{"id":142509,"date":"2026-05-30T14:46:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T17:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/why-melchie-dumornay-should-lead-the-way-in-a-ballon-dor-race-that-challenges-the-status-quo\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T14:46:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T17:46:54","slug":"why-melchie-dumornay-should-lead-the-way-in-a-ballon-dor-race-that-challenges-the-status-quo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/why-melchie-dumornay-should-lead-the-way-in-a-ballon-dor-race-that-challenges-the-status-quo\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Melchie Dumornay should lead the way in a Ballon d\u2019Or race that challenges the status quo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is something about the glitz of a Champions League final that awakens the Ballon d\u2019Or imagination.<\/p>\n

On paper, the European competition is no more related to the French award for the player voted best in the world than any of the other continental tournaments, except for their physical proximity to each other. And yet a successful UEFA Champions League campaign, individually or as a team, has proved more effective in securing a Ballon d\u2019Or than every other competition apart from the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Look no further than the last five awards, split between three-time reigning Ballon d\u2019Or winner Aitana Bonmati and two-time winner Alexia Putellas. Both were mainstays on an FC Barcelona team that won four of the last six Champions League finals and featured in all six. (They also lifted the World Cup with Spain in 2023 and made it to the European Championship in 2025.)<\/p>\n

What is the proper balance between a candidate\u2019s accomplishments for club and country to earn a Ballon d\u2019Or nomination? And how prestigious does each of those teams need to be?<\/p>\n

One of the more prominent shifts in the women\u2019s game globally has been the emergence of star players from countries outside North America and Europe. Increasingly, they represent those countries at the international level rather than the former colonial powers with which they may also have ties.<\/p>\n

By some measures, this has presented a conundrum when assessing a player\u2019s talent for a Ballon d\u2019Or nod. Stark differences in development and investment from national teams and the federations that govern them lead to contrasts in the quality of competition from one region to the next.<\/p>\n

The weight of those factors has historically tilted toward Europe. It\u2019s time for that to change, and there might be no better player for this departure than Melchie Dumornay of OL Lyonnes in France.<\/p>\n

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\n Melchie Dumornay has been a crucial part of OL Lyonnes\u2019 success this season. (Kate McShane \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After finishing 18th in the Ballon d\u2019Or rankings last year, the Haitian midfielder is well deserving of a top-three finish.<\/p>\n

It could have been higher had Lyon won the Champions League this year. Instead, the eight-time champions were outplayed by a clinical and composed Barcelona<\/a> in Saturday\u2019s final by a decisive four goals to nil, but that should not erase Dumornay\u2019s impact on Lyon and across European women\u2019s football. She is among the single most important players to any team\u2019s success, a reality that was on display during Lyon\u2019s semifinal fixtures against 2025 European champions Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Dumornay was on the bench due to injury in the first leg, and Arsenal won 2-1. She returned for the second leg, and Lyon won 3-1, which included a sublime assist to German winger Jule Brand to seal their victory. Altogether, Dumornay recorded five goals and an assist in Lyon\u2019s Champions League campaign and another six goals and seven assists in the French Premi\u00e8re Ligue. She has been voted league MVP, and in the league final Friday, she added a hat trick to her tally against Paris FC, which Lyon beat 5-0. This was on top of their 4-1 French Cup victory over Paris Saint-Germain in May, for which Dumornay also earned best player honors.<\/p>\n

She has been a crucial presence on the Haitian women\u2019s national team as they seek World Cup qualification for the second time. Ranked 50th in the world by FIFA and coached by Swedish veteran manager Pia Sundhage, Haiti currently tops their group alongside Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador.<\/p>\n

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C’EST QUOI CETTE FRAPPE EXTRAORDINAIRE ??? 🤯<\/p>\n

