PSG striker Ousmane Dembélé the overwhleming choice for Ballon d’Or, according to poll | OneFootball

In the form of his life since the start of 2025, Ousmane Dembélé (27) has become a serious candidate to win the Ballon d’Or.

A new poll by L’Équipe has the Frenchman in the lead for that prestigious award by a considerable margin.

The former World Cup winner in 2018 received 40.9% of the votes in their mid-March poll, followed by FC Barcelona’s Raphinha (28) at 25% and his Barça teammate Lamine Yamal (17) receiving 8.8%.

French captain Kylian Mbappé (26) was fourth with 8%, with Mohamed Salah rounding out the top five by earning 7.4% of the votes.

Neither Dembélé nor Mbappé have won the Ballon d’Or before, with the latter finishing third in voting in 2023. The last Frenchman to win the trophy was Karim Benzema (37) in 2022 while at Real Madrid.

Dembélé leads Ligue 1 with 20 goals this season. He scored the equaliser in PSG’s second-leg tie with Liverpool last week, enabling them to advance on penalties.

The Frenchman has been on top form in 2025, finding the back of the net 21 times in 16 games.

He has 29 goals across all competitions this season for PSG, far exceeding his previous best single-season total at Barcelona when he netted 14 competitive goals in 2018-19.

Dembélé can make an impression on the international stage tomorrow when France take on Croatia in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Nations League.

The Vernon-born player has only scored six international goals for Didier Deschamps’ men, the last one coming last September in a Nations League clash against Belgium.

GFFN | Joel Lefevre