Why the Ballon d’Or got it wrong | OneFootball

So now we fully transition from the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era, to a modern equivalent of Florian Albert or Allan Simonsen.

That isn’t to be disrespectful to two genuine greats, or the 47th different Ballon d’Or winner in Ousmane Dembele. He, like them, at least has a good argument to claim the award.

It’s just that, also like them, it doesn’t feel one of those victories that is going to be overly celebrated from the vantage point of history. There’s an element of trying to force present performances to fit something grander, to amplify it into something that fits.

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Aitana Bonmati and Ousmane Dembele won the 2025 Ballon d’Or awards (AFP via Getty Images)

So, in the absence of a major men’s tournament as well as a player who was truly dominant at the elite level, Dembele was the next man along. The 28-year-old was Paris Saint-Germain’s joint-top scorer in the Champions League knock-out stages with four goals.

Two of those were genuinely big goals against Liverpool and Arsenal, but the other two were against Brest, where PSG only showcased how they spend most of their year: enjoying their vast economic advantage to pummel French opposition in games that are barely contests.

All of that starts to feel a little thin when you consider that none of Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Thierry Henry, Paolo Maldini and - so far - Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland have won it in this millennium alone.

Part of that is just the luck of a given year, and just who you happen to be up against.

Part of it is an ongoing tension over what the award actually is: whether it’s a Most Valuable Player, or there to genuinely crown the actual best footballer in the world; the most talented.

Of course, “most talented” is somewhat dependent on the actual application of that talent… which is why the award feels like it should be some subjective combination of the two.

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Dembele scored 35 goals and made 14 assists in all competitions for PSG last season (AFP via Getty Images)

This is what Messi and Ronaldo showcased for so long, which has probably warped perspectives to a certain degree. They were performing at this astonishing level and directly delivering the biggest trophies along the way.

Even if you take the now accepted wisdom that Messi was the greater player and perhaps the best of all time, Ronaldo still had such an obvious claim to every victory. Four of his five accompanied Champions Leagues.

Otherwise worthy winners such as Xavi, Iniesta, Lewandowski and Haaland were simply unlucky to be competing against them in the middle of very long prime periods.

On the other side, though, Dembele is perhaps lucky that was up against a player who is perhaps seen as performing just before his prime.

Lamine Yamal would have been a much more fitting winner of the trophy. He’s clearly already the best player in the world. He performs to a higher level than anyone in the world, even doing things that other players couldn’t have conceived. He’s also doing them in the biggest games.

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Lamine Yamal, who won the Kopa Trophy, would have been the youngest Ballon d'Or winner in history (AP)

It’s not Yamal’s fault that Barcelona failed to beat Inter in that sensational Champions League semi-final. He was one player who did the most to try and avoid that.

All of this similarly applied to Aitana Bonmati, who rightly won the women’s award ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo, one of five England players who finished in the top-10 but ultimately fell short.

Bonmati clearly the best player in the world. She performs to a higher level than anyone in the world, even doing things that other players couldn’t have conceived. She’s also doing them in the biggest games.

It’s not Aitana’s fault that Barcelona failed to beat Arsenal or Spain failed to beat England in either of her finals. She was most responsible in delivering her teams there.

But while Aitana was already a two-time winner - this third award affording her that gold-standard historic achievement - that often means that it’s more palatable to vote for a player who doesn’t win the biggest team prizes.

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Bonmati won despite Spain and Barcelona losing major finals last season (AFP via Getty Images)

Did Yamal miss out because he is still so young, and there’s a sense of having to rise to it? He would have been the first teenager to win the award.

And yet even if you just reduce it to a basic binary choice between the two, Yamal performed to a higher level than Dembele and also did more. The only real difference was that Dembele’s team won the final. And there’s even an argument that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was more influential to that.

If it was just down to the glare of the European Cup, it would be oddly fitting for a trophy that has evolved from an old-world gravitas and traditional prestige to something that is more about a glamour and gaudiness.

Even the trophy itself has become much more ostentatious over the years, something that you really notice if you look back at those old photos of Johan Cruyff or George Best lifting their humble little orb.

Duly, the lobbying is said to have been more aggressive than ever this year, and has got more pronounced as the seasons have gone on.

The Messi-Ronaldo era itself influenced this, so it’s another case of modern football eating itself.

None of this is to argue against the existence of an individual world in a team sport in anything like that.

Some players obviously are more decisive, and it’s right - and actually part of the fun of the sport - that that’s recognised.

It’s just that, like a few other years in the competition’s seven decades, it doesn’t necessarily feel like the 2025 Ballon D’Or fully did that.