Every year, France Football organizes a Ballon d’Or ceremony to celebrate the world’s best footballers. This time it was handed to Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati and Paris Saint Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, and deservedly so. This award usually sparks debate, as some are torn between rooting for the player that had the best football season and one who is simply the best footballer.
The idea behind the Ballon d’Or is to reward the player who had the best season, individually. It’s not so cut and dry though, as team achievements play a factor in bias and selection. Sometimes, players don’t have great individual seasons, but play for teams that win lots of trophies, and so journalists and coaches vote for them.
Who Were the Ballon d’Or Contenders?
Paris Saint Germain (PSG) and FC Barcelona had excellent seasons, but PSG had the best season a club could dream of. All that was left was for PSG to beat Chelsea in the Club World Cup final and they’d have finished the season with a mind-boggling five trophies. This is insane, as you’d truly have to be the best in the world to win that number of trophies in a season. However, going into the Ballon d’Or ceremony yesterday, two players’ names were all over social media.
Lamine Yamal, Barcelona
Yamal had a truly phenomenal season, though not in goalscoring. In fact, his goalscoring was so bad that his fans had to avoid conversations about it. Nonetheless, he was a key piece in Barcelona’s title-winning season, scoring nine goals and providing 13 assists. He also created 28 big chances for his teammates in that league season, excellent by any standards.
In the UEFA Champions League (UCL), however, he wasn’t as hot. He was still very effective, scoring or assisting eight times in 13 games. It was good enough to push the Spanish giants to the semifinals. As good as these numbers were, they were not nearly as good as the other candidates.
Ousmane Dembele, PSG
Dembele started his career at French club Rennes, then moved to Borussia Dortmund at a very young age. He then made a mega move to Real Madrid’s archrivals Barcelona, where he didn’t impress, as he was almost always injured.
He moved to PSG in 2023 and simply…exploded. In the just-concluded football season, Dembele took it to another level. The Frenchman scored 21 goals in 29 league games, providing six assists. In the Champions League, he contributed directly to 14 goals in 15 games. His creation was impressive too. He was at the center of everything (literally, he played center forward).
Why Dembele Deserved to Win Football’s Most Prized Award
In the weeks before the award ceremony, many fans, pundits and even some players were pushing for Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal to win it. The issue is that Yamal did not deserve the award on merit. Dembele was more important for a team that won four trophies, than Yamal was for a team that won three.
Barcelona swept the La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. PSG, meanwhile, won the French Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the Trophees des Champions, and the holy grail of club football: the UEFA Champions League. PSG went ahead to finish runners-up in the only competition it participated in and did not win. Dembele was crucial to that run, scoring 35 goals in all competitions.
The campaign for Yamal to win was pure sensationalism, as it would reinforce the narrative that the 18-year-old is Lionel Messi’s heir. The good thing is that the Ballon d’Or is only voted for by team captains, national team coaches, and a few select journalists from around the world.
The Ballon d’or Hasn’t Always Gone to the Most Deserving Player
The last two Ballon d’Or ceremonies were complete shams. The 2024 award went to Manchester City central midfielder Rodri. The 2023 award was even more of an embarrassment, going to Messi.
The 2023 award was particularly outrageous because Man City’s Erling Haaland had broken every goalscoring record under the sun and dragged his new club to its first-ever European treble in history.
The Ballon d’Or has sometimes been a popularity contest, so it’s refreshing to see a deserving player win it for the first time in about four years, arguably.
Ballon D’Or Runners up
Lamine Yamal (2nd)
Yamal came in second, but it’s easy to make the case that he shouldn’t have. His teammate Raphinha contributed much more to the league win than he did. In fact, Raphinha outperformed Yamal in every competition, especially the Champions League.
The 28 year-old Barcelona No. 11 scored 18 goals (double of Yamal’s) and recorded nine assists in the league. He went on to score 13 times in 15 games in the Champions League. He provided assists too. You wonder why Barcelona fans didn’t campaign for Raphinha to win the Ballon d’Or? They did, but then realized it’d be more trendy if “Messi’s heir” was to win it, and jumped ship.
Raphinha should rank second.
Vitinha (3rd)
Vitinha came in third, which should not be surprising considering many of these same voters selected another central midfielder to win the whole thing last year. Granted, the Portugal international had a great season.
Vitinha was absurdly consistent over all three main competitions PSG played last season. His passing was key in PSG controlling games the way they did. PSG dominated the Champions League like no one else has, even winning the final 5-0 over Inter Milan. The 25-year-old midfielder was a mainstay in an incredibly competitive side gunning for the highest honors.
Conclusion
The Ballon d’Or always sparks conversation and heated debate in the months leading up to the actual ceremony. However, the days after it are filled with even more debates and disagreements. This will never change, because every fan has his own definition of what a good season is, or who the best player is. This year, the voters were true to themselves, and that is commendable.
“Are you saying they weren’t true to themselves in 2023 when they voted for Messi over Haaland?” Yes. Yes, I am.
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