Luis Enrique backs Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele for Ballon d'Or after 'exceptional' UEFA Champions League final performance

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Luis Enrique has backed Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele for the Ballon d'Or following an "exceptional" performance in the UEFA Champions League final. Despite the Frenchman not scoring on Saturday, his manager praised him for "how he defended" during PSG's 5-0 thumping of Internazionale. And after bagging 33 goals this season, Enrique believes the 28-year-old deserves the prestigious award.

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Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique believes Ousmane Dembele deserves the Ballon d’Or after delivering an "exceptional" performance in the UEFA Champions League final.

Despite not scoring in the 5-0 thrashing of Internazionale, Dembele set up two of the goals, and Enrique was delighted with the defensive work the 28-year-old got through and the leadership qualities he showed.

The PSG boss also praised the attacker’s significant contribution over the whole treble-winning campaign, with the Frenchman scoring 33 goals and netting 25 times this calendar year alone.

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Enrique believes those factors make Dembele a worthy winner of the prestigious French award, despite several of PSG’s youngsters also impressing this season, including Desire Doue, who bagged a brace against Inter after setting up the opener.

Discussing his squad after the final, Enrique said: "I think it's very difficult because when we sign very young players and they come to a club that is as big as Paris Saint-Germain, we are talking about [Joao] Neves, Doue, [Willian] Pacho, all of these players have brought something to the team.

"And this has allowed us to get to the final that we are at. I think that we have shown how exceptional this is."

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The Spanish manager went on: "Everyone is talking about the Ballon d'Or, but I would give it to Ousmane Dembele just because if we think about how he defended today, he showed just what he was made of.

"He was a leader, he was humble, he got back down [the pitch] and he defended, and I think that without a shadow of a doubt he deserves this, not only for the goals that he scored but also for the pressing that was seen.

"We've seen such a season from him, but he was exceptional in this final."

Dembele is likely to be competing for the Ballon d’Or, which will be presented in September, with Barcelona duo Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, as well as Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

Raphinha bagged 34 goals for Barcelona this season as they won the domestic treble, with 13 of those coming in the Champions League.

His 17-year-old team-mate Yamal found the back of the net 18 times, while Salah scored 29 goals in the Premier League alone as Liverpool cruised to the title.

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From his team-mates, Dembele could face competition from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who scored in Saturday’s final, with the Georgian also claiming a Serie A winner’s medal this season after spending the first half of the campaign with Napoli.

When asked about the Ballon d’Or ahead of the final, Dembele said: "When you are a PSG player, the important thing is to take home the trophy for the team.

"Obviously, this [the Ballon d’Or] is maybe in the back of my mind, but it’s not what I’m thinking about most."

Watch the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League on TNT Sports and discovery+

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