Here's how France's Ousmane Dembele won the Ballon d’Or in Paris

Updated On: 24 September, 2025 09:26 AM IST | Mumbai | Ronan Carvalho

As Paris Saint-Germain’s French forward Ousmane bags maiden Ballon d’Or, mid-day highlights his ebbs and flows en route to becoming the world’s best

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Ousmane Dembele with his Ballon d’Or in Paris on Monday. Pic/AFP

Lessons learnt at Barcelona

Dembele was always known to be talented — Barcelona paid over $120 million (Rs 1065cr approx) to get him from Borussia Dortmund in 2017. However, the French forward’s time in Catalonia was characterised by indiscipline (reports claimed a late-night gaming habit affected his punctuality at training) and injuries (14 muscle injuries). However, being discarded by Barca brought about a new hunger in Dembele. He reportedly improved his nutrition and trained harder. The birth of his daughter in 2022 is also said to be one of the reasons for his new-found maturity.

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