Ousmane Dembele and Mohamed Salah: Ballon d’Or contenders in contrast forward of PSG vs Liverpool in Champions League | Soccer Information

In case your foremost soccer sustenance each week is the Premier League, little doubt you have already got Mohamed Salah down as your shoo-in for the Ballon d’Or.

It’s a secure prediction, however there may be one other formidable winger, who has had a blistering begin to 2025 particularly, giving Salah a run for his cash in Ousmane Dembele.

The Paris Saint-Germain ahead equalled Lionel Messi’s document of 17 targets within the first two months of a calendar 12 months final week, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s finest document (16) for January and February within the course of.

Salah and Dembele come face-to-face within the Champions League final 16 this week; a match that would have an enormous bearing on their entries for the largest participant prize of 2025. Right here Sky Sports activities assesses their probabilities…

Ousmane Dembele

This has undoubtedly been Dembele’s finest season to this point at 27 years outdated and there are a number of the explanation why it’s all coming collectively on the proper time: a brand new tactical position, extra accountability, good administration and Dembele’s maturity.

He has at all times been vastly proficient, however his recreation has been about balancing all his property – dribbling, assists and targets – right into a constant, completed product. Luis Enrique and his employees have helped him do that, and he has responded by taking accountability for the house vacated by Kylian Mbappe and being extra egocentric, whereas working as a false 9 in addition to on the precise wing.

The consequence has been 18 targets in 22 Ligue 1 appearances, with 5 assists, and 6 extra targets and an help within the Champions League, that means he has a complete of 26 targets and 6 assists throughout 33 appearances in all competitions – far exceeding his previous-best season, when he scored 14 targets and registered seven assists for Barcelona in 2018-19.

For France, throughout their UEFA Nations League marketing campaign, Dembele has performed in 4 out of their six video games and scored towards Belgium. He’s set to characteristic prominently of their quarter-final with Croatia later this month and can assist his bid for the Ballon d’Or vastly if he steers France to the Nations League title.

PSG employees are understood to be of the assumption that, if Dembele can navigate PSG past Liverpool onto the very latter phases of the Champions League, as an alternative of Salah, he’ll catapult himself proper to the entrance of the queue for the prize.

Former France and Bordeaux midfielder Rio Mavuba lately advised FootMercato in France that, if it had been as much as him, he would already select Dembele over Salah. He stated: “Right this moment, I am choosing Ousmane Dembele. Why? As a result of he is within the strategy of stepping up a degree and he is youthful. However even from a coach’s perspective, I might nonetheless go along with Dembele, as a result of he manages to be decisive, even in key moments.”

His former supervisor at Stade Rennais additionally lately commented: “He has utterly taken on the management of Paris’ offensive play. I am not stunned, simply happy with him and really glad for him, as a result of I do know it weighed on him not ending higher. Right this moment, we are able to really feel he is absolutely liberated and fulfilled by the way in which he is getting used.”

Mohamed Salah

Salah is arguably the clear frontrunner and inarguably the odds-on favorite for the Ballon d’Or at current, having resurrected his finest kind for one more gorgeous marketing campaign thus far, placing Liverpool on target for the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season.

In all probability the overarching stat that finest conveys his impression is the share of factors his targets and assists alone have offered; some 33 out of the Reds’ 67. That is just below half at 49.3 per cent, method past another Premier League participant.

At 32, to churn out 25 targets and 17 assists within the league is astonishing, particularly when you think about what number of seasons he has operated at such a excessive degree – and all whereas the uncertainty of an expiring contract hangs over him.

Within the Champions League he has half the variety of targets that Dembele does (3) however three extra assists, whereas his efforts within the Carabao Cup means he’s at present on 30 targets and 22 assists in all competitions thus far this season – forward of Dembele.

Final month at Villa Park, Salah equalled his personal Lionel Messi document by scoring and aiding in 10 completely different video games in a single season throughout the 5 greatest leagues in Europe, solely he did it inside seven months, whereas Messi did it in 10.

Slot lately admitted that, traditionally, the Ballon d’Or winner must win silverware too, and with each Liverpool and PSG steamrolling their technique to their respective leagues, a Champions League winner’s medal might nicely be the clincher.

“It is not simply in regards to the quantity of prizes you win, however a lot of the ones who gained the league or Champions League,” the Dutchman stated. “However soccer is at all times like this – you want the staff to win a person prize. However Mo understands that. It is largely about attackers however the final winner was a midfielder. Good factor Mo is in dialogue as meaning he’s doing nicely and meaning we’re doing nicely. Normally, somebody who wins the Ballon d’Or must win one thing as nicely.”

The actual fact 13 of the final 18 Ballon d’Or winners have gained Europe’s elite competitors lends additional weight to that prediction.