‘No Doubts At All’— Luis Enrique Reveals Pick for 2025 Ballon d'Or | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique has “no doubts at all” that Ousmane Dembélé is the most deserving recipient of the 2025 Ballon d’Or when it is presented later this year.

Dembélé has completed an extraordinary resurrection in 2025, deemed surplus to requirements and a way to raise cash by Barcelona when he was sold to PSG for just €50.4 million (£42.3 million, $57.2 million at the current exchange rate) two years ago.

His first season in Paris, in 2023–24, was largely underwhelming—limited to only 17 Ligue 1 starts and falling out of favour in the second half of the campaign. Even in the early months of 2024–25, Dembélé struggled with longstanding discipline issues, unceremoniously dropped for the Champions League encounter with Arsenal in October after falling foul of Enrique’s standards.

But Enrique later remarked in February that moment was the making of Dembélé. “That day [in London] everyone criticised me. It was, by far, the best decision I’ve taken this year but Dembélé did the rest of the work,” the coach told a Ligue 1 press conference.

After a couple of months in and out of the team, the penny seemed to drop for Dembélé in mid-December. He netted in PSG’s Ligue 1 win over Lyon and proceeded to score 15 more in his next 10 league appearances. In Europe, it was 13 goals and assists in 11 games in 2025 alone. He didn’t score in Saturday’s thumping Champions League final win over Inter, but did set up two goals on the record-breaking night.

Ousmane Dembélé has been outstanding in 2025. / IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

Overall, Dembélé, the senior figure at 28 years of age in an incredibly young PSG team, has contributed 48 goals and assists in 49 appearances for a team that has completed a treble.

“I’d give the Ballon d’Or to Mr Ousmane Dembélé,” Enrique has now said, highlighting the all-round work ethic he has seen from the winger. “The way he defended [against Inter]...only that can be worth the Ballon d’Or. This is how you lead a team. Goals, titles, leadership, defending, how he was pressing. Ousmane is my Ballon d’Or. No doubts at all.”

The 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony will be held once more at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, on September 22, with the nominees to be announced in August. Dembélé is certainly be among the favourites, alongside Barcelona pair Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

Dembélé now arguably holds a major advantage over his competitors due to winning the Champions League, but his claim could yet be strengthened further still. PSG’s status as newly crowned European champions automatically makes them one of the favourites to win the first edition of the reformatted FIFA Club World Cup, which kicks off in the United States later this month.

None of Raphinha, Yamal or Salah will be involved, effectively making it a free hit for Dembélé.

The group stage sees PSG face Atlético Madrid, Botafogo and Seattle Sounders, while their place in the next Club World Cup in 2029 is already secured, too.