FootyChatter.com

EPL By the end of today, we’re going to know who has been crowned the winner of the 2024-25 men’s Ballon d’Or. Whether you consider that golden trophy to be the true marker of the greatest player in the world or a symbol of an individual popularity contest that has eaten modern football, tongues will be set wagging when France Football magazine hands out its most prestigious award on Monday evening. Advertisement Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembele is considered the favourite (remind yourself of the nominees here) but is he the most deserving candidate? What does this award say about the sport? And who should receive the other prizes up for grabs? Here, six writers from The Athletic have their say. Elias Burke: Because PSG won last season’s UEFA Champions League and that apparently means the Ballon d’Or must go to one of their players? Dembele went on an excellent three-month run over the winter when he was the most in-form player in the world. He also scored important goals against Liverpool and Arsenal, two sides who could have gone on to win the Champions League had his efforts not helped knock them out. However, he didn’t start last season particularly well and then tailed off towards the end. Part of the intrigue and celebration around Dembele’s 2024-25 centres on his switch to a central role, but his record is not as eye-catching. A tally of 29 goals across domestic league and European competition is an outstanding return, but it is fewer than Kylian Mbappe (38), Harry Kane (37), Mohamed Salah (32) and Erling Haaland (30) last season, none of whom are predicted to finish in the top four tonight. The lion’s share of Dembele’s goals (21, so 72 per cent) came in Ligue 1, generally considered the lowest quality among the top five European leagues, even by UEFA’s coefficient. Dembele had a great season and deserves to be considered among the top contenders but should he be the runaway favourite? I’m not sure. Carl Anka: Because he has the most compelling story. When journalists Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran got together in 1956 to come up with an award for the best football player in Europe, it helped boost France Football’s sales more than anything. The Ballon d’Or is not handed out through footballing gods deciding an objective flagbearer of the sport. It’s decided by a collection of us lot looking for a compelling champion. Advertisement And so we come to Dembele. First teased as a potential world-beater as a teenager in 2017, then criticised for wasting his potential and reportedly enjoying fast food too much across his years with Barcelona, now, at 28, he has become a hard-pressing, technically adept, two-footed genius at the tip of PSG’s attack. Dembele’s story for 2024-25 was one of a boy becoming a man, and that man becoming a conqueror. That’s a compelling story that gets the people going. Ananth Raghuraman: A combination of his own performances, team success and the storyline that accompanies it. Dembele showed sparks at Rennes and Borussia Dortmund, only to crash and burn when he joined Barcelona. The move to PSG did not yield immediate success either, with only 17 league starts in his 2023-24 debut season. Luis Enrique deserves credit for getting the best out of Dembele in year two, but the France international has improved his game tremendously. The image of him as a suffocating and focused presser has replaced the frustrations and jokes over injuries and ill-discipline from previous years. Dembele is now viewed as a truly two-footed player rather than as one who did not know which foot to use. PSG were never particularly challenged in Ligue 1, but a Champions League title looked far-fetched in the early months of last season. They course-corrected brilliantly, though, with Dembele at their heart. He repeatedly delivered when PSG needed him most, helping them secure the treble and add the Trophee des Champions (French football’s version of the Community Shield in England) and the European Super Cup last month, too. Seb Stafford-Bloor: Primarily because the Champions League carries such weight and PSG and Dembele won that tournament in such overwhelming fashion. Their story was compelling, too. On the one hand, this was the new PSG, stripped of all their decadence and with their fat burned away, and yet they still managed to beat Liverpool and Arsenal on the way to that final 5-0 demolition of Inter, which helped defeat so many assumptions about the club — that they were brittle and, as with previous iterations of PSG, just another flat-track bully. Advertisement Dembele’s revival is also so seductive. A shooting star at Dortmund who became a troubled prodigy in Barcelona, but who has now delivered on his mighty talent at a critical moment. Dermot Corrigan: The Ballon d’Or often goes to the best and/or highest-profile attacker on the team who won the most prestigious trophy that year, which makes Dembele the obvious favourite. He also put himself right into the picture with a stunning run of form during December and January, key strikes