Video: Lamine Yamal ignites the Ballon d'Or race with a world-class goal at Mestalla

A second goal was disallowed for the player.

Lamine Yamal fired a warning to his Ballon d'Or rivals. Barcelona's teenage star curled a dipping strike from an almost impossible angle at the Mestalla against Valencia, and with the ceremony in London just weeks away, he underlined exactly why he belongs in the conversation.

Fermin Lopez set it up with a clever ball lofted over the Valencia defence. Yamal darted through on a diagonal run, met it with his left foot and dinked it beautifully over goalkeeper Dimitrievski for a moment worth the admission alone.

He wasn't finished. Yamal found the net again inside 10 minutes, only for the referee to chalk it off after a VAR check flagged the tightest of offsides, his foot a fraction ahead of Valencia's last defender.

Denied his second within minutes, Yamal still made his mark early at the Mestalla. Two goals in quick succession, one counted, the other ruled out by centimetres, told the story of a player brimming with confidence.

The 19-year-old just keeps delivering. Three goals across his last two matches now, following a brace against Rayo Vallecano in the previous round, and his case as a frontrunner for the Ballon d'Or grows stronger by the week.