Lamine Yamal on the Ballon d'Or: Dembélé's victory was a lesson, but the ambition has not disappeared
Lamine Yamal has once again opened the subject of last year's race for the Ballon d'Or and his defeat to Ousmane Dembélé, but this time without bitterness and without any attempt to relativize the jury's decision. According to reports from a conversation published on his YouTube channel, the young Barcelona footballer admitted that at the ceremony on 22 September 2025 in Paris he had expected a different outcome and that at that moment he believed the award might end up in his hands. Today, however, he speaks about that evening more calmly, with the claim that perhaps it was not yet the right moment for him to win the most important individual recognition in world football. Yamal emphasized that Dembélé's victory helped him in his personal maturation, and not only in his sporting understanding of the difference between great talent and complete maturity at the highest level. The message he sent on 7 June 2026 is especially interesting because it comes at a time when there is already talk of a new race for the Ballon d'Or, while the 2026 World Cup begins on 11 June.
Recognition without bitterness after the Paris evening
Yamal, according to the available reports from the conversation, openly said that before the 2025 announcement he thought he would win the Ballon d'Or. Such an admission is not unusual for a player who had an exceptional season behind him, but it is interesting that he expressed it without accusing voters, organizers or rivals. Instead, Yamal described the defeat as an experience that helped him cope better with expectations, pressure and the public perception that accompanies his rise. In his words, one can recognize a distance from the first reaction after the gala evening, when it was clear that second place was a great recognition, but also a missed opportunity for a historic breakthrough. Now, according to what he himself conveyed, he has concluded that such an early crown might have come before he was ready to fully understand its weight.
Such a tone is also important because Yamal has for years already been seen as a player who pushes age boundaries in professional football. FC Barcelona states that he entered the first team very early, and the club describes him in official materials as one of the most outstanding young players of his generation. In the 2024/25 season under Hansi Flick, according to Barcelona's data, he scored 18 goals and recorded 21 assists, which further strengthened his candidacy for individual awards. But the Ballon d'Or is not only an award for talent, but also for a season in which individual performance is combined with team success, impact in big matches and continuity throughout the entire competitive year. It was precisely in that combination that Dembélé in 2025 had arguments that proved decisive.
Dembélé's season as a measure of maturity
According to UEFA, Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d'Or for 2025 as a forward for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team, ahead of Lamine Yamal and Vitinha. The ceremony was held at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and it was the 69th edition of the Ballon d'Or awards. In its announcement about the laureates, UEFA also stated that Yamal won the Kopa Trophy that same evening, the recognition for the best young footballer, while PSG also received several other confirmations of an exceptional season. Dembélé's victory was not isolated from the wider context of the Parisian club, because PSG finally won the Champions League in 2024/25, and its coach Luis Enrique was also rewarded for his work on the bench. According to PSG, Dembélé was also named player of the season in Ligue 1 at the UNFP awards and player of the season in the Champions League that season.
It is precisely that team framework that gives additional weight to Yamal when he says that Dembélé's victory was a useful lesson for him. PSG defeated Inter 5:0 in Munich on 31 May 2025 and won the Champions League for the first time in the club's history, according to the official announcement by the Parisian club and UEFA's report on the final. Dembélé, according to PSG, had an important role in the knockout phase of the European campaign, including goals against Liverpool and Arsenal and two assists in the final. Such an impact was not only a statistical argument, but also proof that the Frenchman, in a more mature phase of his career, had become a player who decides the biggest matches. Yamal's season was exceptional, but Dembélé had the advantage in the vote because of the combination of personal impact, a European trophy and the transformation of his own career.
The relationship between the two players softened the weight of the defeat
In his new reflection, Yamal particularly emphasized that he has a very good relationship with Dembélé. According to his words, the two of them talk, they keep in touch even outside the football context, and Dembélé helped him personally stabilize during one period. That part of the statement gives a different frame to the whole story, because the rivalry over the Ballon d'Or is not portrayed as a conflict, but as a relationship in which the older player can be a support to the younger one. Yamal emphasized that he was sincerely happy for the Frenchman, which is an important message in a sport in which individual awards often turn into a reason for divisions among fans. Instead of seeing Dembélé's victory as an injustice, he described it as a moment that forced him to reassess his own maturity.
Such an attitude does not mean that Yamal has lost his competitive ambition. On the contrary, his final message that it remains to be seen whether this year can be his shows that he did not experience the 2025 defeat as the end of the story, but as a stage in his development. But the difference is in the tone: instead of a self-confident expectation of the award, he now speaks as a player who understands that the Ballon d'Or comes after a series of confirmations, and not only after a flash of brilliance or a great reputation. For Barcelona, that is an important signal because the club is building its present and future to a large extent around a player who has not yet turned 19. For Yamal, meanwhile, it is important that his public image is not reduced only to genius and records, but also to the ability to learn from disappointment.
Why second place was nevertheless a major confirmation
Second place in the 2025 Ballon d'Or vote was an exceptional achievement for Yamal, especially considering his age. UEFA's ranking shows that behind him were Vitinha, Mohamed Salah, Raphinha and a series of other established players from Europe's biggest clubs. That means Yamal was already recognized then not only as a prospect, but as one of the most influential footballers of the season. At the same time, his second consecutive Kopa Trophy further confirmed that in the competition of players younger than 21 he had no seriously equal rival in the eyes of the voters. FC Barcelona emphasized after the ceremony that this made him the winner of the award for the best young player in the world for the second year in a row.
