Dembele, who left Barcelona in 2023, had a sensational 2024-25 season with Paris Saint-Germain, whom he helped win a historic treble \u2013 which included their first-ever Champions League. And things could get better still, as the European champions are competing in this summer\u2019s Club World Cup.<\/p>\n
And when speaking to France Football (via Sempre Barca<\/a>), Dembele gave his thoughts on a possible Ballon d\u2019Or success.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to say (if I will win). But winning a Ballon d\u2019Or when you\u2019re a footballer is obviously the holy grail on an individual level. It\u2019s something you dream of as a child. I remember when I saw the players appear in T\u00e9l\u00e9foot to receive him. It was incredible. The object \u2013 the ball \u2013 is exceptional.<\/p>\n \u201cThis season I think I\u2019ve been consistent, so we\u2019ll see what happens. It would be exceptional to have my name on the list. And to be one of the favourites is already a great victory, although I hope to win it one day.\u201d<\/p>\n Lamine Yamal is seen as Dembele\u2019s main rival for the award, and during the interview, he reminisced about his first impressions of the 17-year-old sensation, whom was played alongside briefly at Barcelona.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were already talking about him from a very young age in Barcelona. When he reached the professional team, we realised that he was exceptional and reached another level. In training, he would dribble, assist, and score.\u201d<\/p>\n Dembele also spoke on the impact that former Barcelona head coach Luis Enrique, who has had a monumental impact at PSG.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a coach like Luis Enrique, you know that if you don\u2019t defend, you go to the bench, and someone will take your place. For me, a striker should not cheat, he should make efforts all the time, both defensively and offensively, to help the team, not just when we attack. Thanks to that, PSG\u00a0became\u00a0European\u00a0champions: we all defended and we all attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post “We realised…” – Ousmane Dembele recalls first impression of Ballon d’Or rival Lamine Yamal<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It looks like the winner of the 2025 Ballon d\u2019Or will either be a current Barcelona player, or a former one. Lamine Yamal,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/yourphdbestie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Dembele.jpg\")