- Lamine Yamal made headlines at Monday night’s Ballon d’Or ceremony in London, sharing the spotlight with Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane
- The Barcelona and Spain star also secured third place in the main rankings, further cementing his growing reputation in world football
- At just 19, Yamal achieved a remarkable milestone in the awards’ history, adding to his impressive collection of individual accolades
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Monday night's Ballon d'Or ceremony in London belonged to Harry Kane in the headline act, but Lamine Yamal walked away with a piece of history all his own.
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The biggest prize of the evening went to Bayern Munich's Harry Kane, who became the first English player to lift the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen claimed it in 2001, a wait of 25 years.
Kane's staggering 2025-26 season, which included 61 goals for Bayern Munich and roughly 73 across all competitions for club and country, proved impossible for voters to overlook. He also picked up the Gerd Müller Trophy as the season's leading scorer.
Kane edged Mbappé into second, with Yamal completing the top three. Yet for all the attention Kane's long-overdue individual honour attracted, Yamal's achievement carried considerable weight of its own.
What history did Yamal make at Ballon d’Or?
At just 19, the Barcelona and Spain forward became the first player ever to win the Men's Young Talent of the Year award three times in a row, completing the hat-trick at the 70th edition of the prestigious event.
He also claimed third place in the main Ballon d'Or standings, finishing behind Kane and Kylian Mbappé on the podium.
The Barcelona academy graduate first claimed the Young Talent award at 17, following Spain's triumph at Euro 2024.
He defended it at 18 after helping Barcelona to a domestic treble. Now, at 19, he has secured it a third time on the back of a central role in Spain's 2026 World Cup victory.
His numbers across the 2025-26 season tell the story clearly: approximately 24 goals and 18 assists across 45 appearances for Barcelona, complemented by his contributions to the Spanish national side's World Cup run.
In the under-21 category vote, he finished comfortably clear of his Barcelona teammate Pau Cubarsí.
What makes the achievement particularly striking is the consistency across three successive Ballon d'Or cycles, all before his 20th birthday.
Analysts have already drawn comparisons to the early-career trajectories of players such as Mbappé and Wayne Rooney, noting that Yamal has matched or surpassed both in terms of sustained recognition at this stage of a career.
His back-to-back-to-back Young Talent wins set a benchmark in the award's history that few, if any, future players are likely to reach. Whether the main Ballon d'Or itself follows in the coming years remains to be seen, but the foundations are unmistakably in place.
Source: TUKO.co.ke