlist for the award.

Luis Enrique emphatically unlocked these talents by shifting Dembele forward to the No 9 position. There, his whirring, dynamic movement, bewitching dribbles and sharpened ball-striking made him the perfect spearhead for a dizzyingly talented PSG squad.

Kylian Mbappe, whose departure helped facilitate this tactical change, is unequivocal about his compatriot’s credentials for the top prize, telling French broadcaster TF1, “If it were up to me, I’d deliver it to his house.”

‘Control amid the chaos’ – how Bonmati won the Ballon d’Or

Analysis by The Athletic’s Max Matthews and Laia Cervello Herrero

Three in a row for Bonmati, who has been the beating heart of Barcelona and the Spanish national team for years. She provides silk and steel, the control amid the chaos.

The finest players show up in the biggest games, and Bonmati is particularly good at that.

In the Euro 2025 quarter-final against Switzerland, she provided a top-class assist to Athenea del Castillo with her heel for the first goal of a 2-0 win. In extra time in the semi-final against Germany, just when everything seemed set for a penalty shootout, Bonmati made the difference.

She was desperately close to winning Liga F, the Champions League, and the European Championship this year. That Barcelona and Spain fell just short in the latter two finals, against Arsenal and England, should not obscure her almost otherworldly brilliance.

Men’s Ballon d’Or top 30

1. Ousmane Dembele (PSG & France)

2. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona & Spain)

3. Vitinha (PSG & Portugal)

4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)

5. Raphinha (Barcelona & Brazil)

6. Achraf Hakimi (PSG & Monaco)

7. Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid & France)

8. Cole Palmer (Chelsea & England)

9. Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City & Italy)

10. Nuno Mendes (PSG & Portugal)

11. Pedri (Barcelona & Spain)

12. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG & Georgia)

13. Harry Kane (Bayern & England)

14. Desire Doue (PSG & France)

15. Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal & Sweden)

16. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid & Brazil)

17. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona & Poland)

18. Scott McTominay (Napoli & Scotland)

19. Joao Neves (PSG & Portugal)

20. Lautaro Martinez (Inter & Argentina)

21. Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund & Guinea)

22. Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool & Argentina)

23. Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid & England)

24. Fabian Ruiz (PSG & Spain)

25. Denzel Dumfries (Inter & Netherlands)

26. Erling Haaland (Man City & Norway)

27. Declan Rice (Arsenal & England)

28. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool & Netherlands)

29. Florian Wirtz (Liverpool & Germany)

30. Michael Olise (Bayern & France)

Women’s Ballon d’Or top 30

1. Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona & Spain)

2. Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal & Spain)

3. Alessia Russo (Arsenal & England)

4. Alexia Putellas (Barcelona & Spain)

5. Chloe Kelly (Arsenal & England)

6. Patricia Guijarro (Barcelona & Spain)

7. Leah Williamson (Arsenal & England)

8. Ewa Pajor (Barcelona & Poland)

9. Lucy Bronze (Chelsea & England)

10. Hannah Hampton (Chelsea & England)

11. Claudia Pina (Barcelona & Spain)

12. Marta (Orlando Pride & Brazil)

13. Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona & Norway)

14. Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride & Zambia)

15. Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea & France)

16. Cristiana Girelli (Juventus & Italy)

17. Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current & Malawi)

18. Melchie Dumornay (OL Lyonnes & Haiti)

19. Klara Buhl (Bayern & Germany)

20. Pernille Harder (Bayern & Denmark)

21. Amanda Gutierres (Palmeiras & Brazil)

22. Esther Gonzalez (Gotham FC & Spain)

23. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (Chelsea & Sweden)

24. Sofia Cantore (Washington Spirit & Italy)

25. Emily Fox (Arsenal & USWNT)

26. Lindsey Heaps (OL Lyonnes & USWNT)

27 (tied). Frida Maanum (Arsenal & Norway)

27 (tied). Clara Mateo (Paris FC & England)

29. Steph Catley (Arsenal & Australia)

30. Caroline Weir (Real Madrid & Scotland)

(Top photo: FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

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