Lamine Yamal: The Duel with Dembélé as a Prelude to the Ballon d’Or
Barcelona’s young star, Lamine Yamal, envisions the upcoming UEFA Nations League match between Spain and France as a potential early final for the Ballon d’Or, a personal duel with Ousmane Dembélé, if they so desire.
Yamal, at just 17 years old, is in contention for the prestigious individual award, following an outstanding season. His teammate, Raphinha, is also on the list of candidates, but Dembélé could have taken the lead after his outstanding participation in Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League.
“Who do you vote for: the best player of the season or the one who wins the game on Thursday?”
Lamine Yamal
Yamal, when asked about the competition with Dembélé for the Ballon d’Or, emphasized his preference for awarding the best player of the year, regardless of the match result. He highlighted his confidence in his team’s victory on Thursday, but reaffirmed his position to vote for the most outstanding player of the season.
The winger, who scored 18 goals and provided 25 assists in 55 appearances during the season, where Barça secured a domestic treble, avoided revealing his vote. However, he praised Raphinha as the best forward in the Champions League. Furthermore, Yamal downplayed the Ballon d’Or as a primary goal, focusing on achieving success with Barcelona and Spain in the Champions League and the World Cup in 2026.
“In the end, I don’t think about the Ballon d’Or or whether I’m going to win it, because I think you’ll do badly if you think you have to win the Ballon d’Or,” he added.
“I think about playing, about winning… and it will come. In the end, if I win the Champions League and the World Cup next year, it will come. It’s about enjoying it, and it will come when it has to come.”
The match between Spain and France, which will be played in Stuttgart, is a rematch of last summer’s European Championship semi-final, where Yamal scored in Spain’s 2-1 victory.
French midfielder Adrien Rabiot had questioned Yamal before that match, and the Barcelona winger used that criticism as motivation.
“To be honest, I’m not aware of everything that’s said about me, but a lot of information reaches me,” he stated. “I might not be looking at my phone, but a friend calls me and tells me this or that, so I find out through them. They send me a lot of TikTok stuff, good things; bad things sometimes from my two closest friends because they know it motivates me, more than anything before a match.”
“They send me things 20 minutes before a match to motivate me. They know I don’t get nervous before a match. For example, against France, I was sleeping on the bus, I woke up and my friend calls me and says: ‘Remember what [Rabiot] said about you’. I reply ‘Yes, yes, of course I remember, don’t worry’”.“The match starts, they score, I look at the stands and my friend makes a gesture to say ‘Remember’. He gets me going and I enter that zone of not stopping running and all that. And that’s how he motivates me.”
Pau Cubarsí, Yamal’s teammate at the club and national team, also highlighted the danger that opposing players face if they provoke the young winger.
“He’s a magnificent player,” the defender stated.“What he’s doing at 17 in the most difficult fields in Europe is incredible. It’s as if he were 30 years old. Lamine likes to shut people up. If you mess with him, all you do is make him more determined. And then he goes and resolves matches and qualifiers.”
