He is the best: Dembele wins Ballon d'Or

Last season we saw a drama caused by Vinicius Jr and Real Madrid, who disrespected the famous Ballon d’Or and the award for the best player and decided to boycott the ceremony in which Manchester City’s Rodri was crowned as the footballer of the year. This year in Paris, there was no Real Madrid (again), so there was no drama. Both finalists came, greeted each other and respected the event. In the end, Ousmane Dembele became the best player in the world, while Lamine Yamal came in second. Dembele won Ligue 1, the French Cup and the Champions League with PSG last season. They were also runners-up at the Club World Cup. Individually, he scored 35 goals and contributed 16 assists for his club in 53 appearances. As for African players, there were two of them in the Top 10 - Egypt's Salah in fourth and Morocco's Hakimi in sixth place.

"Thank you all. It’s unbelievable what just happened to me. I have no words. It’s been an incredible season with PSG. I’ve experienced great things, I’m a bit nervous, it’s not easy. Winning this trophy and having Ronaldinho present it to me is something extraordinary. I want to thank PSG, who brought me here in 2023. The president, the whole team, the club, which is a wonderful family. From the very first day, the president treated me very well," said Dembele after receiving the award.

Other top 10 nominees were ranked by their votes:

3. Vitinha (PSG)

4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

5. Raphinha (Barcelona)

6. Achraf Hakimi (PSG)

7. Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid)

8. Cole Palmer (Chelsea)

9. Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Man City)

10. Nuno Mendes (PSG)

The best footballer in the women category was again Aitana Bonmati Barcelona, who retained her title from last season, while Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey finished second. Among other male nominees, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham are among players who have fallen in the ranks the most. The former Borussia Dortmund team-mates were among the top five last year, fifth and third respectively, but now find themselves outside the top 20. Vinicius Junior was even worse as just one year later, he finished 16th.

For the second year in a row, Lamine Yamal got the award for the best young player. Other candidates were Ayyoub Bouaddi (Lille), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Desire Doue (Paris Saint-Germain), Estevao (Palmeiras/Chelsea), Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth/Real Madrid), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Rodrigo Mora (Porto), Joao Neves (Paris Saint-Germain) and Kenan Yıldız (Juventus). His colleague from the same club Vicky Lopez got the reward for the best young female footballer. As for best coaches, England manager Sarina Wiegman won the Johan Cruyff Trophy in female category, which was expected, since her team won the EURO in Switzerland this year. As for men, there was no dillema - Luis Enrique is the coach of the year. His rivals were Antonio Conte (Napoli), Hansi Flick (Barcelona), Enzo Maresca (Chelsea) and Arne Slot (Liverpool). For the first time, there was a women keeper nominees for the

Yashin trophy and the winner was Hannah Hampton. On the men’s side, it was Man City's Gianluigi Donnarumma who got the award after a excellent PSG season, after which coach of the year Luis Enrique decided to sell him. Arsenal got two awards tonight. The first was for the female club of the year, while the second one for the best striker. Recently signed Victor Gyokeres won Gerd Muller Trophy after scoring 54 goals in 52 appearances for Sporting. There was no surprise in men football – after winning the Champions League and the French title, PSG has won the club of the year award ahead of Barcelona, Botafogo, Chelsea and Liverpool.