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So now we fully transition from the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era to the modern equivalent of Florian Albert or Allan Simonsen.
That isn’t to be disrespectful to two genuine greats, or to the 47th player to win the Ballon d’Or, Ousmane Dembele. He, like his predecessors, at least has a good argument to claim the award.
It’s just that, as was the case way back then, it doesn’t feel like one of those victories that is going to be overly celebrated from the vantage point of the future. There’s an element of trying to force present performances to fit something grander, to amplify them into something that meets the bar.
So, in the absence of a major men’s tournament, or 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 knockout stages, scoring 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 the list of players in this millennium alone who have not won the award: Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Thierry Henry, Paolo Maldini, and – so far – Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland.
Part of this is just the luck of a given year, and who you happen to be up against. Alongside that, though, is the ongoing tension around what the award actually represents: whether it’s about being the most valuable player, or a genuine bid to crown the best – the most talented – footballer in the world.
Of course, “most talented” is somewhat dependent on the application of that talent… which is why the award feels like it should be some subjective combination of the two.
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 an obvious claim to every victory. Four of his five wins 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 he was up against a player who is perhaps seen as being on the cusp of 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 at a higher level than anyone else, doing things that other players couldn’t have conceived of. He’s also doing them in the biggest games.
It’s not Yamal’s fault that Barcelona failed to beat Inter in that sensational Champions League semi-final. He was the player who did the most to try to avoid that.
All of this similarly applies 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 is clearly the best player in the world. She performs at a higher level than anyone else, doing things that other players couldn’t have conceived of. She’s also doing them in the biggest games.
It’s not Aitana’s fault that Barcelona failed to beat Arsenal and Spain failed to beat England in the finals she played in. She was most responsible for 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 it’s more palatable to vote for a player who doesn’t win the biggest team prizes.
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.
Yamal did much more.
#Ballon #dOr #wrong
