'Lamine Yamal is more attractive and Kylian Mbappe is better' - Ex-Real Madrid player has mixed reaction to Ousmane Dembele's Ballon d'Or win

Dembele was crowned the world's best male player at the 2025 Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris on Monday evening, beating Barcelona sensation and rival Yamal, who finished runner-up. Dembele's PSG team-mate Vitinha completed the podium by finishing third, while Mohamed Salah and Raphinha rounded out the top five.

While the majority of football fans agreed that Dembele and Yamal deserved to finish in the top two, Raphinha's exclusion from the top three, as well as Pedri's exclusion from the top 10, drew the ire of the footballing fraternity. Additionally, disgruntled fans expressed their shock over Bayern Munich and England talisman Harry Kane finishing 13th after he scored 41 goals for Die Roten.

Former Madrid player Benito gave his approval to Dembele taking home the prestigious individual accolade, but didn't back away from criticising where some of the other players finished in the top 30 rankings. 

"The criteria for this award do influence collective achievements, and I believe that should always be the case. But then, since it's a purely subjective assessment by the people who vote, and you see when the votes are broken down from each country, each one favors their own country or neighboring countries," he said on El Larguero. "That's why I don't quite believe this award. Nor can there be very objective criteria.

"Of course Dembele deserves it. He's had the best season of his career with a team that was the best in Europe from January until the end of the season, playing extraordinary football and with very good numbers.

"[But I want to make it clear] that Pedri plays football like an angel, there's no doubt about it. That Lamine Yamal is a more attractive player, well, surely. That [Kylian] Mbappe seems to me to be a better player than Dembele, well, he is. In terms of potential, the two best attackers in the world are Mbappe and Lamine Yamal. But we can't say much more about individual titles."

Yamal won the Kopa Trophy for the second year in a row, with reports suggesting that the gulf between the number of votes won by the Barca wonderkid and Dembele was big. The 18-year-old's father, however, vowed that the Ballon d'Or will be Yamal's to lose next year.