Melchie Dumornay et les Lyonnes de l’OL font sombrer le Paris FC, la suite de cette finale folle sur CANAL 📺#ArkemaPL<\/a> | #OLPFC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/raiVJDeXVr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) May 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dumornay, of course, is not the only player who deserves a look at being the first non-American or -European player to win the Ballon d\u2019Or. Japanese midfielder Yui Hasegawa of Manchester City did not crack the top 30 list last year. The 29-year-old\u2019s prospects this time around should be much brighter, bolstered by a continental championship with Japan at the AFC Asian Cup<\/a> in March and a title run with Manchester City that saw them lift a WSL trophy for the first time in a decade. Hasegawa was central to both as arguably the most complete defensive midfielder in the women\u2019s game right now. Historically, Asian women\u2019s football has not been regarded with the same respect as its European counterparts, but Japan, with its World Cup pedigree, has set out to change that narrative.<\/p>\n

As the Mexican professional league Liga MX Femenil continues to grow in domestic and international prominence, they will soon be demanding Ballon d\u2019Or attention too. Club Am\u00e9rica captain and Mexican national team forward Scarlett Camberos has just this week been involved in two champions runs for her club: the Clausura on May 17 and their first Concacaf W Champions Cup title six days later<\/a>. By winning Concacaf, Am\u00e9rica qualifies for the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, scheduled to begin in January 2028. (Barcelona has also qualified by winning the Champions League.) Should Mexico punch their ticket to the 2027 World Cup, players such as Camberos will deserve the international recognition of a Ballon d\u2019Or nomination, too.<\/p>\n

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\n Club Am\u00e9rica\u2019s Scarlett Camberos helped her team lift the champions trophy in the Concacaf W Champions Cup against the Washington Spirit. (Manuel Velasquez \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg was the inaugural Ballon d\u2019Or recipient in 2018, the same year the French side won its third Champions League title. The following year, it went to U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe. The only non-European Ballon d\u2019Or winner to date, Rapinoe\u2019s shock of purple hair, statuesque goal celebrations and infamous refusal of a Trump White House visit defined the arc of the U.S. women\u2019s national team\u2019s triumphant run at the 2019 World Cup, for which she won the Golden Boot.<\/p>\n

But not all European nations are treated equally. Barcelona striker Ewa Pajor was a poetic protagonist<\/a> on the Catalan side, lifting her first Champions League trophy after five failed attempts. The Polish forward finally found glory last weekend, her pair of goals providing first relief, then security to Barcelona\u2019s resolve against Lyon. Even after adding the 16 goals she scored across 22 games for Barcelona in the Spanish Liga F and subtracting whatever Ballon d\u2019Or boost Pajor might lose should Poland fail to qualify for the 2027 World Cup, Pajor is also worthy of a top-five finish.<\/p>\n

It has been all Spain and Barcelona \u2014 specifically, Putellas and Bonmat\u00ed, the only two Ballon d\u2019Or winners since 2021. Putellas won back-to-back awards in 2021 and 2022, years in which Barcelona won their first Champions League and reached the finals of the other, respectively. Bonmat\u00ed topped that with three consecutive Ballon d\u2019Or honors, beginning with the year Spain won its first World Cup, in 2023.<\/p>\n

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\"Aitana<\/p>\n
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\n Aitana Bonmat\u00ed won her third women\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or trophy last year. (Kristy Sparow \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Spain were finalists at the Euros last summer. Despite missing most of the group stage matches as Bonmat\u00ed recovered from viral meningitis, she still made crucial contributions to her team\u2019s journey through the knockout stages, recording an assist in the quarterfinals against Switzerland and scoring the game-winning goal in the semifinals against Germany. Spain fell to England on penalties in the Euros final, three goals to one. Bonmat\u00ed, Mariona Caldentey \u2014 last year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or runner-up \u2014 and Salma Paralluelo all missed their shots.<\/p>\n

If setbacks like those were not enough to thwart Bonmat\u00ed\u2019s or Caldentey\u2019s chances at a Ballon d\u2019Or, neither should the fact that Dumornay did not win the Champions League, or that Hasegawa did not compete in it, or that Pajor might not qualify for the World Cup with Poland. As with many things within the women\u2019s game, nuance is necessary to fully appreciate what these special players offer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n