When Ousmane Dembélé finally got his hands on the 2025 Ballon d’Or, it wasn’t just a career-defining moment for him, it was also reminder of the people who helped him get there,Softfootball reports.
Amid the bright lights and celebrations in Paris, cameras caught a powerful scene, his childhood best friend, Moustapha Diatta, in tears as he watched Dembélé crowned the best player in the world, it was one of the most emotional moments of the night.
According to top journalist Fabrizio Romano via his official facebook page, Dembélé spoke about just how much Diatta means to him, he said:
Since we were 4 or 5 years old, we’ve done everything together, lived through everything, he has always SUPPORTED me, and until the end we’ll be together, him and me…
Softfootball reports that those words, paired with Diatta’s raw emotion, summed up Dembélé’s journey better than any stat line. Yes, he scored and assisted over 50 times last season, led PSG to a historic treble, and won the Super Cup against Tottenham, but this was about more than football. It was about loyalty, about a friendship that survived the grind of growing up, the setbacks, the injuries, and the doubts.
For Dembélé, this Ballon d’Or was not his alone. It belonged to the people who believed in him when others didn’t. And for Diatta, watching from the crowd, it was proof that their shared dream had come true.
But while the party in Paris raged on, PSG are already looking ahead. They recently stumbled in a tough defeat to Marseille, and they’ll be desperate to have Dembélé back from injury as soon as possible. For all his personal glory, his club still needs their Ballon d’Or winner on the pitch and when he returns, the Parc des Princes will roar even louder.
