“If Mbappé and I didn’t talk, people would wonder why we weren’t. We’re asked to be sincere, but when we are, we get criticised,” Yamal said in a Spanish television interview published this week.

The 19-year-old added that he had said clearly what he thought and did not regret doing so.

His defence went out of its way to bracket Mbappé alongside him, framing the criticism as one aimed at both players rather than a personal defence.

Abelardo’s rebuke and the Messi comparison

The most pointed of those critics was Abelardo Fernandez, the former Barcelona and Spain defender. Speaking to Spanish radio programme El Larguero, Abelardo told the show that Yamal’s declaration had crossed a line.

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“You’re not conveying anything positive in that regard,” he said of Yamal’s Ballon d’Or claim.

“You can think that, but you shouldn’t say it. I don’t think so, because it makes you look bad.”

Abelardo reached for Lionel Messi as the counterweight.

“I’ve never heard Messi, who has been the god of football, say that,” he said.

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The criticism was not aimed at Yamal alone. Abelardo said he had disliked Mbappé’s own recent Ballon d’Or comments in equal measure, and that was the pairing Yamal picked up on when he answered back.

The case Yamal is making

Yamal’s argument for the award leans less on the goal chart than on impact. In a separate interview, he described himself as a distinctive kind of forward rather than the tournament’s top scorer.

“Being the best player, the one you enjoy watching the most, and being a step above the rest. That is what sets me apart,” he said.

His earlier stance had been that he would not lobby publicly at all.

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“I don’t think I need to advertise myself. Everyone can think what they want. I won’t beg for anything,” he said earlier this month.

That line has shifted. Silence, as he now argues, would bring its own set of questions.

A date in London

The 2026 Ballon d’Or is scheduled by UEFA and France Football for 26 October at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the ceremony’s usual Paris home, with the venue and date confirmed on the UEFA-hosted announcement page cited above.

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