Five Fun Facts You Should Know About Ballon d’Or Winner Ousmane Dembélé

Ousmane Dembélé is officially the king of satellite football. Fresh disconnected an unforgettable play with Paris Saint-Germain — 33 goals, 12 assists, and 4 trophies — the French guardant has present been crowned the winner of the 2025 Men’s Ballon d’Or, the astir prestigious grant successful football.

Sharing photos of himself connected signifier arsenic helium accepted the award, Ousmane wrote successful his caption, “Beaucoup de joie, de fierté et d’émotion. Un rêve devenu réalité. Merci à tous ceux qui m’ont toujours soutenu tout au agelong de ce parcours,” which translates to “So overmuch joy, pride, and emotion. A imagination travel true. Thank you to everyone who has ever supported maine passim this journey.”

For those who are unfamiliar with Ousmane Dembélé and successful solemnisation of his unthinkable achievement, present are 5 amusive facts astir the Ballon d’Or victor you should know:

His roots agelong crossed West Africa

Though calved and raised successful France, Dembélé’s practice is profoundly connected to Africa. His begetter is from Mali, portion his parent is of Mauritanian and Senegalese descent. His family’s influence, peculiarly from his parent Fatimata, shaped his aboriginal vocation — from the determination to determination with him to Rennes, to ensuring helium stayed grounded arsenic his prima began to rise.

He’s conscionable arsenic bully with his near arsenic his right

One of Dembélé’s biggest assets is his quality to usage some feet with adjacent confidence. Whether cutting successful from the wing, shooting from distance, oregon mounting up a teammate, defenders ne'er rather cognize what’s coming next. This two-footed brilliance has kept him unpredictable, and lethal, connected the pitch.

He practises his religion with pride

Dembélé is simply a practising Muslim, and his religion has ever been a guiding force. After France won the 2018 World Cup, helium donated his net from the tourney to assistance physique a mosque successful his mother’s hometown successful confederate Mauritania. He’s besides known to commune earlier matches and has played portion fasting during Ramadan.

He Was Once the Second Most Expensive Player successful the World

When Barcelona signed him from Borussia Dortmund successful 2017, the interest — implicit £135 cardinal — made him the 2nd astir costly footballer ever astatine the time. Though injuries hampered his commencement successful Spain, helium inactive managed to people 40 goals for Barça earlier moving to PSG.

He Scored Back-to-Back Hat-Tricks successful 2025

Earlier this year, Dembélé made past by scoring hat-tricks successful consecutive matches — archetypal against Stuttgart successful the Champions League and past against Brest successful Ligue 1. It was a stunning reminder of conscionable however unstoppable he’s go astatine PSG.