La Liga president comments on Ballon d’Or race – ‘Should be between Lamine and Vinicius’ | OneFootball

Speaking at the annual congress hosted by the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (ISDE) in Madrid on Friday, La La president Javier Tebas made an interesting claim regarding the 2025 Ballon d’Or race.

By this time, it is apparent that Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal, who enjoyed a simply stunning season, is very much in the conversation for the top honour this year.

His Barça teammates Raphinha and Pedri are also under consideration while former Blaugrana speedster Ousmane Dembele, who won the treble with PSG, is also in the race.

Tebas on the Ballon d’Or race

However, according to Tebas, the race for the Ballon d’Or should be in between Lamine and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr., who endured a rather dull campaign compared to his exploits in 2023/24.

“It’s difficult. It should be between Lamine and Vinicius,” said Tebas, as quoted by AS.

On being quizzed about him throwing Vinicius’ name in the ring, Tebas – a self-admitted Real Madrid fan, suggested that the entire season needs to be taken into account and that the Spanish capital club is still involved in the FIFA Club World Cup.

“It’s the whole season,” he noted.

Ballon d’Or contender. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Highlighting the emergence of young talent like Lamine Yamal in La Liga this season, Tebas added:

“They then say that LaLiga does not sign players and that I say that we should not waste money…. This shows that you have to trust young players, you don’t have to sign so many and it shows that the stars are at home.”

On Barcelona’s finances

Tebas also discussed Barcelona’s financial situation at the appearance and talked about what the club needed to do to return to the 1:1 Fair Play rule.

“‘They know what they have to do. They know the way and they know the rules. I hope they don’t keep us on tenterhooks until the last day, as happened at the end of the year with things that were not pleasant. The CSD did what it did,” he noted.

Regarding the recent investigations by UEFA into Barcelona’s accounts over potential Financial Fair Play breaches, the La Liga president added:

“I don’t know what they are investigating. We do our job. I don’t know what UEFA is doing. We will have different concepts. UEFA analyses the accounts two seasons late. We didn’t have restrictions on those levers at that time, then they were restricted.”

On what sanctions the La Liga champions could face, Tebas remarked: “It will be complex or not. We leagues have our rules and UEFA have theirs. It’s what we are used to. La Liga and Bundesliga are trying to unify financial fair play in Europe.”