Ousmane Dembele named Guardian's best male player after long rise

Ousmane Dembele has been voted the best male player in the world by the Guardian’s 219-strong voting panel. The writer first highlighted Dembele in the Guardian’s 2014 Next Generation feature, selecting him from France-based talent born in 1997 for attributes including resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn.

Thomas Tuchel, who coached him at Borussia Dortmund, described Dembele as 'curious-motivated' under his ABC categorisation. Early in his career he won France's young player of the year award in his first professional season and helped Dortmund win the German Cup, but his six injury-laden years at Barcelona saw him start only a third of league games and score 24 league goals.

The piece highlights Dembele's exceptional 2025: at the time of writing he had scored 30 goals in the calendar year and played a central role as Paris Saint-Germain beat Inter 5-0 in the 2025 Champions League final, with a defining image of him poised on the edge of the penalty area.

In the knockout campaign he produced decisive contributions — in the last-16 second leg against Liverpool he switched play to Bradley Barcola then made the cross to score and also converted a penalty in the shootout after PSG won 1-0 at Anfield; against Arsenal he dropped deep, switched play to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and scored from the edge of the area.

Key Topics

Sports, Ousmane Dembélé, Paris Saint-germain, Champions League Final, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona