Barcelona’s Biggest Mistake? The Truth About Lamine Yamal.

Barcelona’s Biggest Mistake? The Truth About Lamine Yamal.

 

So… listen to this… they say Lamine  Yamal should’ve won the Ballon D’Or, yet,   Lamine Yamal did not win the Champions League…  He did not win the club world cup… he did not   win the nations league… so, he must have been  the best player in each of those tournaments,   after all, it’s an individual award… Okay… so  who was La Liga’s MVP? That was Raphinha… the   Champions League’s MVP? That was Dembelé… sure,  but the Champions League’s Young Player Of The   Year? That was Desiré Doué… and, the cherry  on top… after going out of his way to hype up  

the Nations League to be the Ballon D’Or  decider, getting the entire world to stop   and hold their breaths as they watched those  two remaining games… surely he was the MVP   there, right?… no, that was Nuno Mendes…  precisely the player that was marking him…   Look, don’t get me wrong, I know people are  very passionate about him and for good reason   so it is inevitable that some will take this  video the wrong way and that’s why I wanna   to get into my rant by putting up one question:  In this digital age where more and more people  

are watching football on their phones, mostly  through twitter, tiktok highlights and sofascore…   how easy is it really to differentiate what  part of this excitement is real or raw… and   how much of it is fabricated, recontextualized  and polished before it gets to us? After all,   even Johan Cruyff himself wrote about a decade  ago that “Personally, I cannot take this award   s

eriously anymore, it’s a media circus… everybody  votes for their own man”… and if you doubt that   clubs, agents, even sportswear brands like Adidas  and Nike are going out of their way to influence   the voting behind closed doors, let me remind  you that, already in 2022, PSG was put under   investigation for literally trying to bribe Pascal  Ferre, the actual organizer of the Ballon D’Or,   not with money but with “various favours” and yes…  I can hear you already yelling at me that PSG is   Dembelé’s team not Yamal’s and… you’re right,  so right in fact that, less than a month ago,   Neal Gardner, interestingly the owner of one of  the biggest Barcelona fan accounts on twitter,  

received an email by a company describing  themselves as “next gen marketing and advertising   powerhouse, redefining brand story telling”  asking him to make a series of tweets in favour of   Dembelé’s run to the Ballon D’Or, even asking him  to “treat this with the utmost confidentiality”…   They’re so unashamed about it, that when he  exposed everything… they literally blamed   it on the internet… I am not joking…  but again, if you think this is only   happening with Dembelé, I got bad news for you… Though no concrete evidence has ever come out,  

there have repeatedly been claims that even  Fabrizio Romano, probably the most famous football   journalist on the planet right now, has been part  of some kind of campaign in Yamal’s favour… I   mean, come on, the guy has tweeted, from my count,  at least 140 times about Yamal… Dembelé has been   ranked number one by every betting house for a  while and, still, since the start of August not   only has he tweeted more about Yamal than  him, but 40% of the times he tweeted out   Dembelé’s name, it was because he was actually  still tweeting about Yamal… his marketing is just  

on whole other level from every other football,  I mean, let’s just check Tiktok for a second:    Yeah, no wonder the cult of Yamal is growing at  record speeds, as much as it has been unbelievable   to witness his talents grow these past 2  years, we have to be honest with ourselves,   as much as I don’t think we are overhyping  at all because the potential is there,   even overrating may not be the right word…  but I feel like, at the current moment, we   are overcrediting him… looking to over… rewarding  him? Listen, let’s get back to that Ballon D’Or,  

Yamal vs Dembelé, who had the best year? Yamal hit 39 goal contributions in 55 matches,   but that number was never the point… the  real deal was how he got there… first of all,   doing everything with such ease, such class on the  pitch, being easily one of the most mesmerizing   player on the planet even if, I must say, we  should always be careful not to value aesthetics   over function when it comes to these awards…  though, on the other hand, he did save some of his   best moments for the very best of matches, scoring  in 3 out of the 4 El Classico’s he played and then  

getting two assists in the one that remained,  precisely in the Copa Del Rey final, as well as   that wonderful goal against the Netherlands and,  above all, a goal in every knockout round of the   Champions League, culminating in that phenomenal  performance vs Inter, in a semi final that many   have called the greatest ever, just phenomenal…  but, wait a second, what about Dembelé? Though   much more focused on the sheer volume of his  numbers, 49 goal contributions in 53 matches,   even though he was much more frequently subbed  in and out, leading to a goal contribution  

frequency of 1.27 per 90, compared to Yamal’s  0.66… this man took center stage in, by far,   the most historic season of one of the biggest  clubs in Europe… there is no way anyone will   ever be able to go back to this season and not  see Dembelé scoring… come on, 2 goals in the   play offs, then the only one against Liverpool,  2 assists in the quarters, a goal and an assist   versus Arsenal who defeated the reigning Champions  and 2 assists against the Inter that Yamal could   not beat in the final of a campaign for PSG’s  first ever Champions League title, as well as the  

french cup, the winning goal in the supercup, the  league title as the top scorer and goals against   Bayern and Real on the way to the Club World Cup  final, the only one he lost… this is the kind of   thing football’s historic books are made of… and  not only did he do this, after Mbappé’s departure,   fulfilling the legacy that one of their greatest  of all time never could, not only did he do it   after revolutionizing his career by switching  into a new role mid season… after being deemed   a “wasted talent” for years… all in all,  providing just as much of an interesting  

or entertaining narrative as Yamal, but, man, he  was not boring… there should be some praise to his   aesthetic side too… watching defenders try to stop  him was hilarious, too fast, too ambidextrous,   too strong… but also with a silky touch? I don’t  know, it sounds like a pretty compelling argument   to me… wherever Dembelé went, he finished  the job… and that’s where I must go back   and finish talking about Yamal because, first,  as much as that Inter performance was amazing,   there has been this recurring idea that he was  “unlucky to be knocked out”, that having hit the  

woodwork three times in that game, he should get  a pass on not winning that trophy which just leads   me to question when did the Ballon D’Or become  a participation award? After all, this wasn’t a   rare occurrence in Yamal’s season, it’s time  we talk about the Nations League situation…   We all know what happened, with only the Nations  League remaining before the season was over… Yamal   and Dembelé got matched up in the semi final  and with the media hyping this as the Ballon   D’Or decider, which must be said, given the  downplayment of the Nations League in previous  

years, seemed like another marketing plot to  flip a script that already seemed settled… Yamal   joined the hype train, making a series of cryptic  social media posts, then claiming that “if people   want to decide it on Thursday, then let’s play”  before, in fact, scoring twice and taking the man   of the match to send Dembelé home… but, as much as  I appreciate his guts to go all-in in a situation   like that… then, in the final, he was a ghost of  himself, making sure that in the one final out   of the 3 big international tournaments of the  year that he did reach… he missed out on the  

trophy again… remember what I said early about the  history books of football? Well, the history books   tend to be written by those who won the battles… However, with all that said, there is still one   remaining argument in favour of Yamal that  seems inescapable… his age… but once again,   there’s an obvious reply as well… since when  has the Ballon D’Or become a youth trophy or   some kind of rookie award? I mean, isn’t that  what the Kopa Trophy is there for? Yamal has   just become the first ever player to win it twice  in a row despite him being young enough that he  

will still be in contention for it over the next  3 years, isn’t that an incredible achievement in   itself? Again, just because Yamal’s age makes  him more exciting, it doesn’t make him better,   it should have no effect whatsoever, positive  or negative, regarding the Ballon D’Or… and,   the one thing in all of this that truly grinds my  gears is how often the media circus around his age   as led people to get it wrong… the guy is already  18 and I guarantee you there will still be someone   in the comment section of this video getting at  me, claiming that “we have never seen a 16 year  

old like this” when, in reality, even all the way  back when he won the Euros, he was already 17…   I mean, sure, it isn’t his fault that his birthday  is so deceiving, coming right after the end of   the season… but that argument is just incredibly  overblown… It seems to me that the whole thing is   oddly related to people’s obsession with Ronaldo  and Messi, just the other day, I read an article   on a big newspaper calling him “the best 17 year  old ever, even better than Messi”… which makes  

no sense because, I hate to be the one to have  to say this but Ronaldo and Messi were nowhere   near the best teenage players the world has  seen… as incredible as they were, at age 17,   Ronaldo was putting down 8 goal contributions in  33 matches for Sporting and Messi was finishing   his season with only 9 games played and 1 goal  scored for Barça… that comparison makes no sense,   if you want some real ones than let me  remind you of a young Kylian Mbappé…   Back in 2016, Mbappé burst onto the scene, taking  over as Monaco’s star player in a matter of months  

and still younger than Yamal is right now, he  scored twice against Man City and 3 times against   Dortmund to put Monaco in the Champions League  semi finals, where he’d get another goal against   Juventus only to get knocked out regardless,  just as Yamal, except this was Monaco’s best   UCL campaign in 13 years and he had also put  down 37 goal contributions overall to beat PSG   to the league title, which only happened once  in the space of 8 years… and still, rightfully,   he only finished 7th at the end of the year…  even worse, the following one, he put down 44  

goal contributions, went out, won the World Cup,  scoring in the final and putting down one of the   greatest ever performances, scoring a brace to  knock out Messi’s Argentina… and still finished   4th… and, no, he is not the only one… I mean, in  2011, though he did turn 19 that year, Neymar put   down 33 goal contributions, went head to head with  Ronaldinho in the game of the century, won Santos   the first Libertadores since the times of Pelé and  even made it to the Club World Cup final and still  

didn’t even finish tenth… and remember… people  keep saying “greatest… ever”… that means that in   this discussion there should also be Ronaldo, the  actual phenomenon, who at 16, in the 1993 season,   scored against every single team he faced in the  league aside from Corinthians, even hitting 5 in   a single league game against Bahia, as well as  7 in 3 Libertadores matches, with a hat trick   on his debut… as well as, of course, Pelé who, at  17, scored a hat trick in the semis and a brace   in the final to win the World Cup, already on  top of a club season where he put down 84 goal  

