Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal has revealed that if he could not win the Ballon d’Or himself, he would choose to hand the award to Lionel Messi or Neymar.
The 18-year-old forward described Messi as the greatest footballer of all time and insisted that Neymar deserved to have won at least one Ballon d’Or in his career.
“Neymar and Messi. I would give one [Ballon d’Or] to ‘Ney’, I think he deserves it,” Yamal told RTVE, as reported by Barca Universal. “The ‘Ney’ who was playing for Barca or Paris at the time would definitely win it now. I would’ve liked him to have won one. And obviously, Messi because he is the best ever.”
Yamal himself is among the leading contenders for the 2025 Ballon d’Or, with competition expected from Ousmane Dembélé, Raphinha, Kylian Mbappé and Mohamed Salah.