In the third week of May, with his second Premier League winner's medal in his stacked trophy cabinet, and his third Footballer of the Year award for outstanding performance in England safely banked, Mohamed Salah addressed the possibilities of winning the Ballon d’Or, the most prestigious individual prize in his sport.
“I’ve never had a season like this,” he reflected of his brilliant 2024-25. “I would say it’s my best chance to get it.” If he were to win it, he told France Football, the magazine who organise the prize, it would “be for his people. When you come from a village in Egypt, it’s hard even to dream of winning a Ballon d’Or.”
Nine days after Salah was talking up his chances, the compelling arguments made by his 32 goals and 23 assists in 59 matches for a Liverpool who galloped away with the Premier League, a powerful case was being made that the prize should go to another part of North Africa, to Morocco.
Achraf Hakimi was scoring the opener of the most one-sided Uefa Champions League final in history, Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-0 rout of Inter Milan. It was the dynamic right-back’s third goal in the space of four European Cup games and one of the 11 he registered in 2024-25.
That’s in addition to his 16 assists across the three competitions PSG triumphed in - they were league and Cup winners too - and the Club World Cup, where they reached the final. “There’s not a lot of players who have scored in the quarter-final, the semi and the final of the Champions League,” Hakimi observed. “And that’s even harder if you are a defender.
“When a defender does all that, it carries more merit than when a forward does. When people put me in the running for a Ballon d’Or, it’s obviously a dream,” Hakimi told Canal+. “But I also think I deserve it to be a possibility after such a historic season.”
This sort of lobbying, advertising your own credentials, has become part of the show around the Ballon d’Or, a prize where there’s an electorate - 100 football journalists from 100 different countries - to be persuaded and where any player whose career has coincided with Cristiano Ronaldo’s or Lionel Messi’s has learned the hard way it’s vital to capitalise on a peak period of form, the season that might catapult you up the polling.
Hakimi, 26, began his rise to becoming probably the best right-back in the world when he was a teenager in the same Real Madrid team as Ronaldo, then in possession of his fifth Ballon d’Or; he was a teammate of Messi in Paris when Messi won his eighth.
Salah, 33, has finished in the top 10 of the voting four times, three of those while looking up the rankings at the names of Ronaldo or Messi. Had they not been around, the Egyptian might have been closer, before now, to a place in the top three.
As it is, there is a slender possibility that, with Ronaldo and Messi no longer swapping the Ballon d’Or exclusively with one another, two footballers from Arab nations might for the first time feature together in the top three when the votes are revealed at a gala event in Paris on Monday night. Both Salah and Hakimi would be deserving.
But the forecasts suggest that the dazzle of Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona prodigy who, like Salah, played a major part in his club’s winning their domestic league, might leapfrog them both and, above all that, while Hakimi’s contributions to PSG’s achievements were outstanding, the preferred flag-bearer for that club’s brilliant 2024-25 is the striker Ousmane Dembele.
Attacking players tend to draw the limelight more than defenders, even ones as creative as Hakimi and Dembele’s 35 PSG goals, out of 51 goal contributions last season make him the expected Ballon d’Or victor.
And he has a comeback story to tell. At 28, Dembele has come good, via many ups and downs, on predictions that were being made for him a decade ago. At Rennes, where he enrolled in the junior ranks at 14, he was called “the next Ronaldo” although that was not a view shared by all the club’s senior coaching staff.
A brilliant first season in France’s top division made him a target for bigger clubs, including Borussia Dortmund, whose reputation for nurturing young talent is second to none. Their then head coach, Thomas Tuchel, remarked on Dembele’s “Ballon d’Or potential” when he moved there in the summer of 2016. His rapid ascent had him joining Barcelona, for the biggest fee the club had ever paid for a player, within barely a year.
Then came the plateau: significant periods of injury, a burdensome price-tag - Barca had paid over €100m, before add-ons - and a reputation for following up his exhilarating dribbles with wildly inconsistent shooting. It took close to five years for Barcelona to enjoy the long runs of dazzling form they had invested in. PSG saw the mature version of Dembele and swooped, signing him for around €50m in the summer of 2023.
A shift from the wing into a central striking role, albeit with licence to go wide, once Kylian Mbappe had left PSG last year, helped turn Dembele into the reliable finisher that had been the missing part of his portfolio, a devastating complement to his speed, his capacity to go past defenders. He has thrived in front of a confident midfield and benefited immensely from Hakimi’s energy and movement.
A trio of PSG midfielders, Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves are among seven players from the club in the 30-man list of Ballon d’Or nominees. While the concentration of Parisien excellence leaves open the possibility that votes might be spread across the PSG contingent to such an extent that a candidate, like Lamine or Salah, from another club ends up polling better than any of the European Cup winners, it is the Dembele renaissance that has captured the imagination. For that, he is the Ballon d’Or favourite.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
If you go...
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
Dubai World Cup Carnival Card:
6.30pm: Handicap US$135,000 (Turf) 1,200m
7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
7.40pm: Zabeel Turf Listed $175,000 (T) 2,000m
8.15pm: Cape Verdi Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m
8.50pm: Handicap $135,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap $175,000 (T) 1,600m
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
FIGHT CARD
1. Featherweight 66kg
Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
2. Lightweight 70kg
Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
3. Welterweight 77kg
Marcos Costa (BRA) v Abdelhakim Wahid (MAR)
4. Lightweight 70kg
Omar Ramadan (EGY) v Abdimitalipov Atabek (KGZ)
5. Featherweight 66kg
Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
6. Catchweight 85kg
Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) v Iuri Fraga (BRA)
7. Featherweight 66kg
Yousef Al Husani (UAE) v Mohamed Allam (EGY)
8. Catchweight 73kg
Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Abdipatta Abdizhali (KGZ)
9. Featherweight 66kg
Jaures Dea (CMR) v Andre Pinheiro (BRA)
10. Catchweight 90kg
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE%20SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%203-litre%20V6%20turbo%20(standard%20model%2C%20E-hybrid)%3B%204-litre%20V8%20biturbo%20(S)%0D%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20350hp%20(standard)%3B%20463hp%20(E-hybrid)%3B%20467hp%20(S)%0D%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20500Nm%20(standard)%3B%20650Nm%20(E-hybrid)%3B%20600Nm%20(S)%0D%0D%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh368%2C500%0D%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
More on Quran memorisation:
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Itcan profile
Founders: Mansour Althani and Abdullah Althani
Based: Business Bay, with offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India
Sector: Technology, digital marketing and e-commerce
Size: 70 employees
Revenue: On track to make Dh100 million in revenue this year since its 2015 launch
Funding: Self-funded to date
More coverage from the Future Forum
Read more about the coronavirus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
The five pillars of Islam
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
England v South Africa schedule:
- First Test: At Lord's, England won by 219 runs
- Second Test: July 14-18, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 2pm
- Third Test: The Oval, London, July 27-31, 2pm
- Fourth Test: Old Trafford, Manchester, August 4-8
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Zayed Sustainability Prize
'Peninsula'
Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Ra
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
