Heavy Ballon d’Or favourite Ousmane Dembele faces a decision whether to attend tonight’s award ceremony as it clashes with a rearranged Paris Saint-Germain match.
PSG’s Ligue 1 clash away to Marseille was postponed on Sunday due to a storm warning in the area and has now been rescheduled for this evening. The fixture will kick off at 8pm local (7pm BST) which clashes with the 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony taking place in Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet.
Authorities issued an orange alert for flooding and thunderstorms in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region where Marseille is located on Sunday, leading to the original postponement.
“Olympique de Marseille regrets that the conditions are not right to play the match this evening, both for its players, for its supporters already present, and for the full visibility of the event,” said Marseille in a statement.
PSG forward Dembele is widely expected to win the men’s Ballon d’Or, ahead of the likes of Lamine Yamal, Mohamed Salah and Vitinha, after racking up a staggering 35 goals and 16 assists for Luis Enrique’s side to propel them to another comfortable Ligue 1 title and a first Champions League crown for the club last season.
Normally, a league match would prevent the 28-year-old from attending an awards ceremony but he is currently recovering from a hamstring injury, so won’t be in the PSG squad taking on Marseille.
If given permission to be absent from the Orange Velodrome to support his teammates this evening, he would be able to be present in Paris to collect his expected award.
Fellow PSG stars Desire Doue and Joao Neves are among the other players nominated who are also injured and Spanish outlet Marca are reporting that Dembele, Doue and Neves are expected to attend the ceremony.
But remaining PSG nominees Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Nuno Mendes, Fabian Ruiz and Vitinha are fit and set to play in the rescheduled fixture in Marseille, while Enrique is nominated for Coach of the Year but will be similarly absent.
Last year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony was overshadowed by then-reigning European champions Real Madrid snubbing the event due to Vinicius Junior missing out on the top award to Manchester City’s Rodri.
However, Dembele’s current injury means this year’s event should at least avoid a repeat.
