On September 22, 2025, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, a striker at the apogee of his career stepped onto the stage and graciously received his Ballon d’Or.

The honour capped a wonderful year for Ousmane Dembele, a season that saw him score 25 goals in domestic competitions, as PSG swept the board in France, winning the league, Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions.

It was his – and his club’s - imperious application in the Champions League, however, that had many proclaim him the best footballer on the planet in that moment.

The former Barcelona star scored eight goals in Europe's elite competition in 2024/25, a lofty tally that included a hat-trick in the league phase and decisive strikes against Liverpool and Arsenal in the latter stages.

After assisting twice in the final, as PSG ran riot over Inter Milan, he was duly named the Champions League player of the season.

Marrying the top honours

Dembele was not the first player to win the Ballon d’Or mere months after lifting aloft the Champions League trophy. Indeed, in the last two decades he was the 11th elite performer to marry the ultimate club prize with the ultimate individual honour in the same calendar year. Five other Ballon d’Or winners meanwhile reached the semi-finals of the prestigious competition in their stand-out year, while only once in the last 20 years has a player garnered the golden ball soon after experiencing a disappointing Champions League campaign.

That was Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 who did, pertinently, captain his country to a World Cup that July.  

Clearly then, success in the Champions League is an important consideration when determining which player has shone brightest that particular season and if this is so, our thoughts turn to Budapest this weekend to view it through a Ballon d’Or prism.

A Strong Representation

Since navigating the tough obstacle of Atletico Madrid in their semi-final Arsenal have secured their first Premier League title for 22 years and this means that two champions take to the pitch at the Puskas Arena this Saturday evening.

It will also be one of the most Ballon d’Or dense Champions League finals in living memory.

Should both managers refrain from making surprising team selections in Hungary then very potentially ten players will be on display who received Ballon d’Or nominations in 2025. Basic math informs us that is almost half of the players involved.

This is a notable amount, and when we compare the figure to previous finals it reveals just how heavily populated this year is with nominees.  

Last year’s final between PSG and Inter contained three players – Lautaro Martinez, Hakan Calhanoglu, and Vitinha – who were current Ballon d’Or nominees.

In 2024, when Real Madrid bested Borussia Dortmund, there were just two nominees present: Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr.

In 2023, when Manchester City beat Inter, there was again two (with Phil Foden on the bench).

To clarify, this does not pertain to players who have been nominated at any stage of their career. But rather, they were nominees in that calendar year.

When the French and English champions clash in Europe’s most marquee event on Saturday, ten of the participating players were categorised just last October as being among the 30 best exponents of their craft in the world.

It’s reasonable therefore to expect the standard of football on display to be extremely high.

Elite Core: The exceptional decemvir  

Which it no doubt will be with Dembele and Viktor Gyokeres leading their respective lines, the former winning the Ballon d’Or last year, the latter finishing 15th in the voting after scoring an abundance of goals for Sporting Lisbon.

A subsequent move to Arsenal initially saw the towering Swede struggle to adapt but it’s a different story now. From the end of March on, Gyokeres has converted every 93 minutes in the Premier League.

Behind him, pulling the strings for the Gunners will be Declan Rice who received 13 votes last autumn for his midfield manoeuvres. The England international’s 92.17% passing accuracy in the Champions League this season greatly impresses. That’s before it’s even acknowledged that 81% of them were medium to long in range.

Then we come to the PSG collective, with special emphasis given to an engine room studded with guile and graft.

While the brilliantly explosive Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (a 12th place finisher in the Ballon d’Or voting in 2025) and Désiré Doué (14th last year) rightly grab the headlines for their attacking prowess, so much of PSG’s successes are founded on a perfectly balanced midfield trio.

Fabián Ruiz is all elegance and touches, a link-up master. Joao Neves meanwhile has registered the fourth most progressive passes for his team this season and committed to the most tackles. He is by turns an instrument for destruction and a creator.

Beautifully complimenting both there is too Vitinha, the club’s Portuguese jewel in the crown. No-one else in Ligue 1 has made more accurate passes this term (2572, or 109 per 90). No-one else has come close.

Lastly, there is Les Parisiens’ two marauding full-backs, Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi. Both exemplary practitioners of their roles, Hakimi’s 6th place finish in the Ballon d’Or in 2025 was the highest ranking every achieved by a player from the Arab world.

The Champions League final is a highlight of the footballing schedule each and every May. This time out, it has a distinct Ballon d’Or hue.