Dembélé Bets the Ballon d'Or Stays at PSG, Names Kvaratskhelia, Kane and Mbappé as Contenders

Winning the Ballon d'Or tends to come with a curious side effect: it turns you into everyone's favorite judge for the following year. That's exactly what happened to Ousmane Dembélé, who sat down with L'Équipe to run through who might take home the 2025/26 prize, just days before the official nominees are announced.

The first thing the Frenchman made clear is that he doesn't see the trophy leaving home, and by home he means Paris Saint-Germain, the club with which Dembélé himself lifted the Ballon d'Or after a season in which the Parisian side won Ligue 1 and the Champions League. On that dominance, he didn't hold back:

I don't think it's up for debate. I think it's going to stay with a PSG player.Ousmane Dembélé

Asked to go further and put together a top three, the forward didn't want to rank names but did offer three concrete candidates: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Harry Kane ("who had a really good season") and his French national team teammate Kylian Mbappé. Three very different profiles, at that: a Georgian winger who adapted quickly to PSG, an English center forward still putting up big numbers in Germany with Bayern Munich, and a Mbappé who arrived at Real Madrid to shoulder the goal-scoring burden he used to split back in France.

What also stood out was what Dembélé didn't do: include himself. With the logic of someone who just won the award and knows public humility tends to pay off, he laid out his position plainly:

I never include myself in things like that. I never vote for myself. If it's me speaking, I don't vote for myself.Ousmane Dembélé

The list didn't stop there. The forward added other names who, in his view, deserve to be part of the conversation even if they don't crack the top three. He brought up Michael Olise, whom he called "the best player in the Bundesliga" after his season at Bayern; he mentioned Lamine Yamal, Barcelona's rising star who keeps shattering records for precocity; and also Fabián Ruiz. But there was a particular nod to a less high-profile name: Willian Pacho, PSG's Ecuadorian center back. "People forget about him. I hope we don't forget him this year, because he deserves it," Dembélé said, calling for some recognition for one of the most solid defenders on the European champions.

The countdown has already begun

This Tuesday, France Football magazine (which has handed out the award since 1956) will reveal the list of nominees for the 2025/26 Ballon d'Or. Alongside that main category, the candidates for Club of the Year, Coach of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, Striker of the Year and the Socrates Award, reserved for those who stand out for humanitarian work off the field, will also be revealed.

With Dembélé himself setting the agenda from his position as reigning champion, the question hanging in the air is simple: will PSG repeat as the absolute protagonist, or will one of the names the Frenchman mentioned (or even the man himself) bring down the curtain on that dominance?