Sports
Just like Thierry: The switch that helped Dembélé win the Ballon d’Or
Ousmane Dembélé knew the tears would come, inevitably. In the last few days, he thought long and hard about what would happen if his dream of winning the 2025 Ballon d’Or became reality.
He talked about it many times with his best friend, Moustapha Diatta, who sat next to his mother, Fatoumata, and his agent, Moussa Sissoko, at the ceremony on Monday night.
Diatta knew the tears would come for him as well, and they did. Dembélé on the stage; Diatta in the audience. In his acceptance speech, Dembélé mentioned his BFF and how they grew up inseparable in the same block of flats of the “la Plaine” council estate in Evreux, 100 kilometres west of Paris. Dembélé lived on the fifth floor; Diatta the first. At all hours the pair played football with now-Bayern Munich center back Dayot Upamecano — who lived across the road — on the little concrete square with benches as the goals, or against the wall. Winning the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League or Ballon d’Or was always the dream.
Dembélé has now won all three. At 28, he reached a new level last season, which saw him crowned as the best player in the world on Monday. His story of lifting the Ballon d’Or, becoming the sixth Frenchman to do so in history (after Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane and Karim Benzema) is one of resilience and perseverance. Of never giving up.
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Dembélé was born a football genius with an innate talent, and capable of doing things at 16 years old that only a few players could ever do. He had everything: the ability to dribble with both feet, devastating pace, bravery, incredible skill on the ball and the confidence to go with it. But after exploding on to the scene in 2015 with Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 at 17, he lost his way after moves to Borussia Dortmund (€15 million) and then Barcelona (€105 million) in two years.
After six years of stagnation at Camp Nou, he had to find the right place to fulfill his potential and start his journey again toward the top. He needed the right club and manager to take him to the next level, where his talent belonged.
Enter Luis Enrique and Paris Saint-Germain in 2023. What the Spanish manager has done with Dembélé over the past 12 months is exceptional; he transformed a talented-but-inconsistent winger into a lethal No. 9 striker in the same way that legendary Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger changed the trajectory of Thierry Henry’s career with a similar positional shift.
When Luis Enrique repositioned Dembélé from right winger to center forward back in December 2024, he knew exactly what he was doing. The former Barcelona boss had seen enough at training to know that this player held the key to PSG’s season.
Rolland Courbis, one of France’s greatest coaches, who worked with a young Dembélé at Stade Rennais, was the first to play him centrally in 2015. Even back then, Courbis, a colorful character, considered his young prodigy to have all the qualities to be a great No. 9: intelligence, awareness, quick feet, pace. Luis Enrique saw the same. When Dembélé needed freedom to fit his fluidity with the structure of the Spaniard’s tactics, he got it. When he needed support and trust, he got it. When he needed a kick in the backside, he got that, too.
1:30
Why ‘outstanding’ Ousmane Dembélé deserved to win the Ballon d’Or
Julien Laurens and Stewart Robson discuss why Ousmane Dembélé was a worthy winner of the Ballon d’Or.
Dembélé was dropped for the Arsenal game in the Champions League league phase in October 2024 after a disagreement with his manager. But he came back stronger. When Luis Enrique told him about moving to a new position, the Frenchman didn’t need to be convinced. He knew he was made for the role: to be both a No. 10 and a No. 9, scoring goals and creating others for his teammates, always moving to disrupt the opposition’s defensive organization, and triggering the PSG press and counter-press. From December to July, Dembélé did all of that and more.
By the end of the season, he notched 37 goals and 15 assists across all competitions, incredible stats that were partnered with an incredible work rate that inspired the whole PSG squad. He has led his team to the Quintuple, and with the Intercontinental Cup coming in December, they can make it a Sextuple, which would see PSG draw level with Pep Guardiola’s famous 2009 Barcelona team and Hansi Flick’s Bayern Munich squad of 2020.
In every major game that Dembélé has played, excluding this summer’s Club World Cup final defeat against Chelsea, he has been decisive. In PSG’s 5-0 Champions League final win over Internazionale, his eyes, locked on goalkeeper Yann Sommer, became a viral moment that symbolized his determination and completed his transformation.
On Monday night, in the beautiful surroundings of the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, his eyes were fixed on another prize as the 28-year-old finally got his hands on the Ballon d’Or and joined the pantheon of great footballers, which is where he belongs.
AMES, Iowa — Iowa State starting point guard Tamin Lipsey will miss four to six weeks after injuring his knee at practice Tuesday, the school announced.
Lipsey, who sprained his right MCL, could be back for the Cyclones’ opener against Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 3.
The fourth-year player from Ames has started all 103 of his career games and is the Cyclones’ all-time steals leader with 237. Last season, he averaged 10.6 points, 3.1 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game.
