Ousmane Dembélé won his first Ballon d’Or in Paris after a successful season with Paris Saint-Germain and Lionel Messi, from Miami, sent him a congratulatory message on social media:
“Great, Ous!!! Congratulations, I’m very happy for you. You deserve it.”
Messi and Dembélé were teammates at Barcelona between 2017 and 2021, playing 95 matches together and sharing almost 5,000 minutes on the pitch. The Argentine, winner of eight Ballon d’Ors, played an important role in Dembélé’s development during that period.
Dembélé has often mentioned Messi’s influence, recalling that their lockers were next to each other and that he received valuable advice: “He told me to be serious if I wanted to achieve my dreams. I started to observe everything he did on the field.”
