Ten Paris St-Germain players are on the 30-man shortlist for the 2026 Ballon d’Or, which will be presented at a ceremony in London on 26 October. The French and European champions account for a third of the nominees, and two of them — Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia — have spent the build-up talking up each other’s chances rather than their own.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Dembele suggested the pair could split the trophy. “We can cut it in two,” he joked, before adding that Kvaratskhelia “deserves it, the season he had was exceptional”. Kvaratskhelia, interviewed by BBC Sport’s Julien Laurens, returned the compliment: “Of course it’s him, the season he had last year, he deserves it.”
The mutual admiration is nothing new to PSG supporters, who watched the pair link up throughout last season’s Champions League title defence.
Kvaratskhelia arrived in January 2025 for £59m from Napoli, in what was PSG’s only piece of business in the final window before their first Champions League triumph later that year. Then 23, the Georgia forward had already become a hero in Naples, where supporters nicknamed him ‘Kvaradona’ during the club’s 2022-23 title-winning campaign. His play was once likened to George Best by Italian legend Gianfranco Zola, though Kvaratskhelia himself cites Cristiano Ronaldo as his biggest inspiration. PSG have won 10 of a possible 12 trophies since his transfer.
Dembele’s assessment of his team-mate is blunt. “[He’s] electric,” he said. “Every time he has the ball something can happen. Every time he goes one v one, he provokes the opponent. He has shown all his quality. Especially last season where he had a really, really good season. Thankfully we didn’t let him go to the Premier League.”
Kvaratskhelia was named the Champions League’s best player last season, recording 10 goals and six assists — a goal contribution every 72 minutes in Europe’s premier club competition. Much of that output came towards the business end of the tournament, and he became the first player to score or assist in seven consecutive knockout appearances in a single Champions League campaign.
He credits his father, who played for Dinamo Tbilisi and the Azerbaijani national team, as his motivation. Like his father, Khvicha began his career at Tbilisi before spells at Lokomotiv Moscow and Rubin Kazan in Russia. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a move back home to Dinamo Batumi, and from there to Napoli. “I think for the big nations it’s really difficult to understand what winning a Ballon d’Or would mean for the small country,” he said. “It’s something that is very far, it’s like impossible, of course I will be the happiest guy because I want to make my family and country proud.”
Dembele, 29, is the current Ballon d’Or holder and is shortlisted again after a combined 31 goals and assists last season — 1.27 goal contributions per 90 minutes, a rate bettered only by Harry Kane among players in Europe’s top five leagues. He also scored six goals in 10 appearances for France in 2026 as his side reached the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Kvaratskhelia’s admiration for the France forward is clear. “He’s an amazing player,” he said. “The way he leads the team is important, the way his personality and what he gives the team on the pitch is really incredible, and the season he had last year, it was amazing. I think we understand each other very, very much. It’s easy to understand what he will make and you just have to make some move and he will give you a ball wherever he wants and wherever you are waiting.”
Dembele joined PSG for £43.5m in 2023, seven years after Barcelona paid £135.5m to sign him from Borussia Dortmund. It may not have worked out in Spain, but PSG have made him their main star since Kylian Mbappe left for Real Madrid. “I didn’t change,” Dembele said. “I played my game, last season and the one before when I won the Ballon d’Or, I stayed the same person. When you win it for the first time, you don’t want people to say that you were lucky. So you want to continue to be at the top.”
Elsewhere, Kane is odds-on to win the award after a club-record 61 goals in 51 games for German double winners Bayern Munich last season, plus six more at the World Cup. Lamine Yamal, a La Liga winner with Barcelona and a World Cup winner with Spain, is second favourite, followed by his club and international team-mate Rodri. Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe scored 42 goals in 44 games for his club last season and won the World Cup Golden Boot with 10 goals, becoming the tournament’s all-time record goalscorer. Lionel Messi, looking to win a ninth Ballon d’Or, is also nominated, as is Ferran Torres, the PSG forward who scored Spain’s winner in the World Cup final.
This year’s award marks the Ballon d’Or’s 70th anniversary, and the choice of London as the venue is a tribute to the first winner, Englishman Sir Stanley Matthews. PSG’s other nominees are Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Willian Pacho, Fabian Ruiz and Vitinha.