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World Series champion Roger Clemens addressed the recent conviction of Ryan Wesley Routh, who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump last September, on Tuesday.
During an interview on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show,” Clemens was asked about his reaction to news that Routh was found guilty on all charges for the attempted assassination.
“You just take a big deep breath,” Clemens said. “I still shake my head from not to long ago when, in Pennsylvania, they let a crazy man into a rally with a golf range finder. I mean I just shake my head at this stuff. Like, why are you going into a rally with a golf range finder?”
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Clemens, an open Trump supporter who has befriended the president and played golf with him in the past, reacted to the fact that Routh attempted to assassinate Trump on a golf course while the president was playing.
“When we golfed with him last in Virginia, the president hit the ball beautifully, but it’s a little intense when you have 30 golf carts and you have SWAT teams and Secret Service all around you,” Clemens said.
“I love him. The reason I voted for him is because he’s no-nonsense, common sense, and no-nonsense. I love that about him.”
CHIEFS CEO’S WIFE SLAMS CRITICS CELEBRATING CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION
New York Yankees pitcher (22) Roger Clemens delivers against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. (Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports )
Clemens encouraged Americans who may not agree with Trump to still root for his success, comparing the views of those people to his view of former President Barack Obama.
“I didn’t vote for [Obama], but once he became our president, I was rooting for him to do something well for us, and that’s the way I always feel people should come together,” Clemens said.
Jurors on Tuesday delivered a guilty verdict for Routh on all charges after he attempted to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club last September.
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(Left) A screen grab from a video shows police arresting Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, in Florida on Sept. 16, 2024. (Right) Former Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens tosses a ball before the game between the Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, on Aug. 2, 2024. (Getty Images/IMAGN)
Routh, 59, was charged on five federal criminal counts, including attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple firearms offenses.
After the verdict was read, Routh reportedly appeared to try to stab himself in the neck with a pen before four U.S. Marshals restrained him.
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MOTEGI:
Marc Marquez can clinch his seventh MotoGP world championship in Japan at the weekend to underline a season of dominance and match the record of motorcycle great Valentino Rossi.
The Spanish Ducati rider is on a whopping 512 points and needs just three points more than his brother Alex Marquez to win the title with five weekends to spare of the 22-race season.
Sealing a first championship since 2019 at Motegi would crown a comeback from an injury nightmare which began when Marquez broke his right arm in 2020.
The 32-year-old has been in unstoppable form this year and his points total is already a single-season record for a MotoGP rider.
The last of his three Japanese MotoGP wins came in 2019, but such is his brilliance that Marquez’s victory in San Marino two weeks ago was his 11th in 16 races this campaign. He has also won 14 of the 16 sprints.
“We’ll approach Motegi the same way, maintaining the same performance level we’ve shown in all these races,” Marquez said.
“There are six events left in the season but we want to wrap up the title race as soon as possible.”
Marquez suffered a rare slip-up in San Marino when he crashed while leading the sprint.
He made no mistake in the following day’s Grand Prix, overtaking pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi to move into the lead on lap 12 before calmly seeing out the win.
It was Marquez’s 99th race win across MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3.
– Messi celebrations –
His charge to the title has been helped by team-mate Francesco Bagnaia’s erratic form and injuries to defending world champion Jorge Martin.
Bagnaia, a twice world champion, has finished no higher than seventh in his last four races and has won only once this season.
Alex Marquez has been his brother’s closest challenger and is almost 100 points ahead of third-place Bagnaia in the standings.
He knows his brother’s coronation as world champion is just a matter of time, but he is looking to postpone the inevitable for as long as possible.
“We’ll continue on our path to the runner-up spot in the championship, which would be a really great result,” Alex Marquez said after the San Marino race.
Last year’s Japanese MotoGP saw Bagnaia win both the sprint and the Grand Prix to cut Martin’s championship lead with four races remaining.
Marquez, then riding for Gresini, finished third after a titanic tussle with Enea Bastianini.
Marquez was all but out of the championship picture by that time but the situation could not be more different 12 months later.
He will be hoping to give Japanese fans a glimpse of his Lionel Messi-inspired celebration, which he unveiled in San Marino.
Marquez whipped off his racing leathers and showed them to the crowd in a similar gesture to the Argentina star’s celebration after scoring a late winner for Barcelona against Real Madrid in 2017.
Marc Marquez said the championship celebrations were “getting closer and closer”.
“It looks like a matter of time but I want to keep the same mentality,” he said.
“Now we need to close as soon as possible, but I know that Alex is also super fast, and he’s also fighting for second place in the championship.”
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