The Ballon d'Or, however, values a different profile of success. According to UEFA's explanation of the rules for 2025, the main criteria were individual performances and decisive character, team results and achievements, and class and fair play. The men's award was decided by an international jury of specialized journalists, with one representative from each of the hundred best-ranked countries according to the FIFA ranking at the time the lists were published. In such a system, a brilliant season by a young player can be enough for the top of the ranking, but the biggest trophies and performances in the final stages of the most important competitions often decide. That is why Dembélé's European crown with PSG carried a weight that Yamal's individual explosion at Barcelona could not completely neutralize.
Barcelona gained a leader of the new generation
Yamal's rise at Barcelona cannot be viewed separately from the change in the team's identity after a period in which the club was searching for new stability. According to Barcelona's official data, in the 2024/25 season he was one of the key players in the attacking structure, with an impact that exceeded the usual expectations for a footballer of his age. His game is not just a series of dribbles and attractive moves, but a combination of width, creativity, final passing and increasingly pronounced responsibility in decisive matches. That is precisely why every one of his statements about the Ballon d'Or is followed with great attention, because a player of such a profile is expected to be a candidate for the biggest recognitions over a long period. But at the same time Barcelona must manage his development so that media pressure does not become greater than the sporting process.
Yamal, according to Barcelona, had already accumulated a series of records and recognitions by adulthood that would be the peak of a career for many players. In July 2025, the club highlighted that by his 18th birthday he already had almost an entire list of age records, including an early entry into senior football and an important role in the first team. Such a start to a career creates the expectation that each next season will be a step toward the Ballon d'Or, but it was precisely his new reflection that showed he himself is aware of how dangerous it can be to skip stages of development. The sentence that he might not have known how to appreciate the award enough as a very young player does not diminish his quality, but shows an understanding of the symbolism of the recognition. In that sense, the defeat to Dembélé can be seen as a rare public lesson in patience for a player who has become used to breaking boundaries ahead of time.
A new year, a new context and the World Cup
The ambition for 2026 to be his year comes in an extremely demanding calendar. FIFA states that the 2026 World Cup begins on 11 June in Mexico and ends with the final on 19 July in the New York New Jersey area, with an expanded format of 48 national teams and three host countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States of America. Such a tournament can significantly affect the impression of players who are already at the top of European football, although the final criteria for a particular award will depend on the organizers' rules. For Yamal, appearing with Spain represents an opportunity to confirm his individual status on the national-team stage as well. For Dembélé, the World Cup can be a continuation of a period in which he has already built a strong argument of continuity with PSG and France.
The context of 2026 is further complicated because PSG, according to UEFA, also won a second consecutive Champions League on 30 May 2026, defeating Arsenal in the final after penalties. That means Dembélé's story did not stop at one extraordinary season, but PSG continued to confirm its dominance at European level. In such an environment, Yamal's ambition gains clearer proportions: to win the Ballon d'Or, it is not enough to be the most exciting young player in the world, but one must also surpass rivals who win the biggest trophies. Still, the fact that an 18-year-old footballer is already being seriously mentioned for the second time in the context of the main award says a great deal about how accelerated his career is. His advantage may be precisely what he described in 2025 as a shortcoming: time.
A message that goes beyond one award
Yamal's reflection on the defeat to Dembélé is therefore more important than the discussion itself about who should have won the 2025 Ballon d'Or. It shows how a young player, exposed to enormous expectations, is trying publicly to articulate the difference between disappointment and dissatisfaction. He did not dispute Dembélé's quality, he did not question his season and he did not try to diminish the meaning of PSG's European success. Instead, he admitted his own initial belief in victory, and then explained why, looking back with the passage of time, it may have been better that the award then went to the Frenchman. Such an approach gives his ambition greater credibility, because it shows that the desire for the award does not have to exclude respect for the winner.
For Dembélé, Yamal's words confirm that his triumph resonated beyond PSG's environment. For Yamal, they are a way to position himself as a candidate who does not run away from the goal, but understands the path toward it. In football, where individual awards are often perceived as final verdicts, his comment brings the emphasis back to process, maturation and continuity. If 2026 really turns into a new battle between Yamal, Dembélé and other big names, the discussion will once again be conducted through trophies, matches and memorable moments. But after this statement, it is clear that Yamal no longer carries last year's defeat as a burden, but as an experience he wants to turn into the next step.
Sources:
- Barca Blaugranes – report of quotes from Yamal's conversation about the Ballon d'Or and Ousmane Dembélé (link)
- UEFA – official announcement on the 2025 Ballon d'Or winners and the men's ranking (link)
- UEFA – explanation of the criteria, jury and format of the 2025 Ballon d'Or ceremony (link)
- FC Barcelona – official profile of Lamine Yamal and data on the 2024/25 season (link)
- FC Barcelona – announcement on winning the Kopa Trophy for the second consecutive time (link)
- Paris Saint-Germain – official announcement on Dembélé's Ballon d'Or and PSG's 2024/25 season (link)
- UEFA – report on the 2024/25 Champions League final between PSG and Inter (link)
- UEFA – report on PSG's 2025/26 Champions League triumph (link)
- FIFA – official schedule and basic information about the 2026 World Cup (link)