Kylian Mbappé chews bitterly on the night of Ousmane Dembélé
After winning the Ballon d’d’Or, Ousmane Dembélé also makes The Best Fifa Award as the best footballer of 2025 his own: a dream double for the PSG footballer, protagonist of the Parisians’ success in the Champions League, as well as Ligue 1, Coupe de France and the European Super Cup. “It’s been a special year, I want to share gratitude with those who have been close to me – he said, receiving the award at the ceremony held in Doha, Qatar. “Thanks to my teammates, because daily work always brings results. To my family and PSG, with whom I had an extraordinary season, special recognition goes”.
Dembélé, class of 1997, was ahead in the voting of Kylian Mbappé, compatriot of Real Madrid, and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona. For Mbappé, it was a night not exactly to remember: his name, in fact, was not selected to be part of the Best XI of 2025, and the two strikers selected were indeed Dembélé and Lamine Yamal. The “dream team” features Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal, Achraf Hakimi, Willian Pacho, Virgil van Dijk, and Nuno Mendes in defense, Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Vitinha, and Pedri in midfield, behind the overall award winner and the talented Blaugrana.
The best XI of the year is the one that was selected.
Despite winning the Golden Shoe and being included in FIFPro’s Top 11 (which included three strikers instead of two) the French star was not included in Fifa’s Best XI, an exclusion that surprised many observers. The year of the 2018 world champion (as well as vice-champion in 2022) thus ends with a little bitterness, as well as with the’absence of new team trophies to put in his trophy cabinet: an aspect, the latter, that could certainly have contributed in the choice of preferring him Ousmane Dembélé and Lamine Yamal, who instead enriched their palmarés at different levels.
The Best Awards 2025, on the other hand, closed with a great satisfaction for national team captain Gianluigi Donnarumma, the first Italian to win the award since Gianluigi Buffon in 2017, a passing of the baton that underlines the continuity between two great interpreters of the role. “It is a real honor to receive this award, I am very happy and hope to do even more” said Donnarumma.
The goalkeeper had already finished second in 2021, behind Senegalese Edouard Mendy. After six seasons at AC Milan and four at Paris Saint-Germain, with which he won the last Champions League as well as four French championships, two domestic cups and three Super Cups, he moved to Manchester City last summer. With the Azzurri shirt, on the other hand, he won the European Championship in 2021, confirming himself as a protagonist at the international level as well.
