Lamine Yamal has reportedly prepared a party fit for a prince as he banks on winning the Ballon d’Or tonight.
The Barcelona star, 18, is said to have booked out a snazzy space in Paris to host a mighty Ballon d’Or bash with his near and dear.
He is one of the favourites for football’s top gong alongside Ousmane Dembele, Mohamed Salah, Raphinha, and Vitinha.
And he is expected to rock up at the Theatre du Chatelet with an entourage of 20 people, mostly family members, all decked out in Dolce & Gabbana gear, according to Mundo Deportivo via beIN Sports.
His father, Mounir Nasraoui, reportedly arrived early to make sure that every aspect of the party is on point for his precocious son.
Yamal could become the youngest Ballon d’Or winner ever, smashing the record held by Ronaldo Nazario, who claimed the prize at 21 in 1997.
Gary Lineker, Rio Ferdinand, and Ronaldinho, who will present the prize, are just some of the bejeweled names to heap praise on the Spanish youngster.
And he certainly has a strong case after a shining 2024-25 season which saw him score 18 goals and notch 25 assists, helping Barca to a domestic treble.
It is testament to his mental resilience as on the eve of the LaLiga season last year, his father was left fighting for his life in hospital after being stabbed mutliple times while walking his dog.
But Yamal and his family have overcome that tragedy to write one of football’s most exciting stories and his performances against Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-finals, which Barcelona ultimately lost in dramatic fashion, showed his audacious talent and maturity on the game’s biggest stages.
However, he faces stiff competition from Dembele, 28, who unexpectedly produced the best season of his career to fire Paris Saint-Germain to their first Champions League title and a domestic treble.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Dembele scored 35 goals and set up a further 16 – almost as many goal contributions as his previous three seasons combined.
In a remarkable spree between December and March, the Frenchman smashed in 24 goals and bolstered his case for the Ballon d’Or.
Salah, while not the favourite, is also in the reckoning after having a better individual season than Dembele with 34 goals and 23 assists.
In a phenomenal campaign the 33-year-old broke 11 records, including registering a record 47 goal contributions (29 goals, 18 assists) in a Premier League season.
While he won the Premier League, his case might fall short due to the fact that Liverpool were knocked out of the last 16 in the Champions League and won neither the FA Cup nor the Carabao Cup.
Vincent Garcia, France Football’s editor-in-chief and reputedly the only man who knows who the winner is, explained that a melange of individual and team brilliance is significant.
‘I’m the only one who knows the Ballon d’Or winner,” he told Telefoot.
‘The criteria to win this award are clear: individual brilliance, decisive and unforgettable performances, trophies lifted, plus fair play and conduct on and off the pitch.’
An international jury of journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries determines the winner by vote.
Yamal dreams of winning ‘many’ Ballons d’Or, but he has a mountain to climb to achieve Lionel Messi’s tally of eight, or even Cristiano Ronaldo’s sum of five.
