Dembélé, 'pampered' by the Ballon d'Or: What is it about?

The Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place on September 22 in Paris and the official account of the award, which has Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembélé as main competitors, has made a kind of 'wink' to the Frenchman, who this Wednesday was crowned champion of the European Super Cup.

However, the race for the award came to an end with the dispute of the Club World Cup final in the United States. Chelsea's triumph over Paris Saint-Germain marked, in principle, the closing of the competitive calendar considered by France Football for the evaluation of candidates for the award.

It is worth remembering that, despite this, the votes are open until the end of August, so anything can happen.

Does the Ballon d'Or account send a message?

In the official Ballon d'Or account on X (formerly Twitter), in recent hours videos and outstanding compilations of the various nominees for the prestigious award have been shared.

Among that content, the publication of a test carried out on the '10' of the Parisian team about the historical winners of the trophy has especially attracted attention.

The curious thing is that said video was broadcast less than 24 hours after the French winger received the award for Most Valuable Player in the Super Cup final, where he gave an assist, which has sparked speculation about whether it is a simple coincidence or a deliberate 'wink' towards the native footballer of Vernon.

In the aforementioned test, Ousmane had to choose between the different winners of the award until finally having to decide on one. At this point, the last two were Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Argentine being considered the best by Dembélé.

The 2025 Ballon d'Or, a dispute with many heavyweight nominees

Although both the '10' of FC Barcelona and PSG start with a clear advantage over the rest, for now, the award for this year has other great players nominated such as Raphinha, Pedri, Lewandowski or Vitinha, but obviously with less prominence on the covers.

However, we must not forget that in the last gala Vinicius Jr. seemed to be the one who would take the Ballon d'Or and at the last minute the surprise jumped that Rodri Hernández won the award.

Considering a scenario similar to last year is a bit complex, but certainly in football nothing is written. From there, it remains to be seen who will be considered the best player in the world according to France Football.

It is important to mention that Dembélé won the League, Cup and Super Cup of his countries, as did Lamine Yamal. However, the Frenchman also won the UEFA Champions League last season, which could tip the balance in his favor.