GOAL US writers debate if Dembele deserved the Ballon d'Or and who could be the first American to win the award

So, the Ballon d'Or is sorted. Ousmane Dembele is the winner. The stats make for good reading: 53 games, 53 goal contributions. He won Ligue 1 and the Champions League. PSG made it to the Club World Cup final – and probably should have won the thing. His victory has drummed up a little controversy, though. 

There are some, in some corners of the internet, who believe that 18-year-old Lamine Yamal should have claimed it. Those of a Premier League persuasion have vouched for Mo Salah. And more broadly, there's a changing attitude. The Ballon d'Or, once a constant back-and-forth barometer to judge the relative greatness between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, used to be the pinnacle of soccer debate. 

Now, it's lost a little shine. Each year it provided some extra ammo for the truthers. These days, the Ballon d'Or is basically a yearly MVP. Still, it means , and in a soccer landscape starved of individual awards, the Ballon d'Or stands out.

GOAL US writers debate who should have won the award and if an American can ever claim it in the latest edition of… The Rondo. 

Was Dembele a deserving winner?

Tom Hindle: No. It really should have been Mo Salah. How do you break the Premier League single season goal contribution record, carry your team to a title, and not get the full acknowledgement for it? A lack of Champions League success certainly hurt him, but it was otherwise a season for the books. The reality for Dembele is that Ligue 1 is far too easy. 

Alex Labidou: Yes. He helped PSG finally win the Champions League, along with their usual dose of Ligue 1 and French Cup success. Ballon d’Or winners usually see their cases boosted by success in a major tournament, and Dembele is no different. Also, it isn’t said enough, but the Frenchman helped Luis Enrique implement a newer style of football, in which PSG combined elements from his success at Barcelona, while also instituting a hard-pressing style typically seen by German sides.

Ryan Tolmich: It's not a layup, but it was probably the right call. Dembele was one of the few candidates who had the right mix of everything required for the award. While it could have gone to one of those other candidates, that Champions League trophy clearly took him over the top. That made Demebele both a deserved winner and a feel-good underdog story, which is something that this award has had little of once the Messi-Ronaldo dominance ended in recent years.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportWho should feel most aggrieved by the results?

TH: Salah, but the absence of Virgil Van Dijk from the top 10 is also baffling. 

AL: For the first time in years, it seems as if all of the categories and their winners were correct. If one had to nitpick, it would be Viktor Gyokeres winning the Gerard Muller award over someone such as Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe. Yes, Gyokeres had more goals overall, but the Portuguese league – where he did the majority of his scoring – isn’t as challenging as the Premier League and La Liga. The European Golden Boot, for example, takes league coefficients into consideration. But overall, these awards were spot on.

RT: Salah made as a good a case as anyone this year. In terms of individual achievement, few can go toe-to-toe with the Egyptian, who, at times, singlehandedly carried Liverpool's title charge. That's not to discount guys such as Dembele or Raphinha, another legitimate candidate, but Salah could have been rewarded for his heroics at Anfield.

gettyWay-too-early prediction for next year?

TH: Yamal is perhaps the obvious shout here, but he may yet struggle with inconsistency – remember, he's 18. So, a word for Kylian Mbappe, who has been excellent thus far. Voters also tend to be skewed by the World Cup, and if France go far, then it might be his to lose. 

AL: Yamal came so close to winning it this year that he almost seems destined to lift the Ballon d’Or next year. All he needs is a club trophy and a good showing at next year’s World Cup.

RT: With this award being so tournament-dependent, it'll likely be someone who shines in both the Champions League and the World Cup, with the latter taking precedent if no one checks both boxes. Who can do both? Yamal with Spain and Barcelona, Mbappe with France and Real Madrid, Harry Kane with Bayern Munich and England or Raphinha with Brazil and Barcelona, to name a few. Given his continued growth, we'll lean Yamal, crazily enough – although the teenager will really need to show out in that tournament setting to get the nod.

Getty ImagesDoes the Ballon d'Or still matter?

TH: These days? There's zero value. It's a bit of a popularity contest that doesn't really tell us much about the relative quality of footballers. Vitinha in third? Pedri outside the top 10? Victor Gyokeres 14th? Vinicius Jr, despite having a remarkably poor season, gets a nomination? Silly. 

AL: It matters, as it’s a reward for a season’s effort. Yes, they don't always get the winner right – remember Robert Lewandowski’s infamous snub a few years ago, sigh. And it would be great if the award came after the European club season, for example, as opposed to the weird split between seasons and international play. But overall, it's still something fans and observers appreciate and respect.

RT: Minimally? It's a decent way to remember years and eras, but it doesn't always capture the entire picture. Is it an award recognizing the best player of that season or the best player in the world? Even the voters themselves have often flip-flopped between the two, which are drastically different. Because of that, it's hard to quantify, even if it does, at the very least, recognize a great player just about every time.