SportsMoneyReal Madrid Can Help FC Barcelona Star Lamine Yamal In This WayByTom Sanderson, Senior Contributor. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
Tom Sanderson is a Barcelona-based writer who covers Spanish football.
AuthorJul 06, 2025, 03:40am EDTJul 06, 2025, 05:09am EDTFC Barcelona's bitter rival Real Madrid can inadvertently help the Catalans' wonderkid Lamine Yamal.
More in the coming days, as pointed out by SPORT. AFP via Getty Images Bitter rival Real Madrid can inadvertently help FC Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal in the coming days, as pointed out by SPORT.
After already scooping the Golden Boy award and the Kopa Trophy, the Barca wonderkid is currently considered one of the favourites for soccer’s highest individual accolade for a male player, the Ballon d’Or.
As always, however, he isn’t running a one-horse race for the gong though his exploits in a domestic treble-winning season for his boyhood in 2024/2025 certainly put Lamine on a strong footing.
Coincidentally, his main rival is considered to be the player whose right wing berth he inherited at FC Barcelona and set up to almost score in Lamine’s debut as a 15-year-old against Real Betis in the spring of 2023.
In summer of that year, Ousmane Dembele marched to Paris Saint-Germain from Catalonia and has come on leaps and bounds under Luis Enrique.
MORE FOR YOU The ambidextrous winger has similarly lifted all three of the major trophies on offer in France this term, in addition to the Champions League.
Lamine his and Frances chances of winning the Nations League in the semifinals before Spain then lost to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in the final.
Yet Madrid can help Lamine in his quest to become the youngest ever Ballon d’Or holder after a 21-year-old Brazilian Ronaldo Nazario took it in 1997.
In short, it is perhaps by Madrid beating PSG in the World Cup semifinals next week that Dembele could be denied once the star-studded France Football ceremony to hand out the prestigious prize roles around in Paris on September 22nd.
Ultimately, the winner of the Ballon d’Or is decided by a selected panel of journalists and people in football, and it depends on how they view the battle between Lamine and Dembele or who is more deserving.
PSG Chairman has no doubt FC Barcelona starlet Lamine should be denied According to PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, there is no doubt that his winger and not FC Barcelona ace Lamine should win the Ballon d’Or.
“If Ousmane Dembele doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or, there’s a blem,” he said, ahead of PSG’s win over Bayern Munich at the World Cup.
“Given the magnificent season he has had, there is no doubt that he will win the Ballon d’Or… If he doesn’t win, there’s a blem. He has done everything.
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