Ousmane Dembele’s Ballon d’Or win on Monday was an emotional moment for the player and his family, the award acting as a source of pride for them in more ways than one. Dembele won soccer’s most prestigious individual prize as a reward for playing a starring role in Paris Saint-Germain’s historic treble-winning season, capped off by their first-ever UEFA Champions League title. The 28-year-old scored 35 goals across all competitions last season, a career-best outing for a player who counts the World Cup amongst his accolades but has spent much of his career as a supporting player on his teams, be it the France national team or during a previous stint at Barcelona.
The Ballon d’Or triumph is a crowning achievement for Dembele and his family, who he thanked during his speech on Monday, who he said “supported me in the difficult moments.” Dembele was born and raised in France to immigrants from Africa – his father is from Mali and his mother Fatima is Mauritanian-Senegalese, from the Mauritanian village of Waly Diantang. Fatima acknowledged her son’s African heritage in a video shared on social media, saying the family plans to take the Ballon d’Or to different parts of the continent to celebrate.
“We’re going to bring it everywhere,” she said. “We’re going to bring it everywhere — Waly [Diantang, Mauritania], Senegal. This is the Ballon d’Or of all of Africa.”
The PSG forward is not the first player with African roots to win the award, though only a handful have done so in recent years. Former France internationals Karim Benzema and Zinedine Zidane, who won the Ballon d’Or in 2022 and 1999, respectively, are of Algerian descent, while Liberia’s George Weah is still the only African player to win the award after doing so in 1995.
Dembele’s close relationship with his mother was obvious as he accepted the Ballon d’Or, the player becoming visibly emotional as he spoke about her. Host Kate Scott then invited Fatima onto the stage to join her son at the end of his speech and said in a post-match interview with CBS Sports’ Guillem Balague that he wanted to pay tribute to not just his mother, but others, too.
“Yes, I paid homage to her and all the moms,” Dembele said. “It’s difficult to be a mother, so it’s normal that I do this.”
