Lamine Yamal insists award he won at Ballon d'Or ceremony should have gone to team-mate originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Lamine Yamal may not have won the big award at the 2026 Ballon d'Or award ceremony in London on Monday night, but he was still brought up to the podium to accept a different trophy.
The 19-year-old sensation won his third straight Kopa Trophy, also known as the Men's Best Young Player award. While he was believed to be amongst the favorites to win the Ballon d'Or itself that year, the Kopa Trophy was a signal that his exploits were worthy of recognition no matter how the vote played out later on.
Only those 21 years old and younger are eligible to win the trophy, but the same player can win it multiple times before they are no longer of an eligible age.
However, when the Barcelona sensation went up on stage to accept his trophy, he expressed his disappointment that someone different wasn't up at that podium to accept the award.
MORE:A full overview of the 2026 Ballon d'Or award ceremony, including all results
Lamine Yamal says Kopa Trophy should have gone to Pau Cubarsi
When accepting his third Kopa Trophy for the best young player, Lamine Yamal made it clear that he felt someone else deserved the award.
His teammate, fellow 19-year-old La Masia graduate Pau Cubarsi, was also nominated for the Kopa Trophy this year, but did not win. According to Lamine, he felt that the young defender should have been up there at the podium instead.
"I would have liked to see my teammate [Pau] Cubarsi here because I think this prize should have been for him. He has been playing at an excellent level for some time. This is my third year up here for this prize. I would like to thank my club and my national team.
"Speaking about this one specifically, this one should have been for Cubarsi."
Why didn't Pau Cubarsi win the Kopa Trophy?
At the end of the day, while Cubarsi did absolutely have an unbelievable season, there was no beating Lamine Yamal for the Kopa Trophy.
Lamine was truly sensational for Barcelona, doing just about everything for Barcelona — not just goal scoring, but also creativity, ball progression, dribbling, and much more.
Cubarsi has been a rock at the back for Barcelona for a while now, but playing in a high line under Hansi Flick, the defensive numbers they put up at the Camp Nou didn't stack up to the best defenses in the world, and thus it wasn't quite enough.
Even as Cubarsi played every minute for Spain at the World Cup, Lamine being his international teammate and also winning the FIFA title meant there was no way to separate them in this way.