Soccer
Ousmane Dembele has been named the Champions League Player of the Season for 2024-25, having helped Paris Saint-Germain to their first European crown.
Dembele enjoyed a magnificent campaign as PSG won the treble, with Luis Enrique’s side following up their Ligue 1 and Coupe de France successes by routing Inter 5-0 in Saturday’s Champions League final.
That is the most comprehensive margin of victory ever recorded in a European Cup/Champions League final, and though Dembele did not get on the scoresheet, he did manage assists for Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
That made him the first player to provide two assists in a Champions League final since Marcelo for Real Madrid in 2018, in Los Blancos’ 3-1 win over Liverpool.
Meanwhile, his 14 goal involvements in this season’s competition (eight goals, six assists) are the second-most by a French player in a single campaign, after Karim Benzema had 17 for Madrid in 2021-22.
Benzema won the Ballon d’Or off the back of that haul, and Luis Enrique stated on Saturday that Dembele also deserves to be crowned the world’s best player.
Dembele did land another prize on Sunday, with UEFA’s technical observer group – which includes Gareth Southgate, Rafa Benitez, Roberto Martinez and other coaches and former players – naming him the outstanding player of the tournament.
“As well as his eight goals, Dembele has taken on the role of a leader in the Paris Saint-Germain team, as we saw in the final with how he worked so hard, pressing from the front,” the group’s report said.
“On top of that, he created doubts for their opponents match after match with his clever movement, dropping deep to give his team superiority in the midfield.”
Only Barcelona’s Raphinha (13 goals, eight assists) and Borussia Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy (13 goals, four assists) bettered Dembele’s 14 goal involvements in the 2024-25 tournament.
Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with 10 in 2013-14, has ever scored more goals for PSG in a single Champions League tournament.
Dembele’s team-mate Doue, who on Saturday became the first player to ever record three goal involvements in a Champions League final, won UEFA’s Young Player of the Season award.
Doue – at the age of 19 years and 362 days – became just the third teenager to score in a Champions League final, after Patrick Kluivert in 1995 (for Ajax v AC Milan) and Carlos Alberto in 2004 (for Porto v Monaco), with another 19-year-old attacker, Senny Mayulu, scoring PSG’s fifth goal.
Both Dembele and Doue were named in the Champions League Team of the Season, with Vitinha, Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, Marquinhos and Gianluigi Donnarumma completing the PSG contingent.
UEFA’s Technical Observer Group has selected its 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Team of the Season…#UCL pic.twitter.com/sxWvBWwISk
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 1, 2025
Inter centre-back Alessandro Bastoni and Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice also made the cut, while Barcelona wingers Raphinha and Lamine Yamal were included after their semi-final exit.
Yamal also won the Goal of the Season award for his solo run and curled finish in the first leg of Barca’s classic semi-final tie versus Inter.
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