Lamine Yamal’s father has slammed Ballon d’Or chiefs for snubbing his son and handing the prestigious prize to Ousmane Dembele. The PSG forward won the award for the first time after helping the French giants to win the Champions League last season. Yamal finished in second place, having enjoyed a stellar campaign with Barcelona.
Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, seemed to accept defeat after the ceremony by telling media outside the venue that ‘next year it will be ours’. However, in a separate interview with Spanish outlet El Chiringuito, he appeared to suggest that an injustice had been carried out. He claimed that ‘something strange’ must have happened for Yamal not to win the Ballon d’Or last night.
“I wouldn’t say [it was a] robbery, but a moral prejudice to a human being because I think Lamine Yamal is the best player in the world by far, by very far,” said Nasraoui.
“It isn’t because he is my son that he is the best player in the world; he doesn’t have a rival. It’s Lamine Yamal. Something very strange happened here.”
Meanwhile, it has been revealed by France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia that Dembele won the Ballon d’Or by a considerable margin, with nobody else coming close to securing top spot in the voting.
“There wasn’t really a contest, Ousmane won it quite comfortably,” he said, before adding that voting on all continents was heavily in favour of the Frenchman. The full voting breakdown will be published by France Football this weekend.
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