He was the favourite to win the award for the first time and did just that, with the Frenchman presented the award by Ronaldinho in Paris.
Dembele finished ahead of Lamine Yamal voted. the 18-year-old close to become the youngest ever Ballon d’Or winner after enjoying a breakout season as Barcelona impressed domestically and in Europe.
Vitinha was third and Mohamed Salah came fourth, as the wait for the first Premier League winner since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008.
Cole Palmer in eighth was the highest-ranked English player in the voting, with Harry Kane perhaps unfortunate to only be 13th having scored more than 40 goals for Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
In his first time making the 30-man shortlist, Scott McTominay came 18th in the voting. That was two places behind Vinicius Jr, who narrowly missed out on winning the Ballon d’Or last year to Rodri.
Jude Bellingham and Alexis Mac Allister both finished just outside the top 20, as did Fabian Ruiz despite winning the Champions League with PSG.
By his lofty standards it was a quiet season for Erling Haaland, even if he did still manage 34 goals in all competitions. Manchester City’s struggles in the Premier League and Champions League mean the striker has to settle for 26th in the Ballon d’Or race this year.
Michael Olise came 30th in his first time making the final shortlist for the award, while Liverpool duo Florian Wirtz and Virgil van Dijk finished 29th and 28th respectively.
Ballon d’Or 2025 rankings in full:
22nd: Alexis Mac Allister
12th: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
9th: Gianluigi Donnarumma