Opinion – Ballon d’Or or not, Lamine Yamal is here to stay | OneFootball

In a couple of days, the footballing world crowns its newest jewel, its finest player. The best. The 2025 Ballon d’Or.

Coronation will be bestowed upon its holder, and for the next year at least, heavy will be the head that wears the crown and frightening for those blinded by its shine.

As it is touted to be, Barcelona’s very own Lamine Yamal is in contention to bring home the Ballon d’Or. He is stacked against some incredible players and treble champions – which may be a deciding factor – that won’t mar his victory parade just yet.

But make no mistake, should Lamine be crowned the best player in the world, it will be a feat so audaciously remarkable given his age, but perfectly suitable for his mesmerising talent.

And should the journalists and captains decide his time is not quite now, they had better be ready for what’s to come.

In any case, let’s consider both realities and explore for ourselves what they would look like for Lamine Yamal.

Coronation Day

Lamine Yamal, Ousmane Dembele, and Raphinha are going head-to-head for the Golden Orb. All incredibly worthy of the honour, all frighteningly good in the season gone by, however, there can only be one winner.

So what if Lamine Yamal is the star of the ball? What if it’s a historic night, feeling timeless thanks to his moment under the golden lights?

It would just feel right… Wouldn’t it?

If there’s any player over the course of the last season who has been this lights-out good, coupled with being efficient and productive for club and country, it’s the 18-year-old phenom.

Yes, Raphinha stacked his ridiculous output and consistently stepped up in every single big game for Barcelona.

Will Lamine become the youngest Ballon d’Or winner in history? (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Yes, Dembele won the treble, powering his team to Champions League glory, highlighting his transformative arc from a bit-part, unreliable player to devoting himself to selflessness for the greater good of the team.

Even Pedri is due for a deserved shot at unanimous recognition, but the footballing world is unfortunately still governed by its puzzling obsession with forwards. Hopefully, Rodri’s anomalous win can instigate a change.

As the case might be then, football is a game supposed to be mesmerising and easy on the eyes. Flow-state footballers are still the rarest yet most appreciated archetype of players on the market. Lamine Yamal checks those boxes and more.

For all the talk about his age, even if you decide to omit that context around his quality, you still get a player his team can turn to, count on and rally behind when the going gets tough. A player who will carry his team on his back and drag them to victory.

Only the absolute best in the world and in history have been blessed with this generational ability and, with that, burden. Lamine has inducted himself into that elite list thanks to his own exploitations of defences and defenders during the season gone by.

And the critics haven’t much to say either. Yes, Lamine wins by a mile and a half on the eye test, but his output of 43 G/A – 25 assists and 18 goals – in 55 games for club alone is a testament to his effectiveness as a baller with flair.

For years, the Ballon d’Or has been awarded to the players who move the world with their feet. Who inspire, entertain, excite and get you off your seats. Who are capable of the spectacular, the jugular, the audacious.

It is a ballers-only territory, and should Lamine find himself etched in the history books, it will be very much deserved for the best player in the world.

The best part is, Lamine might even take it up a notch with the weight of being the best added to his belt. One might also be mistaken in underselling his ability to thrive under pressure. He is already wielding the heaviest shirt at Barcelona with the #10 badge affixed to his armour.

And if you think he will stop at one…

Good luck – to the rest

Let’s flip the script here.

What ensues should Lamine not be adjudged to win the Ballon d’Or?

Will he lose credibility? Will he be ‘put in his place’? Will he be shown the levels of this game?

Win or lose on Monday – Lamine will keep rising. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Knowing Lamine as well as Barcelona fans do, he has set his eyes on unleashing a dynasty. An unmatched and dominant dynasty, it wouldn’t be a competition. So he intends.

That doesn’t mean he needs the Ballon d’Or to reflect his ambition or justify his exceptional talent.

As much as it has been the standard for segregating the diamond from the stones, it has also been a cold shower of reality, dismissing preconceived notions about the makings of the best player in the world.

The Golden Orb is bestowed subjectively and should be taken as such at face value. So, considering all the glitter on the CV of his counterparts as discussed before, Lamine may not be crowned the best.

Beware, here comes the reminder.

Lamine is only 18 years young. If he can stand shoulder to shoulder and take part as a genuine contender in the conversations for arguably football’s greatest individual honour, we might be excused for sweating about his potential when he reaches his prime.

We are currently seeing a kid with braces run the world ragged without warning. Without care. That’s how it all started anyway. But Lamine has come a long way. From area 304 in sunny Catalonia to the higher strata of Paris.

And no matter what happens – a procession celebrating a literal teenager as the world’s best or a delayed coronation – when that evolution inevitably translates into or seamlessly carries on into Lamine’s time as a man in his own right, if there were to be any lingering doubts about who sits on the throne, in the interest of defenders worldwide, kindly make way.

It is the prince, the boy wonder from Mataró with the world at his feet. And he’s ready to dazzle.