Ballon d'Or 2025: 'There is no debate to have' - Julien Laurens backs PSG star Ousmane Dembele to beat Lamine Yamal to award
Published 03/09/2025 at 09:56 GMT+1
Ousmane Dembele remains the favourite to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or after an outstanding season for European champions Paris Saint-Germain. And TNT Sports' Julien Laurens is adamant that there should be no competition for the Frenchman, who also helped PSG to Ligue 1 glory in 2024/25. Barcelona's Lamine Yamal is expected to challenge Dembele for football's most prestigious individual accolade.
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TNT Sports expert Julien Laurens has backed Ousmane Dembele to win the Ballon d'Or ahead of Lamine Yamal.
Dembele was exceptional for UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in 2024/25, scoring 35 goals and providing 16 assists in all competitions.
And Laurens insisted there can only be one winner of football's most-prestigious individual award at the ceremony in Paris on September 22.
"My boy, Ousmane Dembele," Laurens said when asked for his pick. "This is very simple: the Ballon d'Or should go, and will go, to the best player from the best team in the world.
"The best team in the world in 2025 is PSG. There is no debate to have. And the best player in the PSG team is Ousmane Dembele.
"He was obviously hugely influential in them winning the Champions League, decisive in the final, semi-final, quarter-final, whether it was goals or assists. Just for that, there's no one better than Dembele this year.
"Lamine Yamal is a very talented kid but he's not even the best player in his own team; that is Raphinha. Raphinha was named La Liga Player of the Season because he was better than Lamine Yamal through the whole season, so just one name for me: Ousmane Dembele."
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Dembele and Yamal could face each other in the Champions League this season - with action live on TNT Sports and discovery+ - as Barcelona host PSG in the league phase on October 1.
Laurens highlighted that clash as the "popcorn" fixture of the competition.
"I want to see PSG against Barcelona," he said. "I just want to see Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele facing off.
"I want to see for me the two best teams from last season in the competition. I know it was Inter Milan in the final but I thought Barcelona and that high line was pretty amazing. I want to see PSG against that high line, I want to see Luis Enrique against Hansi Flick.
"For me this is the popcorn game of the league phase."
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Laurens also gave his verdict on Gianluigi Donnarumma before he joined Manchester City from PSG on deadline day.
"I don't think he's a Guardiola type of goalkeeper," he claimed.
"He's not very good with the ball at his feet, which is what Guardiola wants, and he's not very good on crosses, which is what you need in the Premier League because it's a league that requires a goalkeeper like that.
"On his line, he's the best in the world, and maybe when you weigh up the pros and cons, you take that and deal with the rest. Still, he doesn't feel like a Pep signing."
Stream the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and discovery+.
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