Ballon d'Or: Ousmane Dembélé makes France happy, the country of champions
Excited and proud to have entered, through the front door, the history of soccer. Ousmane Dembélé has brought the Ballon d’Or back to France, the country where it was conceived, back in 1956, by France Football magazine.
The PSG striker became the sixth Frenchman to win the coveted award. Before him were Raymond Kopa (1958), Michel Platini (for three consecutive years, namely 1983, 1984 and 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991), Zinedine Zidane (1998) and Karim Benzema (2022).
Now France is the country with the most players who have won the Ballon d’Or (six), ahead of two other nations with great football history such as Italy (five) and Germany (five). It should be remembered that, before 1995, the prestigious award was given only to European players (people like Diego Armando Maradona or Pelé never won it for that reason). In general, Lionel Messi is the player who has taken home the Ballon d’Oro the most times. The Flea has won as many as eight in his incredible career.
The last Italian to win the Ballon d’Or was Palo Cannavaro in 2006, the year of Italy’s success at the World Cup. The Italian defender thus joined a small circle that includes Omar Sivori (1961), Gianni Rivera (1969), Paolo Rossi (1982) and Roberto Baggio (1993).
