Dembele to miss Ballon d’Or event as PSG game moved amid protests in France

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkParis Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele celebrates after winning the men's Ballon d'Or award in 2025 [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]By AFP, AP and ReutersPublished On 23 Oct 202623 Oct 2026Paris Saint-Germain’s home Ligue 1 game against Lyon scheduled for this Sunday has been postponed until Monday, the French league announced, following a request by police amid a wave of violent protests in the French capital.The decision means the reigning Ballon d’Or, Ousmane Dembele, will miss Monday’s awards ceremony in London, for which he and a number of his PSG teammates have been nominated.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Macron to meet student groups: Where are France’s protests heading?list 2 of 4‘Stupid talk’: France rejects Trump’s attempt to blame unrest on migrationlist 3 of 4Macron blames ‘seditious’ far left for unrest as France bans some protestslist 4 of 4Why is Gen Z revolting?end of listThe 29-year-old French international forward was once again among the favourites to win the award, having helped his nation to the FIFA World Cup 2026 semifinals while leading PSG to their defence of the UEFA Champions League crown.“The LFP takes note of the police decree prohibiting the staging of the game between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday at 8:45 pm [19:45 GMT] … and has decided to reschedule the match for Monday at 8:30 pm,” the French league said in a statement on Friday.French authorities are braced for another weekend of protests in Paris and across the country, after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago.Defending champion PSG and Lyon were level on 14 points at the top of Ligue 1 heading into this weekend’s eighth round of gamesMonday’s match will clash with the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in London, where several PSG players are on the men’s shortlist: holder Dembele of France, Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Brazil’s Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, and Vitinha of Portugal, Willian Pacho of Ecuador, and Fabian Ruiz and Ferran Torres of Spain.French officials will mount a “massive” security operation for protests planned on Saturday, with troops reinforcing police, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday, after rioting and looting swept through Paris and other French cities on October 17.The PSG-Lyon game is among several high-profile sporting events scheduled in the French capital area this weekend.The Pittsburgh Steelers are due to face the New Orleans Saints in an NFL regular-season game at the Stade de France on Sunday, an event expected to require a significant police deployment.Separately, Toulouse’s Ligue 1 home match against Troyes has already been pushed back from Saturday to Sunday at the request of local authorities, the LFP said on Wednesday.