Aitana wins her third Ballon d'Or and Dembélé leaves Lamine without the men's award.
The Mataronense and Vicky López have won the award for best young player of the year at a gala in which Luis Enrique was also honored.
BarcelonaParis surrendered at the feet of a Catalan woman. Again, for the fifth time. The French capital dressed up for another year for the Ballon d'Or ceremony, the award given by the French magazine France Football and which recognizes the best players of the season. A historic gala, because Aitana Bonmatí won the Ballon d'Or ahead of Mallorca's Mariona Caldentey, who came in second. Alessia Russo, a double European champion with Arsenal and the English national team, finished third. In the men's category, it was a celebration for PSG: they were chosen as the best club, Luis Enrique won as the best coach, and Ousmane Dembélé won the grand prize, the Ballon d'Or, ahead of Lamine Yamal, who came one step away from causing an upset. The player from Mataró became the youngest player to climb the podium, doing so at 18 years old. Until now, the youngest had been Brazilian Ronaldo in 1997 at 21 years old.
There will be time to follow in the footsteps of a somewhat surprised Aitana. "I could win any of the three. Thanks to Barça, which has given me everything, it's the club of my life. And thanks to my friends from Ribes and the people who have made me a better player and a better person," she said in a speech in Catalan. Aitana hadn't won the Champions League or the European Championship, but her individual quality won the vote ahead of Mariona. In fact, she had been voted MVP of the European Championship, the Nations League, and the Champions League. This is the fifth consecutive year that a Barça player has won the award, following Alexia Putellas's two and Aitana's three. The Ribes native is the first player to win three consecutive Ballon d'Ors, equaling Michel Platini and Johan Cruyff. Aitana received the award from Andrés Iniesta, of whom she said: "I've learned from them and my football depends on what they taught me. I've been coming here for three years now and the theatre continues to impress me enormously. If I could share it I would, it's been a year of great level," added the always assertive woman: "The .
In the men's category, he beat Dembélé, who at 28 has finally managed to stop being a perennial promise and become a regular footballer. And it's all thanks to Luis Enrique, his coach at a PSG team that won everything last season. As life goes, when Ronaldinho Gaúcho presented the award, PSG had just finished playing and lost a league match in Marseille, postponed on Sunday due to rain. Dembélé, injured, couldn't celebrate with his teammates. "Winning the Ballon d'Or was never a goal, but it's magnificent to be able to win it," said the Frenchman, who had very affectionate words for Luis Enrique. He also wanted to remember his time at Barça, saying, "I spent seven years there and learned a lot from players like Iniesta and Messi."
The Mosquito He played 53 games (35 goals and 16 assists) in a memorable season that ended with the icing on the cake of seeing PSG win the Champions League for the first time. He thus becomes the sixth Frenchman to win the Ballon d'Or after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane, and Karim Benzema. PSG's Vitinha finished in third place. Aside from Lamine Yamal and Dembélé, Pedri, Raphinha, and Lewandowski were also among the 30 finalists. The Brazilian finished fifth, while the Canary Islander incomprehensibly finished eleventh, and the Pole, seventeenth, just behind Real Madrid's Vinícius.
Vicky López, among the best
The gala handed out a host of awards, some of them featuring Barça players. Lamine Yamal and Vicky López won the Kopa Trophy for best player under 21, for example. Lamine revalidated his title, and Vicky beat him for the first time. Pau Cubarsí finished seventh in an award in which the second-most voted player was Désiré Doué, and Joao Neves came in third.
Luis Enrique beat Hansi Flick to win the Johan Cruyff Trophy, which honors the best coach of the season. However, he was unable to collect the title because he was losing his first French league match with PSG at Olympique de Marseille (1-0) at the same time. It was a special night for the Asturian coach, as the Xana Foundation won the Socrates Award, which supports charitable initiatives like this foundation's, which helps children and is named after Luis Enrique's daughter, who died of an illness. Sira Martínez, Xana's older sister, received the award.
England coach Sarina Wiegman took home the award for best coach of the year after winning the European Championship. England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton won the award for best goalkeeper in a vote in which Barça's Cata Coll came third. In the men's category, the award went to Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma, currently at City but key to PSG's success last year. The gala also honored Diogo Jota, the Liverpool player who tragically died in a car accident, and honored last year's top European scorers: Barça's Polish player Ewa Pajor and Sweden's Viktor Gyökeres. Arsenal and PSG were named the best clubs of the season.
