An initial list of 16 guests. Three possible celebration scenarios (or not) depending on the result. And a return flight to Barcelona scheduled for Tuesday. Whatever happens this Monday at the 70th Ballon d'Or gala, Lamine Yamal will sleep in London.
His people will accompany him, those that he himself has included in that list and who will travel on a private plane, apart from that of the FC Barcelona delegation. Almost everyone Lamine wants will be there: his mother, Sheila Ebana; his brother, Keyne; his stepfathers; four people from his work team; his soul friends Moha, who is also his cousin, and Soha; his partner, Inés García; his other three cousins from Rocafonda, and his father, Mounir, who had stopped traveling to games after a period of much media exposure. Mounir also did not travel to the United States for the World Cup.
In London the only ones missing will be his paternal grandmother, Fátima, 73, who will stay in Mataró, and Abdul, Lamine's uncle, who will remain with his mother in the family apartment that Lamine bought for them in his native Rocafonda. The grandmother asked her to continue living in the neighborhood, surrounded by the people she has known all her life.
Fatima is one of those who cooks every day for her other three grandchildren, Abdul's children. Meanwhile, Moha, the eldest, when he is not with Lamine, eats at Bar Familia LY 304, opened in October 2024. Abdul and his wife work there every day.
They haven't seen Lamine for days because, together with Fátima, they traveled to Morocco all summer and returned just a month ago. "And Lamine went to the World Cup and now he has played many games away from home. But we spoke on the phone and we will see each other in the classic and we will also wish him luck for the Ballon d'Or," says Abdul behind the bar counter, while serving breakfast and lunch to the neighbors and friends of the neighborhood, who ask him about his feelings after the defeat against PSG. Abdul, who was upset with the 4-2 score, has already changed his game. He is one of those who believe that the defeat at the Parc des Princes will further encourage Flick's team to win the classic, which they plan to arrive on time.
And there will be a family reunion at the Camp Nou. Fátima will also attend the reunion which, in addition to allowing her to see Lamine, will help her and her paternal family - except for Mounir, who knows her - to share with Inés García, the player's partner since this summer, with whom he already lives in the house that Barça's number 10 bought and which was owned by Shakira and Gerard Piqué. As Inés, a content creator who has close to five million followers after going viral at the World Cup, says, the family has grown with the arrival of two golden retriever puppies, Coco and Copito, who have already given them some busy nights.
Last year Lamine came second, after Dembélé. And now his circle and also in Barcelona believe that the 10 deserves to win this Ballon d'Or. The reasons are several: beyond the titles won in 2026, with the World Cup with Spain and the League and the Super Cup with Barcelona, "Lamine is one of those players who makes you pay for tickets, who makes you get up from your chair," they defend.
Still, there is uncertainty. Because everything indicates that Lamine will win for the third consecutive year the award for the best young talent of 2026, an award for which Pau Cubarsí is also competing. And never, since the creation of this category in 2018, has the best young person also won the Ballon d'Or. It is true that no strong candidate to win the coveted award was 19 years old like Lamine.
In any case, if he wins the Ballon d'Or, he will break another record for precocity and become the youngest player in history to achieve it. Today, the ranking is led by Ronaldo Nazário, who received the award in 1997 when he was just 21 years and three months old when he played for Inter Milan. The second is Michael Owen, who raised it in 2001 at the age of 22 years and four days, when he played for Liverpool. The third is Leo Messi, who is also nominated and, if he wins, it would be the ninth of his career. Messi was 22 years and five months old when he won the first, in 2009.
In Lamine's inner circle they value Messi's World Cup, which led Argentina, at 39 years old, to the final. And they believe it has a lot of merit: Messi is one of those players who makes an impact. And they remember when he won his second Ballon d'Or, in 2010, after Spain became world champion and with Xavi and Iniesta also nominated in one of the most debated awards in history.
Now they fear something similar will happen. Not with Messi, but with the Englishman Harry Kane: 73 goals, the Bundesliga and the German Cup with Bayern and six World Cup goals support his candidacy. And the gala is held in London. "But he didn't win the Champions League or the World Cup. Nor did Mbappé," they remember. Although they do recognize, among them Lamine himself, that the Frenchman, Real Madrid forward and all-time top scorer in the men's World Cups with 22 goals, creates a spectacle. Like 10 Rocafonda.
Lamine really wants to win the Ballon d'Or. And the club, although it has Cubarsí and Rodri also nominated, has dedicated itself to its number 10, like the rest of the locker room. The strategy began with the press conference prior to Feyenoord in the Champions League. He continued with Lamine's interview with Universo Valdano in which he launched a forceful “this year I deserve the Ballon d'Or.” A phrase that his closest environment links to the footballer's personality. "He is not Messi. He is Lamine, a mix between the footballer Neymar and Maradona, who always said what he thought," they point out.
The 10 has an overwhelming personality. He likes people around him to work and has his mother, Sheila, – now also a content creator – on a pedestal for everything she did for him during his childhood. And, in terms of conflicts, he will always be on the side of the weak, as he demonstrated by taking the Palestinian flag on the Barça celebration street. I knew that this was going to cause a lot of trouble. And yet, he uploaded the snapshot to an Instagram carousel.
The golden media campaign continued with the support of Joan Laporta: “I would be very happy if Lamine wins it,” he said. And in the locker room there are no doubts. The last to join has been Hansi Flick, who praises him more than before in the press conferences and Lamine appreciates it. The German coach, who is not nominated, will not fly to London with the Blaugrana delegation led by Laporta.
