Raphinha is scoring at a pace no player in Europe can currently match, and he is not on the 30-man shortlist France Football will send to its 100 voting journalists for the 2026 Ballon d’Or. He has decided who he would vote for regardless: Lamine Yamal.
Asked in an interview with The Guardian and La Gazzetta dello Sport whether the 19-year-old should walk away with the biggest individual prize in football, the Brazil forward’s answer was blunt.
“Without a doubt, yes.”
Raphinha rested his argument on trophies, statistics and what he called the magic Yamal has on the pitch.
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“For me, there’s no doubt about it: he has to win the award, no matter what. Even if I wasn’t his teammate, I would say that he deserves it.”
The hat-trick captain who is not on the list
Raphinha spent Saturday scoring three at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán with his right foot, his head and his left foot, dragging Barcelona past Sevilla 3-1. It was his second treble in four days, after a seven-goal Barcelona rout of Racing Santander in midweek.
He now has 12 league goals and three assists in seven LaLiga games, matching Karim Benzema’s 2021-22 record for the most goal contributions to open a season this century. Hansi Flick called him “the best captain we could have”.
None of that reached the voters. The shortlist is drawn from the 2025-26 season, when repeated hamstring problems kept Raphinha out of 24 matches for club and country, including Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final against Atlético Madrid and most of El Clásico. He has said the decision was unfair.
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Yamal at the heart of the run
Yamal, 19, played the full 90 minutes at the Sánchez-Pizjuán and set up Raphinha’s second and third goals. Through the opening weeks of the season he has been Hansi Flick’s most-used player by minutes.
“Lamine has spectacular numbers, not only last season but other seasons as well. And this season has also started spectacularly. From three titles last season, he has won two with Barcelona and the World Cup with his national team.”
Yamal played in Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina at MetLife Stadium on 19 July, sealed by Ferran Torres’s extra-time goal.
Kane and Yamal lead the market
The 100-journalist vote closes ahead of the ceremony at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October, the first time the Ballon d’Or gala has been held in London. The city was chosen to mark the inaugural 1956 winner, Stanley Matthews.
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Harry Kane and Lamine Yamal lead the bookmakers’ market after Kane’s heavy-scoring campaign at Bayern Munich and Yamal’s World Cup with Spain, with Kylian Mbappé the next name near the top. Ousmane Dembélé, the 2025 winner, is on the list to defend the trophy.
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