Barça’s No.10 has removed any doubt about where the Lamine Yamal Ballon d’Or conversation sits with the player himself. Asked who should collect the game’s biggest individual prize in London on 26 October, the 19-year-old did not reach for false modesty — he reached for his own name.
The comments come in a trailer for an interview with Jorge Valdano on Universo Valdano, which airs in full on Movistar+ on 18 September at 21:00 CEST, and they landed just hours after Lamine had scored twice at the Ciutat de València.
"I think this year I would deserve it"
"Who would I give it to? To the best player in the world," Lamine told Valdano, as Mundo Deportivo reported. "Who are they going to give it to? Honestly, as the best in the world, maybe there are two of us, me and Mbappé, but I think this year I would deserve it for what I have won. Everyone who watches the games knows it."
It is a striking way to frame the race, because it concedes something too: Lamine is not claiming to be alone at the summit. He is putting himself alongside Kylian Mbappé and then arguing the tie-break on silverware.
On that measure the case is a strong one. Last season he won LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup with Barcelona while posting career-best numbers of 24 goals and 18 assists, and in the summer he added the World Cup with Spain in the United States. At 19 he already owns a European Championship, a World Cup, three league titles, two Spanish Super Cups and a Copa del Rey.
The World Cup admission
What makes the interview more interesting than a simple piece of self-promotion is the part where Lamine turns critical — on himself.
"After winning the World Cup I wasn’t happy," he said. "The injury is real, but it has nothing to do with it. I know that another time the World Cup comes around and I would have been at the same level if I hadn’t been injured. I did a lot of things people didn’t see. For example, I think for the coach it’s incredible to have a player who drags three players with him, but I wasn’t happy for myself, because I know another player with my performances would have had a great World Cup. I did help the team, but I really want the next one to come."
That is a player who has won a World Cup at 18 and filed it away as unfinished business.
The pitch is still doing the talking
The timing helps him. On Sunday afternoon Lamine scored the second and third goals in Barcelona’s 2-4 win at Levante, the second from a penalty he won himself, in a game that also brought Xavi Espart’s first senior goal and a late Karim Adeyemi stunner. The brace took him to six goals in LaLiga, level at the top of the scoring charts with Raphinha, Mbappé and Levante’s Camello, and seven in all competitions from six appearances.
Five wins from five, 26 goals scored, and a teenager who keeps deciding matches: it is not a bad backdrop for a Ballon d’Or campaign.
Barcelona are lobbying too
He is not campaigning alone. Before kick-off in Valencia, vice-president Rafa Yuste used the pre-match lunch between the two boards to make Barcelona’s case publicly.
"He’s a young lad who is giving so much excitement to young people all over the world," Yuste said. "He has a brilliance that at his age is incredible; it had been many, many years since I saw a player like him. So I believe and I hope that justice will be done with this thoroughly deserved Ballon d’Or — simply for giving so much happiness to so many boys and girls around the world, and to those of us who love football."
It is a softer argument than goals and trophies, and on its own it would not win anybody an award. Paired with a World Cup winner’s medal and a LaLiga title, it becomes part of a broader push.
The gala is on 26 October. Between now and then the Blaugrana play league and Champions League football almost weekly, which gives Lamine roughly a dozen more chances to make the argument in the only language the voters really read.
