The race for the Ballon d’Or has already begun. On 8 September, France Football published the list of the 30 nominees for the most prestigious individual award.
Since then, bookmakers, the media and the fans themselves have narrowed down the list of candidates to three players who are the main favourites to win the award.
These three players are Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane. The first two, in particular, start with a slight advantage over the Englishman, who is the outsider in this shortlist.
The communications teams for Lamine Yamal and Mbappé, as well as the clubs they play for, have already launched their respective media campaigns to win the votes of the 100 journalists who will make the final decision.
This situation is nothing new for Lamine Yamal. The young Spanish player was already in the running last year, but was ultimately pipped by Ousmane Dembélé by 321 votes. The Frenchman secured 1,380 votes, compared to the young talent’s 1,059.
This year, the situation is different. Last year, he attended the event knowing full well that it would be very difficult to walk away with the Ballon d’Or, given the combined success of PSG and Dembélé, with a clean sweep of domestic titles in France and the Parisian side’s first-ever Champions League trophy.
This year, logic suggests he is one of the main favourites. His undeniable quality on the pitch is backed up by a list of honours that Mbappé cannot match.
He inherited the number 10 shirt at Barcelona and contributed 24 goals and 18 assists to the club’s second consecutive La Liga title – his third at the age of 19 – and the Spanish Super Cup. In the Champions League, he also put in some outstanding performances, particularly against Atlético Madrid, despite the Blaugranas eventually being knocked out in the quarter-finals, where they played both legs of the tie with ten men.
However, the standout factor in his nomination is his crowning as world champion in the United States on 19 July. A muscle injury sustained on 23 April meant he was unable to reach the World Cup in peak condition, and his performance was not quite as outstanding as Lamine Yamal usually delivers.
Nevertheless, he started every match and contributed a goal and a penalty won in the semi-finals against France. His case is the strongest when you consider the combination of titles and sporting performance.
Accustomed to breaking records for his precocious talent, Lamine Yamal could continue to make history if he manages to receive the most votes. He would become the third Spanish Ballon d’Or winner after Luis Suárez (1960) and Rodrigo (2024). Furthermore, he would be the first to achieve this under the age of 20, as he is just 19 years and three months old, and would become the youngest player ever to win both the World Cup and the Ballon d’Or.
In a recent interview with Jorge Valdano, Lamine Yamal stated that he is a worthy winner. “It’s the trophy that recognises the best player of the year – the one you enjoy watching so much that you’d watch a match just for him. It has nothing to do with the number of goals he scores or anything like that. When I think of the Ballon d’Or, I think of Messi, Ronaldinho… players like them. They’re different and they make you smile when you watch them play,” he told L’Equipe.
Unlike Lamine Yamal, Mbappé cites the 52 goals he has scored as his main selling point in his bid to win his first Ballon d’Or. The French star has become the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history, with 22 goals in just three World Cup tournaments.
The Golden Boot at club level and the World Cup Golden Boot are his main selling points in the bid to win over the jury’s votes. At club level, his move to Real Madrid caused a global sensation and was touted as the icing on the cake for a team that had recently won the Champions League.
His individual statistics, whilst impressive, have been overshadowed by a very poor team performance, with no titles won in two seasons. This is a negative record in the history of Real Madrid, a club expected to win every title it competes for.
Not even within Real Madrid circles is his Ballon d’Or nomination being defended. Mbappé is coming under increasing scrutiny for the lack of commitment which, according to his critics, he displays in big matches, and for his controversial holiday getaways in May, whilst his team-mates were still fighting to stay in the running in La Liga.
Kylian Mbappé has also given interviews in recent days to defend himself. He has referred to his African heritage, claiming that, should he win, he would proudly take the Ballon d’Or back to Cameroon. He has also praised Real Madrid’s status as the team with the most Ballon d’Or winners in its history.
“My view is that this is a good year to win it. My feet speak for themselves, no matter how much I say. The most important thing for me is that the Ballon d’Or returns to Real Madrid. It must return to the Bernabéu, to the Madrid fans; it must return for all these people to give them something to look forward to. Those people deserve it more than anyone else,” said the Madrid number 10.
Anyone who has followed football closely, both in Spain and internationally, should have no doubt that the Ballon d’Or should make its way back to Spain. In this case, to Barcelona.
As Lamine Yamal said, there is already a trophy – the Golden Boot – to honour a player who has scored a lot of goals. The Ballon d’Or is for the best player, and that is Lamine Yamal. He is the best player and also brings out the best in his teammates.
If the voting is based on footballing merit rather than politics, this could well be the first of many trophies that the FC Barcelona player is expected to win.
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