Bayern’s English forward Harry Kane and Barcelona’s Spanish forward Lamine Yamal pose on stage during the 2024 Ballon d’Or France Football award ceremony at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on October 28, 2024. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)
CSmith1919 Chuck Smith is the site manager for Bavarian Football Works, where he began writing in 2017. He is the author of The Daily Schmankerl, the longest-running daily Bayern Munich column in English, and also writes The Weekend Warm-Up. In addition to covering Bayern Munich news and providing commentary on Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga, and the German national team. He brings more than 30 years of sports-writing experience to the site. Over the course of his career, he has written for numerous newspapers and websites.
FC Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal has really been trying to sell himself for the Ballon d’Or of late and has been skirting the line of dismissing the merits of Bayern Munich star Harry Kane.
However, Yamal’s most recent statements seem to take away any idea that the World Cup winner is simply being confident. Yamal appears to throw some shade at the Englishman in hopes of making himself look better.
”I think the Ballon d’Or should go to the best player in the world, period. Not to a player who’s scored 80 goals, because when you score 80 goals, you get the ‘top scorer’ award for that. These are very different things that people aren’t understanding. The best player in the world is the one that, as a commentator, you’re watching a game and enjoying - you see him and think, ‘He’s a player who is very different from everyone else.’ When the award goes to the best, not the one who scores the most goals or the one who has won the most titles, then it will regain its true value,” Yamal told Movistar Plus Deportes (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).
Hmmm... is this still confidence, or has it shifted to arrogance? Or worse, is Yamal ready to mount one of those stupid political ads in an attempt to make his opponents, specifically Kane, look bad or at least less worthy?
The confidence-versus-arrogance issue still might be tough for some to decide.
One thing is certain, though, it is petty.
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