Paris Saint-Germain will have a representative or two in the conversation when the Ballon d’Or is handed out, but Désiré Doué will not be one of them. The 21-year-old has been left out of the 30-man list of nominees for the award, an omission that lands as a genuine surprise given what he contributed to the club’s second successive Champions League triumph.
He is not alone in feeling hard done by. Bradley Barcola, who left the Parc for Liverpool this summer, has also been left off the shortlist, per Get French Football News. Two of the players who carried Paris to the biggest prize in Europe, and two of the players France leaned on at a World Cup, are both watching this one from outside.
The numbers that make Doue’s omission look odd
Doué made 41 appearances across all competitions last season and was judged decisive on 26 of them, a return built on 13 goals and 11 assists. That is a direct goal contribution roughly every other time he walked onto a pitch, in a season that ended with the European Cup back in the cabinet.
The summer did not dim it, either. The Angers-born forward played eight matches at the World Cup, starting four of them, and stood out most in the knockout rounds — his performances in the round of 16 and the quarter-final were among the reasons Les Bleus reached a semi-final before their tournament ended. For a player who only turned 21 this year, it is a body of work that most of the 30 names on the list would recognise as their own peak.
Barcola pays for a change of shirt
Barcola’s case is similar and, if anything, statistically louder. The 24-year-old racked up 49 appearances for Paris in 2025/26, scoring 13 and setting up seven more, before his deadline-day move to Liverpool closed the book on his time in the capital. At the World Cup he also started four of eight, and scored his first three goals at that level in the process.
Neither snub is easy to square with the way the ballot usually works. Voters tend to reward players from winning teams, and Paris won the competition that carries the most weight of all. The difference, most likely, is hierarchy: in a squad this deep, individual credit gets spread thin, and the two forwards who did their damage in supporting roles are the ones who fall off the bottom of a 30-man list.
Dembele expects the award to stay in Paris
The reigning holder is not short of confidence about where it ends up. Ousmane Dembélé, who won the award last year, has said he believes it will be claimed by a PSG player again — and he pointed to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as the man to do it. That may soften the blow at the training ground, but it does not change the individual maths for Doué, who now has to build his case from scratch across a campaign that has begun badly for everyone in red and blue.
A snub he can answer this season
The timing is unkind. Paris are winless in Ligue 1 after three matches — 2-2 at Rennes, 2-2 at Lille, then a 2-1 defeat to Monaco — and sit seven points behind the leaders, per Get French Football News. The 2026 UEFA Super Cup, won 2-1 against Aston Villa, remains the only victory of the season, with the Trophée des Champions already surrendered 1-0 to Lens. Luis Enrique named the start of the campaign a disastrous one himself.
Which makes the Champions League defence, beginning on Wednesday against Slovan Bratislava, the obvious place for Doué to make his argument. He has done it on that stage before — the source of his 2025/26 credit was a European run that ended with the trophy retained — and the fastest route back into this conversation is another one like it. For a fuller picture of the player Paris are asking to shoulder that, read our profile of the No.14 who won PSG matches last season.
The list is what it is. Doué is 21, he was a key figure in a Champions League triumph before most players get near one, and there will be plenty more ballots.
