Dembele and Salah: Ballon d'Or contenders compared ahead of PSG vs Liverpool

If your main football sustenance every week is the Premier League, no doubt you already have Mohamed Salah down as your shoo-in for the Ballon d'Or.

It is a safe prediction, but there is another formidable winger, who has had a blistering start to 2025 in particular, giving Salah a run for his money in Ousmane Dembele.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward equalled Lionel Messi's record of 17 goals in the first two months of a calendar year last week, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo's best record (16) for January and February in the process.

Salah and Dembele come face-to-face in the Champions League last 16 this week; a match that could have a huge bearing on their entries for the biggest player prize of 2025. Here Sky Sports assesses their chances…

Ousmane Dembele

This has undoubtedly been Dembele's best season to date at 27 years old and there are several reasons why it is all coming together at the right time: a new tactical role, more responsibility, good management and Dembele's maturity.

He has always been hugely talented, but his game has been about balancing all his assets - dribbling, assists and goals - into a consistent, finished product. Luis Enrique and his staff have helped him do this, and he has responded by taking responsibility for the space vacated by Kylian Mbappe and being more selfish, while operating as a false nine as well as on the right wing.

The result has been 18 goals in 22 Ligue 1 appearances, with five assists, and six more goals and an assist in the Champions League, meaning he has a total of 26 goals and six assists across 33 appearances in all competitions - far exceeding his previous-best season, when he scored 14 goals and registered seven assists for Barcelona in 2018-19.

For France, during their UEFA Nations League campaign, Dembele has played in four out of their six games and scored against Belgium. He is set to feature prominently in their quarter-final with Croatia later this month and can help his bid for the Ballon d'Or hugely if he steers France to the Nations League title.

PSG staff are understood to be of the belief that, if Dembele can navigate PSG beyond Liverpool onto the very latter stages of the Champions League, instead of Salah, he will catapult himself right to the front of the queue for the prize.

Former France and Bordeaux midfielder Rio Mavuba recently told FootMercato in France that, if it were up to him, he would already choose Dembele over Salah. He said: "Today, I'm picking Ousmane Dembele. Why? Because he's in the process of stepping up a level and he's younger. But even from a coach's perspective, I'd still go with Dembele, because he manages to be decisive, even in key moments."

His former manager at Stade Rennais also recently commented: "He has completely taken on the leadership of Paris' offensive play. I'm not surprised, just proud of him and very happy for him, because I know it weighed on him not finishing better. Today, we can feel he's fully liberated and fulfilled by the way he's being used."

Mohamed Salah

Salah is arguably the clear frontrunner and inarguably the odds-on favourite for the Ballon d'Or at present, having resurrected his best form for another stunning campaign so far, putting Liverpool on course for the Premier League title in Arne Slot's first season.

Probably the overarching stat that best conveys his impact is the percentage of points his goals and assists alone have provided; some 33 out of the Reds' 67. That's just under half at 49.3 per cent, way beyond any other Premier League player.

At 32, to churn out 25 goals and 17 assists in the league is astonishing, especially when you consider how many seasons he has operated at such a high level - and all while the uncertainty of an expiring contract hangs over him.

In the Champions League he has half the number of goals that Dembele does (3) but three more assists, while his efforts in the Carabao Cup means he is currently on 30 goals and 22 assists in all competitions so far this season - ahead of Dembele.

Last month at Villa Park, Salah equalled his own Lionel Messi record by scoring and assisting in 10 different games in a single season across the five biggest leagues in Europe, only he did it inside seven months, while Messi did it in 10.

Slot recently admitted that, historically, the Ballon d'Or winner needs to win silverware too, and with both Liverpool and PSG steamrolling their way to their respective leagues, a Champions League winner's medal could well be the clincher.

"It's not just about the amount of prizes you win, but most of the ones who won the league or Champions League," the Dutchman said. "But football is always like this - you need the team to win an individual prize. But Mo understands that. It's mostly about attackers but the last winner was a midfielder. Good thing Mo is in discussion as that means he is doing well and that means we are doing well. In general, someone who wins the Ballon d'Or needs to win something as well."

The fact 13 of the last 18 Ballon d'Or winners have won Europe's elite competition lends further weight to that prediction.