Ousmane Dembele, a striker for Paris Saint-Germain, was named the champions league player of the year on Sunday when UEFA announced the names of seven of the competition’s top scorers.
PSG won the trophy for the first time on Saturday in Munich by defeating Inter Milan 5-0.
Dembele, who had eight goals in the competition, did not score in the final but added two assists, and the UEFA Technical Observer Group applauded his overall performance.
Dembele has “taken on the role of a leader in the Paris Saint-Germain team,” the committee explained. “We saw this in the final with how he worked so hard and was pressing from the front,” he added.
With his cunning movement, deep drop, and deep midfield drop, he “created doubts for his team’s success,” he said.
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In addition to Vitinha and teenage attacker Desire Doue, who scored twice and added another in Saturday’s rout, PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, defenders Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, and Nuno Mendes were also in the XI.
Alessandro Bastoni, the team’s defender from beaten finalists Inter, Declan Rice of Arsenal, Raphinha, the team’s top scorer, and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona, made up the quartet.
The UEFA report stated that “we’ve made this selection of players, especially in the attack, to reflect the exceptional mobility that was a key component of the victorious Paris Saint-Germain team’s approach.”
“A flexible team with attacking players who can switch positions is represented by the forward line selected,” says the director.
Due to PSG’s struggles in the group stage of the competition, Doue, who was not a regular starter, won the young player award for Yamal, age 17, in the championship.
UEFA called Doue “a revelation this season” and praised him. He won Player of the Match on Saturday night, becoming the first teenager to score twice in a final, and achieved an incredible breakthrough in the knockout phase.
Dembele’s award may influence the results of the balloting for Ballon d’Or, the annual global player-of-the-year award, which will be presented on September 22.
After PSG won on Saturday, the Spanish coach of PSG declared, “I’d give Ousmane Dembele the Ballon d’Or simply for the way he defends.”
Other contenders for the award include Yamal, Raphinha, and Donnarumma.
