Ousmane Dembélé gave an exclusive interview to France Football magazine after claiming the 2025 Ballon d'Or. In the partially released excerpts of the interview, he revealed that Messi sent him a message right away.
Who sent you the first message? Not just a congratulatory one, but a message that felt special to you…
It was Messi who sent me a message directly.
Wow, that’s awesome!
There were Messi, Xavi…
And former teammates from Barcelona too?
Yes, many of them. Also Luis Suárez—they were all really happy for me.
That’s great. Did you have a video call with your Paris Saint-Germain teammates then?
No, I didn’t have a video call. I stayed in touch with them via text messages—Achraf, the coach, Luis Campos, and others.
If you had to use one moment/play to describe this Ballon d'Or…
That goal I scored against Tottenham Hotspur.
Ah, we’re going back to 2018 then…
Yes, yes, exactly that one.
By the way, how did you feel in that moment when you scored? What happened back then?
To be honest, I didn’t have any particularly special feeling at the time. I pressed the opponent, he lost his balance a bit, I won the ball back, and then we had a two-vs-one situation. I thought to myself, “I’m going to take this on alone.” I dribbled, accelerated, and I saw that defender charging at me like crazy to make a tackle. I cut inside to get past him, then took the shot and scored—that’s basically a Ballon d’Or-caliber goal.
