In an interview on Movistar Plus+'s show Universo Valdano, Barcelona player Lamine Yamal addressed the topic of this year's Ballon d'Or.
On the Ballon d'Or
The way this award is judged is changing. When Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were around, everyone knew they were the two best in the world, so the award was shared between the two players. The problem now is that people are starting to factor in things that do not belong to the Ballon d'Or. For example, some say the Ballon d'Or should go to a Paris Saint-Germain player simply because he won the Champions League.
When you win the Champions League, they present the award for the best Champions League team to Paris Saint-Germain; that is an award belonging to Paris Saint-Germain. It is an entirely different matter if Paris Saint-Germain happen to have the best player in the world; in that case, I believe the award should go to the best player in the world, and that is all. It should not be handed to someone who scored 80 goals, because when you score 80 goals, they give you the award for the season's top goalscorer.
These are completely different things, but people fail to understand that. The best player in the world is the one you watch and genuinely enjoy as a commentator or spectator—the player you see who is distinct from everyone else. When the judging criteria refocus on that—where the best player in the world is simply the best, not the person who scored the most goals or won the most trophies, but genuinely the best—only then will this award regain the value it truly deserves.
On Modern Football
Because the way I grew up in football was watching the entire match, from minute zero to minute ninety. I didn't open mobile applications to look up how many goals or assists each player had. Back then, it was a time when everyone enjoyed football; you saw an attacking midfielder who might not score 20 goals, but was wonderful to watch. I think today's generation opens up a match while looking at an app and says, “Yamal scored two goals or provided two assists, so he played a very good match.”
Yet there are moments—which I have experienced across many matches—where I realize I put on a real show. Maybe I didn't score, but I go to bed extremely happy because I understand that football is not just about scoring; it is about the entire sequence of play starting from the goalkeeper building out. I arrive home, perhaps visibly upset, and my mother always asks if I am angry because I didn't score. I tell her that I will never come home angry just because I didn't score. A goal is merely a statistic; I get angry because I couldn't touch the ball, because I wasn't able to enjoy the match—that is what truly frustrates me the most.
