Dembélé: “Even when the world left me, my mother stayed”
On a luminous night at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as Ousmane Dembélé lifted the Ballon d’Or 2025, his words did not speak of fame, nor fortune, nor the golden glow of victory — they spoke of love, the kind that never abandons.
Football had given him nights of brilliance and seasons of despair. The cheers once turned to silence, the applause to doubt. He was broken by injuries, dismissed by critics, and forgotten by many who once believed. Yet in that darkness, one light never dimmed — his mother’s.
She was the quiet pillar when the world was loud with judgment. She was the embrace when loneliness crept in. She was the one who whispered courage when he felt fragile, who carried his dream when he was too tired to.
And so, as the golden ball glittered in his hands, Dembélé made it clear — this triumph is not his alone. It is hers. A mother’s faith turned into a son’s redemption. A mother’s love crowned with football’s greatest prize.
The world now celebrates his glory. But he celebrates her eternity.