{"id":10485,"date":"2025-09-23T10:46:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T05:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=10485"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T05:46:07","slug":"dembele-and-bonmati-win-ballon-dor-as-psg-take-team-and-coach-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/sports\/dembele-and-bonmati-win-ballon-dor-as-psg-take-team-and-coach-prizes\/","title":{"rendered":"Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and Bonmati win Ballon d&#8217;Or as PSG take team and coach prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona&#8217;s Aitana Bonmati claimed the women&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or for the third year on the trot on Monday night as Paris Saint-Germain&#8217;s Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 took the men&#8217;s award for his starring role in his side&#8217;s glory-drenched ride to four trophies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 becomes the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20221022-karim-de-la-cr\u00e8me-benzema-tops-the-class-to-claim-ballon-d-or\">sixth Frenchman<\/a> to win the men&#8217;s prize since supremos at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.francefootball.fr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">France Football<\/a>.magazine established the award in 1956 to salute the best player in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20241028-rodri-and-bonmati-win-men-s-and-women-s-ballon-d-or-as-madrid-snub-paris-gala\">Bonmati <\/a>and her fellow Spaniard, Alexia Putellas, have harvested five of the seven women&#8217;s awards since its inception in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s exceptional what I&#8217;ve been living through,&#8221; said Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 after receiving the award from the Brazilian former player Ronaldinho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It has been a great year with PSG and to win this trophy and collect it from Ronaldinho \u2013 one of the legends of our sport \u2013 is a moment of great pride for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Choking back the tears, Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 praised coaches at his first club Rennes as well as those at Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona where he played before signing for PSG in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Thank you to all the staff at PSG,&#8221; he added. And after singling out PSG coach Luis Enrique as a father figure, Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 said: &#8220;Thank you to all my teammates. You kept my spirits up in the good moments and the bad moments. Even if I&#8217;m picking up an individual trophy, it&#8217;s the collective that is ultimately winning.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 leads the PSG pack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 was among eight&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.psg.fr\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PSG players<\/a> who were vying for the men&#8217;s award.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20250813-psg-face-tottenham-hotspur-in-european-super-cup-amid-donnarumma-departure\"> Gigi Donnarumma, <\/a>who moved to Manchester City this month, was nominated for the accolade for his exploits as goalkeeper for the team.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 26-year-old&nbsp;finished in ninth place in the voting but did not leave the gala ceremony empty handed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Italy skipper won the Troph\u00e9e Yachine for his feats with PSG who were anointed team of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 was at the ceremony at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Ch\u00e2telet in central Paris with fellow PSG nominees D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9 and Joao Neves who missed the club&#8217;s trip for the Ligue 1 clash at Marseille due to injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The France international was hailed for his performances during an all-conquering 2024\/2025 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He scored eight times and set up six goals in 15 matches during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/uefachampionsleague\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Champions League<\/a> campaign that culminated in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20250601-psg-fans-gather-at-their-local-in-paris-to-enjoy-waltz-to-champions-league-glory\">a 5-0 annihilation&nbsp;<\/a>of Inter Milan in the final in Munich on 31 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also played a key role in PSG&#8217;s second successive domestic treble&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20250105-demb\u00e9l\u00e9-strikes-late-against-monaco-to-secure-2025-troph\u00e9e-des-champions\">French Super Cup<\/a>, Ligue 1 title and Coupe de France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enrique won the Troph\u00e9e Cryuff for male coach of the year award for steering the team to the triumphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since taking over from Christophe Galtier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20230705-new-psg-boss-enrique-vows-to-put-youth-and-offence-at-centre-of-vision-for-glory\">in July 2023,<\/a> the 55-year-old Spaniard has led his charges to successive domestic trebles and orchestrated the Champions League triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though there was a surprise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/sports\/20250713-chelsea-beat-psg-3-0-in-final-to-win-club-world-cup\">loss to Chelsea<\/a>&nbsp;in the final of the Club World Cup in the United States, PSG recovered to win the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/uefasupercup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Uefa Super Cup<\/a>&nbsp;just before the start of the Ligue 1 season in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strikers honoured with Gerd M\u00fcller Trophy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In other awards, Viktor Gyokeres received the Gerd M\u00fcller Trophy to honour the striker of the year.&nbsp;Playing for Sporting Lisbon and Sweden, he netted 54 goals in 52 matches to top the scoring charts across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The strikes helped Sporting win the Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ewa Pajo at Barcelona lifted the women&#8217;s award while Arsenal&#8217;s women were handed the club of the year prize for their surge to the women&#8217;s Champions League crown in&nbsp;May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m proud to come from a club that started its women&#8217;s team in 1987,&#8221; said Arsenal coach&nbsp;Ren\u00e9e Slegers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Thank you to our owners and our supporters. They drive us with the sold-out crowds at the Emirates. Invest in women. Invest in women&#8217;s sport. When we do that, all of us benefit,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lamal wins young player of the year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona&#8217;s Lamine Yamal, who came second in the polling for the Ballon d&#8217;Or, won the Troph\u00e9e Kopa for the best young male player under 21 for the second year on the trot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 18-year-old saw off the PSG duo of Dou\u00e9 and Neves as well as Lille&#8217;s Ayyoub Bouaddi.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to thank everyone at the club and all my teammates and all my family,&#8221; said Lamal. &#8220;It&#8217;s important to keep working hard to be able to win more trophies.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barcelona striker Vicky Lopez won the Troph\u00e9e Kopa for female players under 21.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a double success for England,&nbsp;Sarina Wiegman was given the&nbsp;Troph\u00e9e Cruyff as best female coach and the Chelsea and England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton took the inaugural Troph\u00e9e Yachine for the best female goalkeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wiegman, 55, was hailed for leading the England national team to a second women&#8217;s European championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lionesses beat Spain following a penalty shoot-out at St Jakob-Park in Basel in July to retain the crown they won in 2022 at Wembley at the expense of Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hampton, 24, was saluted for a 2024\/2025 season in which she kept&nbsp;13 clean sheets in 22 league appearances for Chelsea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The west Londoners won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wslfootball.com\/standings\/wsl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">English WSL <\/a>as the first team to go unbeaten in a 22-game season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She capped her season with crucial stops in England&#8217;s run to the European crown including two saves in the penalty shoot-out in the final.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona&#8217;s Aitana Bonmati claimed the women&#8217;s Ballon d&#8217;Or for the third year on the trot on Monday night as Paris Saint-Germain&#8217;s Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 took the men&#8217;s award for his starring role in his side&#8217;s glory-drenched ride to four trophies. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 becomes the sixth Frenchman to win the men&#8217;s prize since supremos at France Football.magazine established [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}