1. Harry Kane, 2. Kylian Mbappé, 3. Lamine Yamal. The 2026 Ballon d’Or delivered its verdict Monday evening in London, and the podium was a surprise. The English striker, who was not voted best player in the Bundesliga and who was not the best of his compatriots at the World Cup either, was ahead of his French counterpart, who did not win a single title, and the Spanish prodigy, who won the Liga with FC Barcelona and the World Cup with La Roja.
How to explain the third place of the Catalan crack (19 years old), who had to settle for the title of Young Talent of the Year for the third time in a row? If the details of the votes, which will be published on Saturday in France Footballwill allow us to know more about the jurors who cost the Blaugrana victory, Vincent Garcia has already provided an element of the answer. According to him, Lamine Yamal was somehow betrayed by his teammates within the Seleccion.
“If we analyze the votes, in the Spanish team which was world champion, there was a split of votes between Rodri (who finished fourth, editor’s note) and Lamine Yamalrevealed the editor-in-chief of the magazine at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel.
Rodri took votes from Lamine on this vote and there was a bit of dispersion of votes among the Spaniards. And especially the Spaniards, it was also a collective, so it was hard to highlight an individual performance. »
Lamine Yamal as Antoine Griezmann in 2018
“Also knowing that Lamine Yamal, if he was world champion, scored a goal and started (the World Cup) injured. So there you have it, the jurors had difficulty deciding between the Spaniards and bringing out one more than another,” he added. Also present in the top 20, Fabian Ruiz (10th), Pau Cubarsi (12th), Ferran Torres (16th) and Marc Cucurella (18th) were also able to play, despite themselves, to the disadvantage of the young Barcelona winger.
The players of the French team suffered the same fate the year of their last world title, in 2018. Antoine Griezmann (3rd), Kylian Mbappé (4th) and Raphaël Varane (7th) finished in the top 10, which undoubtedly prevented “Grizi” from finishing ahead of winner Luka Modric and his runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo. Unless you are “the” megastar of your national team, winning the World Cup is not necessarily an asset for the Ballon d’Or.
