{"id":998,"date":"2025-09-23T18:12:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=998"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:12:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:12:41","slug":"i-always-played-for-the-team-the-ballon-dor-was-not-my-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/23\/i-always-played-for-the-team-the-ballon-dor-was-not-my-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I always played for the team; the Ballon d&#8217;Or was not my goal&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-29.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-999\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-29.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-29-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-29-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ousmane Dembele discussed his 2025 Ballon d&#8217;Or win, stressing his focus on team objectives over individual accolades and acknowledging his formative years at Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frenchman Ousmane Dembele became visibly emotional as he paid tribute to his mother upon receiving the 2025 Ballon d&#8217;Or. He confessed the award &#8220;was never an objective&#8221; in his career but described it as &#8220;something exceptional&#8221;. Dembele stated: &#8220;I have always played for the team; the Ballon d&#8217;Or has never been an objective, but now that I have it, it is something exceptional.&#8221; The 28-year-old PSG player delivered his speech at the Chatelet Theatre gala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dembele attributed his individual success to collective achievements, saying: &#8220;I have worked hard for the team, to be able to win this first Champions League, the League and the Cup. To crown it with an individual trophy is very special. I am very happy. I am convinced that the collective trophies have led to this.&#8221; He thanked his current club, teammates, president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and coach Luis Enrique, describing them as &#8220;father figures&#8221;, for their confidence and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also acknowledged his former clubs, particularly Barcelona, which he called &#8220;the club he dreamed of playing for&#8221;. &#8220;I have spent seven years there and I have learned a lot alongside players like Iniesta or Messi. All that learning leads me to here,&#8221; he explained. Dembele further extended his gratitude to the France national team and manager Didier Deschamps, who he credited for maintaining faith in him during challenging periods and for his pledge to &#8220;win the World Cup in his last year&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most poignant moments came when Dembele spoke of his hometown, Evreux, and his mother, Fatima, who raised him and his four younger siblings alone. Visibly moved, he said, &#8220;She is always there for me.&#8221; His mother joined him on stage to a standing ovation from the audience, who had been chanting his name even before Ronaldinho announced him as the winner, ahead of Spain&#8217;s Lamine Yamal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ousmane Dembele discussed his 2025 Ballon d&#8217;Or win, stressing his focus on team objectives over individual accolades and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1000,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions\/1000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}