against Arsenal and Liverpool in the Champions League knockout stages, and a goal and an assist in a 4-0 defeat of Real Madrid in the semi-finals at the summer’s Club World Cup. Strong support from his Qatari-owned club’s hierarchy has also been useful for Dembele’s candidacy, with PSG’s head coach Luis Enrique and Luis Campos, who is effectively their sporting director, having publicly argued his case, and no other team-mates doing enough to divert attention away from him. Cerys Jones: Fourteen goal contributions in his 15 games on the way to winning the sport’s most prestigious club competition will do that. Even if Dembele was a ‘boring’ forward who bulldozed through the 2024-25 Champions League by scoring toe-pokes, he would still be a favourite with such numbers — but that is not how he and PSG claimed the title. Watching opposition defenders try to nullify him was like a particularly entertaining game of Whac-a-Mole: they would close down one shooting angle and force him to pass instead, only for him to dart into a new space, receive a one-two, and score anyway. The idea of a player finally turning individual brilliance and potential into trophies also makes for a compelling narrative, and has parallels to the story of the modern-day, post-Qatari-takeover Paris Saint-Germain. Burke: Mohamed Salah. This may be pro-Premier League bias, but players in England’s top flight seem to be at a significant disadvantage compared to their peers around continental Europe. The Premier League is the highest-quality domestic league in the world, with every team (bar the three relegated sides last season) at least good enough to hold their own in European competition. Advertisement For example, Tottenham Hotspur finished 17th out of 20 in the 2024-25 Premier League yet won the Europa League. Wolverhampton Wanderers, who finished one place above them, had three regular Brazil internationals in their starting XI. Manchester United, who finished 15th, faced Spurs in that Europa League final and have a whole first-team squad littered with expensive internationals. No other league in the world is at a standard anything like that. For Salah to have dominated the Premier League in the way he did, scoring 29 times and providing 18 assists, is historic. Liverpool losing to the eventual winners, PSG, only via a penalty shootout in the Champions League’s knockout phase shouldn’t hurt his overwhelmingly strong case. Anka: It’s still probably Dembele. To think like an Oscar voter for a moment, this season was too early to crown Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, despite his obvious brilliance. I can imagine voters being reluctant to hand the award over to a teenager still at the start of his career. Salah was exceptional in a Liverpool team that easily won the Premier League, but the nature of that dominance may have left some voters cold. Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz of PSG and Barcelona pair Pedri and Raphinha are outside bets tonight, despite brilliant contributions to their teams. Scott Mc Tominay was also terrific last season (I would once again like to apologise for downplaying his talents and misdiagnosing his positive influence on a team), but Napoli’s lack of European football means fewer people got to witness his excellence. Raghuraman: Dembele is still my answer, for all the reasons mentioned above. If PSG had won the Club World Cup too, rather than losing 3-0 to Chelsea in the final, there would be few arguments for anybody else. Raphinha, who delivered 34 goals and 22 assists in all competitions for Barcelona, has a definitive case. Along with Yamal, Pedri and manager Hansi Flick, he has played a substantial role in putting Barcelona back among the game’s elite. Advertisement Vitinha and Pedri, the engines of their respective sides, are worthy candidates, as is Salah, who broke records for fun in the Premier League. But Liverpool’s defeat to PSG on penalties in the Champions League’s round of 16 and, weirdly enough, their dominance in the most competitive league in the world seem to have broken his case. Shout-outs to Kane (41 goals and 13 assists in 51 club matches) and Mbappe (43 and four in 58), too. Stafford-Bloor: If we ignore the convention that the winning candidate has to have won the Champions League, then it should be Salah. A tally of 47 Premier League goal involvements will likely never be bettered. As a side note, Salah, who turned 33 just after the season finished, was understandably assumed to be beyond his career’s peak, so his resurgence is every bit as dramatic as Dembele’s and worth just as much in reward. Add in other factors, such as the value of his contribution during Arne Slot’s first season in charge at Liverpool, easing the post-Jurgen Klopp transition, and the higher quality of opponent he faced week-to-week in England, and his claim is probably stronger. Corrigan: Dembele would be a deserving winner and he has a good redemption-type story. He came through a really tough time at Barcelona, when the club’s hierarchy tried to force him to leave on their terms and the