Lamine Yamal won everything: So why are Kane and Mbappe the PR favorites for Ballon d'Or?
The double standard around the Ballon d'Or is at a boiling point. Just ask any fan who remembers the 2018 vote. In that infamous year, Lionel Messi posted video game stats, winning La Liga and the Copa del Rey and winning the Pichichi, chalking up an incredible 77 goals and assists - the most in Europe, only to finish fifth in the ranking. Ahead of him were two World Cup winners, none of whom had won the tournament, and the World Cup Golden Ball winner. The media reaction was succinct: "Stats don't matter, he didn't win the Champions League or the World Cup, he can't win the Ballon d'Or".
This year, however, the rules have clearly changed in order to favor the agenda of Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane.
The 2026 hypocrisy
This year's candidates are being highlighted purely on goals. Let's see how that looks on paper:
France winger Kylian Mbappe has scored an impressive 43 goals in all competitions, as a player of Real Madrid. But he has come up completely empty in terms of titles. Bundesliga striker Harry Kane has netted an unbelievable 64 goals and has managed to win the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal.
If 77 goals and assists and a domestic double weren't enough for Lionel Messi to even make the podium in 2018, how on earth are 43 and 64 goals going to get Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane anywhere near the Ballon d'Or?
What makes the agendas of Kane and Mbappe even more despicable is the fact that neither was even the best player in their domestic leagues. Not only did Harry Kane fail to win the Bundesliga Player of the Year, the honor was given to Michael Olise. And Mbappe? He certainly wasn't the Player of the Year in Spain. That crown went to a teenager named Lamine Yamal.
The rightful winner
Lamine Yamal was not just good this year, he was great.
While the media talks about empty-calorie goals, Lamine Yamal is the real star of the show, a truly phenomenal 2025/26 campaign being capped off with not one, but two major honors for his efforts. He was named La Liga Player of the Season after scoring 16 goals and providing 11 assists while steering his club to the La Liga title.
On top of that, he went to North America and was a key component in Spain winning the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In fact, he was one of the youngest players ever to see action in such a prestigious tournament, and one of the few to win the thing.
He had the domestic success, he had the international success, he had the individual accolades. Yamal checked all the boxes that Messi did in 2018, but is being unfairly overshadowed by those that failed to meet the criteria.
Ballon d'Or voters cannot have it both ways: Either the World Cup and domestic honors are a deciding factor, in which case there is only one possible choice for the 2026 Ballon d'Or. Or they care about goals above everything else, in which case they need to issue a public apology to Lionel Messi for what they did to him 2018.
Lamine Yamal is the only possible choice for the 2026 Ballon d'Or, and anything else is politics.
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