contributions… but yeah… last year Yamal scored 7  goals and made 7 assists in 50 matches and we had   him at 8th place already… and don’t even bother  blaming the Euros because Nico Williams finished   15th but… we don’t even need to talk about these  all time greats, let’s look at Desiré Doué…   30 goal contributions for the season…  treble winner, man of the match in the   final of the Coupe De France, man of the match  in the Champions League final with 2 goals and an   assist, still only 19 years old… and if you look  at their stats… about the same per 90 numbers in  

goals and assists, despite shooting far less  than Yamal, creating at the same rate as well,   better in every aspect defensively and though  inferior in one on one situations, still elite,   an incredibly exciting player, at times, you could  almost mix him up with Neymar… all of this while   playing all across the pitch, still finding his  place in the team while Yamal was locked at right   winger… yet, he finished 14th with one fifth  of the votes Yamal got… last year… this one… he   got 14x more… you see, the thing about this is  that I could keep going… What about Raphinha?  

He was playing in the same club, won the same  trophies, same everything, far better numbers   with 56 goal contributions overall, 4 in the  Champions League’s last 16, 3 in the quarters,   2 in the semis, literally breaking Messi’s records  and yet, after actually ranking number one for the   Ballon D’Or in most betting houses for a while,  after that Inter game in which he was the one to   score the goal at the 88th minute that everyone  assumed would put them in the final… Raphinha   drops down to 5th while Yamal somehow goes  up? What about Olise? He finished dead last,  

even below Florian Wirtz, who was playing in  the same league as him while Olise had the   Bundesliga’s own social media calling his campaign  the best debut season in the league’s history,   with more goals and assists than any winger  in the top 5 leagues, nearly doubling Yamal’s   per 90 numbers, an absolutely ungodly scouting  report, outperforming Yamal in virtually any stat,   in fact, for a while if you searched up Yamal’s  report, not only would you see that Olise showed   up as the one player in the whole database who  was the most similar to him but you’d notice that,  

in reality, Yamal only tops the charts for one  of the major stats in the report… and it’s shots   total, which is hilarious considering there’s 130  players who’ve outscored him in the top 5 leagues,   including 37 year old Pedro Rodriguez and 36  year old Iago Aspas… even his take ons, which get   talked about so much by stats nerds, well… in that  aspect he stills ranks below Jeremy Doku, despite   attempting 115 take ons more than him… usage rates  have to be taken into account, what other players  

is playing within a system that provides him with  so many opportunities to shine in each and every   game… if the ball is always on you, you’re  bound to do something with it… you see, it’s   truly impossible to make sense of these awards  and I haven’t even gotten into the criteria…    Famously last year, despite being the Champions  League’s player of the season after taking home a   goal in the last 16, 2 assists in the quarters and  then closing it off with 2 goals in the semis and   another in the final, taking the Man Of The Match  award in both rounds, Vinicius Jr. ended up losing  

the Ballon D’Or to Rodri… supposedly, first,  because Rodri had won an international tournament   with his national team which, I guess, should mean  that either Vitinha or Nuno Mendes should be the   winners now, right? I mean, I haven’t seen such a  press resistant midfield maestro since Iniesta and   Mendes may genuinely be the best left back since  Marcelo… yeah, no, that didn’t happen because it   didn’t make any sense if you look any other  edition of the award ever… defensive players,   even central midfielders barely ever win… the  problem is that few players had worse marketing  

that Vini at the time… which, of course, leads me  to the second point when the organization itself   came out with a second justification, pointing to  the sign and claiming that aside from individual   performance and team achievements, class and  fair play are also part of the Ballon D’Or’s   criteria… which sounds ridiculous now, considering  that Lamine Yamal seemingly can never get away   from controversy, may it be the time he rushed  into the locker rooms after losing the Nations   League final, being spotted taking off his medal  before he was even in the tunnel or may it be his  

infamous birthday party that not only included  the hiring of dwarves as performers which is   literally illegal in Spain, but a birthday  cake with guns, money and poker chips as   ornaments… and that will be my final point… As I said in the beginning, we really need   players like Yamal if we hope not to be bored out  of our minds in this post Messi and Ronaldo era…   but seeing some of these actions, it’s hard not  to feel like he is taking the Neymar route… Now   he has the number 10 on his back and he may feel  immortal but he must be reminded of who he got  

it from… not Messi, but Ansu Fati… when Yamal  scored his first UCL goal, he was the second   youngest ever… because at one point, Ansu Fati  was doing it at an even younger age… in 2020,   having just turned 17, he finished his year with  a goal contribution every 110 minutes, a rate   higher than what Yamal achieved even now already  at 18… and then, it was all gone in a blip… and if   there’s one thing that can speed up that process  is to keep going that route, following the drama,   the celebrity lifestyle and the cheap trills…  and if there’s one other parallel with Neymar  

that scares me… well… he, too, had a father  who got way too involved and could not stay out   of his sons way… nevertheless, 2nd place in the  Ballon D’Or at 18 is an unbelievable achievement,   I just wish we could all enjoy this phenomenal  player without feeling like he’s being shoved   down our throats, after all, I’m sure he’ll  win it, if not this year maybe the next…