Dembele may miss the Golden Globes due to teammate competition

Dembele may miss the Golden Globes due to teammate competition? Paris stars face the risk of "internal friction"

As the 2025 Golden Globes selection approaches, French striker Ottoman Dembele is expected to hit the first Golden Globe in his career with his outstanding performance last season. However, a risk that cannot be ignored is approaching: he may become a victim of the "dispersed votes" within Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

The past of Real Madrid is repeated? Vinicius was rejected for this reason, and similar situations have happened in Real Madrid in the past few years. In 2024, Real Madrid players occupied multiple Golden Ball nomination seats, but in the end, Vinicius was slightly inferior to Rodri (1170 points) with 1129 points and missed the award.

Now, Dembele may be in a similar dilemma. His main competitors include not only Mbappe, Yamal, etc., but also a host of celebrity teammates from his club - especially Ashraf Hakimi, Vitinia and Joao Neves.

PSG may select multiple players, and the vote may be diluted

With Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League and sweeping Inter Milan 5-0 in the final, creating the final victory with the largest score gap in the history of the event, it can be foreseen that in the 30-man Golden Globe shortlist announced on August 7 this year, several Paris players will appear.

According to analysis, PSG is expected to occupy more than 5 places, including:

Dembele (Central of the Champions League, Ligue 1 key man)

Ashraf (Defense engine)

Vitinia (national team level also won the UEFA Nations League with Portugal)

Donnarumma (Best goalkeeper + Champions League main player)

Neves (midfield star, offense and defense)

Under such circumstances, if the judges of the Golden Ball Award tend to vote for the "champion team", they will likely choose between these Paris players, which will eventually affect the ranking of individual players.

Looking back at the past, we can find that even if a team has many outstanding players, the person who can really stand out is often the one with the "most outstanding image and most well-promoted".

For example, in 2022, although Courtois, Vinicius and Modric all performed well, the total number of votes they combined was still far less than Benzema; in 2021, although Bayern had no other players shortlisted, Lewandowski still lost to Messi.

For example, in 2018, Griezmann and Mbappe scored a total of 761 points, while Modric scored 753 points alone. The latter won because of the scattered votes among French players.

Demberle needs to seize the opportunity of the Club World Cup

For Demberle, time is still on his side. He was injured before the start of the Club World Cup and missed some games, but if he could shine in the next knockout stage (especially when entering the finals), there was still hope to turn the situation around.

It is worth mentioning that Ashraf continues to perform in this Club World Cup, and Vitinia also shows dominance in the midfield, which makes Dembele must "stand out" as soon as possible and use his decisive performance to win more attention from the judges.

Another factor that is unfavorable to Dembele is that the Paris Club's publicity efforts in promoting players to run for the Golden Ball Awards are far less than those of giants such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. In contrast, Real Madrid has been more proactive in promoting Mbappe, Vinicius and others in recent years, even if their actual results are not as impressive as Dembele.

In addition, as an African face, Ashraf has a natural advantage when facing 22 judges from Africa; while Vitinia is the core figure in the Portuguese national team and club winning the championship in both the two-line.