Ousmane Dembélé on Ballon d'Or Criticism: "It Makes Me Laugh"

Ousmane Dembélé knew the Ballon d’Or would change his life. He just didn’t expect it to turn him into a lightning rod quite this quickly.

Since lifting the 2025 award, the France and Paris Saint-Germain forward has been hit with a wave of scrutiny that rarely pauses between matches. He hears it. He simply refuses to care.

"I don't care about being criticised, it's part of the game," he told RMC in an interview picked up by France Football. "You will always be criticised in football, and it increases when you are the holder of the Ballon d'Or."

Then came the line that sums up his mood since that golden night.

"I have won the biggest individual award, so I am now under the microscope more. This makes me laugh, you are constantly watched, but it doesn't bother me."

Living with the Ballon d'Or target on his back

The numbers from his 2025-26 season at PSG are clear enough. Forty matches in all competitions. Twenty goals. Eleven assists. A campaign shaped not just by volume, but by timing.

For Dembélé, the Ballon d’Or hasn’t brought fear. It has raised the bar.

"You have to be strong all the time," he said. "You have to put in a good performance in every match, otherwise everyone will start talking about you and criticising you. This is funny, but it doesn't change anything, the criticism will always be there."

The pressure has followed him into Europe. He embraced it.

From the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League onwards, Dembélé scored in every game he played. When the lights were at their brightest, he delivered.

"I was clearly better in the decisive moments, and that is important," he said. "Isn't that the number one criterion?"

Early in the season, injuries forced PSG’s staff to handle him with care. Minutes were managed, workloads trimmed. The idea was simple: keep him sharp for the biggest nights. On that front, he feels they got it right.

No obsession with keeping the crown

The next Ballon d’Or race is already being argued over, dissected and predicted. Dembélé is not among the main favourites to retain the trophy. He sounds entirely unbothered.

"This is football," he said. "The Ballon d'Or was never an obsession for me. It was a goal or a dream, yes, but it was never an obsession."

There is no defiance in his voice when he looks ahead to the next winner. Just a straightforward line.

"I hope the best player wins," he added.

Kvaratskhelia top of Dembélé’s Ballon d'Or list

Asked who he would crown, Dembélé didn’t dance around the question or reach for a diplomatic answer. He went straight to the name that has impressed him most from close quarters at PSG.

His choice: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

The Georgian winger, now a team-mate in Paris, sits at the top of Dembélé’s personal podium. Behind him, Dembélé places England captain Harry Kane and his former PSG colleague Kylian Mbappé to complete his top three.

Would he ever vote for himself?

The response came quickly and without a hint of doubt. "No, if I were the one choosing, I would not put myself on the list and I would not vote for myself."

It is a stance that stands in sharp contrast to Mbappé, who has previously said that if the choice were his, he would back himself in the Ballon d’Or race.

Different personalities. Different approaches to the same prize. One embraces self-voting, the other laughs off the spotlight and refuses to put his own name forward.

The debate over who deserves the next Ballon d'Or will rage on. Dembélé, already a winner, sounds far more interested in being decisive when it matters than in winning the argument.