"Mbappé and I are the best in the world. Everyone who watches the matches knows it." Lamine Yamal didn't say that with a smirk or a shrug — he said it like a man who's already done the maths and is just waiting for everyone else to catch up.
The 17-year-old's long-form interview with Movistar's Universo Valdano dropped this week, and it's the most revealing Yamal has been on camera. Not because he said anything reckless — but because he said it all with the calm certainty of someone who genuinely isn't keeping score for your benefit.
The Ballon d'Or, the Pichichi, and why he thinks the award has lost its way
Yamal's take on the Ballon d'Or is pointed and specific. He's not lobbying for himself with vague confidence — he's making an actual argument. "That award should be given to the best player in the world, period. Not to a player who scored 80 goals because when you score that many you get the Pichichi. They are different things people aren't understanding."
Translation: he thinks whoever awards the Ballon d'Or on the basis of Champions League success or raw goal tallies is confusing categories. And he's not wrong. The award has historically gone to the player who changes matches, not just finishes them.
He'd give it to himself this year — for what Spain won — but he's equally clear that Mbappé is in the same conversation. "We have a direct duel and I've beaten him in everything. He has scored many goals, but that's why he won the Pichichi." For anyone pricing either player in Ballon d'Or markets, that framing matters: Yamal is separating goal volume from overall influence, and making the case that his contributions win trophies in a way the numbers alone don't capture.
Unsatisfied after a World Cup win — and already thinking about the next one
Here's what actually stood out beyond the headline quotes: Yamal said he wasn't happy after winning the World Cup. Not because of the injury that cut his tournament short, but because he knew he hadn't performed to his own standard.
"I know another player with my performance would have had a great World Cup, but I could have done more. I'm eager for the next one."
That's a genuinely unusual thing for a teenager to say after lifting a World Cup. Most players at that age would have been content to bathe in it. Yamal was already filing it away as unfinished business.
On racism, he was equally direct. He's experienced it "a thousand times" — indirect comments, looks, the Bernabéu incident where someone called him a racial slur mid-match. His response was to keep playing. "That person calling me 'negro' won't bother me at all. It's wrong, but I'm not going to stop playing a match people paid to see me because I'm angry." He wants the punishments to be harsher. He just refuses to let it break his focus.
- On PSG as the team to beat this season: "It's very difficult to win after you've already won. That's the hardest thing."
- On the Champions League obsession at Barça: "It would be cowardly to only aim for LaLiga."
- On his future position: "You will never see the 16-year-old Lamine stuck to the wing. The closer I get to the box, the more dangerous I'll be."
- On ego: "A well-controlled ego helps the whole team. I always want teammates who think they are the best."
At 17, Yamal is already operating with a level of self-awareness that most footballers spend a decade trying to develop. He knows what he is, knows what he isn't yet, and seems completely unbothered by either. "I'm calm because I know I can give more."
Hard to argue with the logic when you've already got a Euros and a World Cup medal before you're old enough to vote.
