Ballon
d’Or 2025
live
Updated 35s ago
Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele and Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati have won the top prizes at the 2025 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in Paris, France.
Dembele, who helped PSG become the first French side to win a continental treble last season, beat Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal to the men’s award.
Spain international Bonmati won the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the third year in a row, edging out Mariona Caldentey.
Other results — Young players: Lopez, Yamal. Best coaches: Wiegman, Enrique. Best goalkeepers: Hampton, Donnarumma. Top scorers: Pajor, Gyokeres. Women’s club: Arsenal. Men’s club: PSG.
She's the only one who hasn't cried!
Advertisement
An emotional Ousmane Dembele took to the stage and kissed the Ballon d'Or trophy. Here’s what he had to say after picking up the prize:
💬 “I don't have many words. Look, it’s not easy. It is one of the best things I have accomplished in my career.
“Winning this trophy from Ronaldinho, a legend of football, is amazing.
“To all the team and the club, it’s really an incredible family. You have been amazing since the first day, the president, since the first contact he has been exceptional with me.
“I want to also thank all the staff at PSG, my coach Luis Enrique has been amazing with me and has been the most important of my career.
“My team-mates have been amazing in 2024 and 2025, they have been with me in the bad moments. It is not an individual trophy, it is for us all to win this.”
Presenter Kate Scott invites Dembele's mother from the crowd up on stage and they collapse into each other's arms.
Mother and son, on top of the world.
That's nice to see.
Dembele thanks his mother, who has always been there for him, he says.
He fights back the tears as he adds that she has always supported him.
Dembele says ‘We've done this all together’ and the floodgates open as his voice cracks.
He wipes away tears of joy and his family in the crowd do the same.
This is maybe the most heartwarming and authentic moment of the night.
He waves his hands back towards his face, suggesting he's fighting back the tears.
Lamine Yamal looks on impassively.
Dembele thanks his national team coach Didier Deschamps, who smiles proudly, and his hometown.
As soon as he says that, those in the audience representing there erupt in applause.
From his founding and first club Rennes, to Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona.
It's been a long journey to this award.
Advertisement
‘Ousmane, Ousmane, Ousmane, Ousmane’ rings out around the Theatre du Chatelet, which is soon followed by “Ousmane, Ballon d’Or”.
Ousmane Dembele is the first player to win the Ballon d'Or while representing a club from his own country at the time of the ceremony since Michael Owen won it at Liverpool in 2001.
He adds that the PSG president is like a father to him.
Al-Khelaifi nods sagely from the audience.
This place erupts just as a Metro train rumbles loudly beneath the theatre only adding to the noise as Dembele is announced as the world’s best men’s player.
He is of course a very popular winner with the home crowd who begin to chant his name.
Ousmane Dembele lifts that famous golden ball.
A broad smile on his face.
He claps along as the crowd chant joyfully in French.
Thank you, thank you everyone, he begins.
Advertisement
He's done it!
Ronaldinho peers at the envelope, and calmly speaks over the shouts with one word: Dembele.
The Theatre du Chatelet erupts!
One of those two men will lift the golden trophy by the end of tonight.
Dembele, the Frenchman, who plays for the Parisian side PSG, is clearly the favourite of most of the crowd.
They chant “Ousmane! Ousmane!” over and over, which is a little gauche.
Ruud Gullit vainly trying to speak over the whoops and hollers.
Let's take a look.
Which leaves…
There’s no doubting that Aitana Bonmati is one of the world’s finest footballers but Mariona Caldentey can feel hard done by with that decision.
She won the Champions League with Arsenal and put in game-changing appearances for both club and her country, Spain — arguably adding more impactful showings than Bonmati in their run to the Euros final.
So, a tough call for those with the power to vote, but mine would have gone to Caldentey this year.
And they're putting highlights of the great man's career on screen.
What a player he was.
Joga Bonito, the beautiful game, embodied.
He won the 2005 Ballon d'Or, of course.
Advertisement
Well, she’s done it again! Here’s some of what Bonmati said as she picked up her third straight Ballon d’Or:
💬 “It's incredible this feeling, I never thought when I was a kid that I would achieve that because I didn't think that women’s football could exist. I always said that I had idols like Iniesta and Xavi because I saw them on TV.
“All the trophies are because of the collective work and this year we had a difficult year because we won some trophies with our club but we also lost some against amazing footballers.
“We are more than footballers, we are leading by example throughout the world. For the new generations, they can dream about being footballers. They can dream it, that is the best thing we can achieve.”
A win for Aitana Bonmati, and a win for all those who believe the Ballon d’Or winner doesn't have to go to a player who won the Champions League or major international tournament that year.
Mariona Caldentey would have been a worthy recipient, but Bonmati, in my opinion, has been the best player in women’s football for several years now.
Becoming the first player in the women’s game to win the trophy three times in a row is the recognition her sustained brilliance deserves.
‘Thank you very much and enjoy the night’, Bonmati concludes in English.
Lionel Messi and Michel Platini are the only other players in history to win three Ballon d'Or awards in a row.
An incredible achievement.