local media often unfairly maligned his name. Goalscoring players are often favoured but midfield playmakers are overlooked in the voting for these types of individual awards. The most important player for PSG last season was Vitinha, who made them tick with his constant movement and involvement on and off the ball. Pedri, similarly, is unlikely to get as many votes tonight as Barca colleagues Yamal and Raphinha, but is arguably more important to their team in most games. Jones: Salah was exceptional for Liverpool, but complaints of, ‘If he had won the Champions League, he would be the favourite, ’ do have a ring of, ‘If my grandma had wheels, she’d be a bicycle’. If we want to talk about an alternative to Dembele, I would point to Vitinha. Fans could spend an entire game watching only him and not be disappointed. PSG’s whole forward line is superb, but he is the one who keeps the engine running. Burke: Success in the Champions League, or an international tournament, remains the most important factor in deciding the Ballon d’Or. Advertisement It’s a perfectly reasonable argument to say that should be the case, given the prestige around Europe’s premier club competition and the standard of opponent you face in it, particularly in the knockout rounds. Next year, the winner will probably be from the team who lift the World Cup. My opinion? Performance in league competition, and the quality of that league, should be considered as much (if not more) than knockout football. Anka: The sport is beginning to find new protagonists after a decade of Messi-Ronaldo dominance. One of the reasons the Ballon d’Or has gained this outsized attention comes from the 2010 to 2015 period, when it merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year, a five-year stint that saw two of the greatest of all time duel for the award as if it were a Wimbledon singles title. When Messi lifted the World Cup in 2022, it was supposed to be the end of one era, and the start of another led by Mbappe. That Dembele, Yamal and others have sped ahead of him is a little unexpected. Next year’s World Cup will give the game another chance to readjust. Raghuraman: The Ballon d’Or is as much about narratives and bias, if not more, as it is about merit. That became glaringly clear in the recent saga surrounding offers to support Dembele’s case to win, which, in theory,  should require no added boosts given his record and achievements. It has become the ultimate individual award in football, with multiple players stating that they dream of winning it. But the Ballon d’Or is not decided by an impartial committee using statistics and team success alone to judge it. Rather, one journalist from each of the top 100 nations in FIFA’s world rankings picks their top 10 players from a list of 30 finalists. Personal bias and preferences accompany that process. Class and fair play are criteria, too. Ultimately, the Ballon d’Or is a good flexing chip for fans of players and teams, and provides plenty of fodder for social-media debates, but viewing it as the game’s single marker of annual excellence feels flawed. Stafford-Bloor: I don’t think there are any profound conclusions to draw. All the money in the sport is concentrated among the same clubs and European football has been reformatted to protect those teams’ position at the top of the game — look at the lack of jeopardy in the Champions League now, for instance, or the way in which broadcasting revenue from continental tournaments is unevenly distributed. Advertisement About PSG’s success and Dembele’s re-rise specifically? It says that an extraordinarily wealthy club were able to make recruiting blunder after blunder, over a decade, but suffered few consequences as a result, and were still adequately resourced to perform a decadent retooling. Corrigan: That we are still coming out of the Messi vs Ronaldo era, and that no one superstar has yet imposed himself as the obvious standout best player in the world. This could be a good thing, and it would be nice to see the award shared around more, as it was before that duo came along. Although, maybe, in 12 months’, Mbappe or Yamal, or even Dembele again, will have established themselves as the undisputed number one. Jones: Not much new, except probably that the lack of consideration of the overhauled and greatly expanded Club World Cup in the Ballon d’Or conversation speaks to its position in the footballing food chain. For all FIFA’s tub-thumping, the UEFA Champions League is very much still the top prize. Other than that, the fact the Messi-Ronaldo dominance of this award seems to be gone and there is now more of an actual debate over the winner is refreshing. Burke: Yamal. Who else? Anka: At 17 last season, Yamal was among the five best men’s football players around… and he wasn’t fifth. He’s the most influential player in a dizzying Barcelona attack and is capable of delivering a dipping cross into the corridor of uncertainty that is near-impossible to stop. I interviewed Eric Cantona partway through the 2024 European Championship and the Manchester United legend