'My time will come' – Yamal confident of future Ballon d'Or success

Lamine Yamal is confident he will get his hands on the Ballon d'Or one day, after placing third in the 2026 standings.

Yamal enjoyed a trophy-laden 2025-26 season, winning the LaLiga title with Barcelona before carrying his form into the World Cup and helping Spain lift the trophy.

However, he finished behind Bayern Munich's Harry Kane – the first Englishman to win the award since 2001 – and Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe in the voting.

Yamal tallied 41 goal involvements across all competitions in 2025-26 (24 goals, 17 assists), with only five players from Europe's top five leagues managing more.

The teenager also attempted (429) and completed (225) more dribbles than any other player in that group, as well as ranking joint-sixth for chances created (118), with 59 of those coming after a carry – only Vinicius Junior (60) had more. 

Yamal, who had talked up his chances of winning the Ballon d'Or, did not walk away from the ceremony empty-handed, winning the under-21 Kopa Trophy for the third straight year, but he remains focused on the top prize.

"It will come; good things take time. I trust in the path I'm building," Yamal wrote in a social media post.

"No rush, just excitement and the calm assurance that one day my time will come.

"Congratulations to the winners. My focus is back on what matters most: making FC Barcelona win again."

Yamal has hit the ground running in 2026-27 for Barcelona, with no LaLiga player bettering his 20 goal involvements (10 goals, 10 assists) across all competitions.

He tops the charts for assists (10) and chances created (45), while only Raphinha (15) and Mbappe (14) have netted more goals than him so far.