told me Yamal is one of his favourite players to watch. Yamal’s goal against France in that tournament provoked opponent Mbappe to perform that, ‘Fair enough, you don’t stop those’ shakes of the head he does every so often. Advertisement It’s a case of when Yamal wins the Ballon d’Or proper, not if. Raghuraman: Yamal is the obvious candidate. He plays with the confidence and arrogance of one who knows few are better than him at full flow. When that is combined with his precocious talent and flair, the results are what we saw last season: 18 goals and 21 assists, and three trophies won, for Barcelona, plus his role in Spain becoming European champions at the start of it. A joy to behold. Stafford-Bloor: Yamal, and it’s really not particularly close. I’m not even sure who should be second on the list because he was the best 17-year-old player most of us have ever seen. Corrigan: Desire Doue, Dean Huijsen, Joao Neves and Kenan Yildiz all had spectacular campaigns, but Yamal should really be a shoo-in here. The Barcelona youngster made tremendous progress in his second full season of senior football. Among the games he grabbed by the scruff of the neck were the ‘Clasico’ Copa del Rey final and the Champions League semi-final’s first leg against Inter. To do all this before his 18th birthday was pretty amazing. Jones: It’s impossible to see this award going to anyone but Yamal. To be stepping up and matching top players, not only technically but physically, at his age is phenomenal and he is a real joy to watch. With all that said, PSG’s Doue has done everything right — except having the misfortune to be contending for these young player awards at the same time as Yamal. He is an absolutely brilliant footballer. The narrative about how refreshing it is to have a pool of Ballon d’Or contenders that extends past one or two names might fall flat on its face as soon as Yamal is too old to receive the Kopa Trophy. Burke: Thibaut Courtois was the outstanding goalkeeper in Europe last season, playing a pivotal part in Real Madrid’s ultimately unsuccessful La Liga title defence. His save percentage of 76 per cent over the past year is impressively high, particularly as he faces a disproportionate number of high-percentage goalscoring opportunities, such is the nature of Madrid’s front-footed attacking play and high defensive line. Advertisement Anka: Gianluigi Donnarumma is likely to win this. His performances for PSG in the knockout stages of the Champions League — particularly the semi-final against Arsenal — made all the difference for his side. The European Championship final four years ago gave the Italian a taste for breaking English hearts and he now seems to find an upper gear whenever he faces a Premier League side (which might explain why Manchester City have now signed him). Raghuraman: Alisson and Courtois are two of the best goalkeepers in the world and would be worthy winners. Alisson would be my pick after saving 77 per cent of shots faced in the Champions League and Premier League while conceding nearly eight goals fewer than expected. His distribution remains among the best in Europe too, with a 79 per cent pass completion rate. However, the Brazilian missed 14 matches across the two competitions, largely due to a hamstring injury. This award also often recognises match-defining brilliance in the Champions League, which Donnarumma showcased against Arsenal in the semi-finals and in the last-16 penalty shootout with Liverpool. He was also crucial to how PSG operated in possession, with clever passes over the top of teams, even if his overall distribution can be shaky. Yann Sommer’s end to the season was brutal but he was crucial to Inter finishing second in both Serie A and the Champions League. Stafford-Bloor: Sommer. Inter would not have got anywhere near the Champions League final without him. Corrigan: Sommer conceded 11 times in his final three Champions League appearances last season, which would usually disqualify a goalkeeper from any individual award. But he actually increased his reputation during the semi-final against Barcelona with a string of spectacular saves in both games — from Yamal and Raphinha especially — to keep his team in what were two tremendously exciting games. He could not really be blamed for any of PSG’s goals in the final, except maybe the last one on 86 minutes, by which time everyone’s focus had wandered, and the Switzerland international was a big reason why Inter got so far in the competition, conceding just once in the eight-match league phase. Jones: Sommer deserves an award just for keeping that semi-final between Inter and Barcelona, a tie absolutely nobody wanted to end, going for as long as he did. He was vital in Inter reaching the final and would be a worthy winner of this award — but I suspect voters will struggle to get over the headline figure of five goals conceded in a Champions League final, which is understandable. Which leaves Donnarumma as the obvious choice. (Top photos: Ousmane Dembele, left, and Lamine Yamal; Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle