Lamine Yamal, the 19-year-old FC Barcelona forward, spoke about Ousmane Dembélé—the 29-year-old Paris Saint-Germain forward—in an interview with L’Équipe. The Spaniard praised the Parisian player’s Ballon d’Or win and cited PSG’s back-to-back Champions League titles as a benchmark for his own ambitions.
Yamal: “He deserved it”
“It was my second ceremony, and just being there with a chance to win against Ousmane was a dream come true for me. Well, in the end, he won, but I took it well. He deserved it; he’d had an incredible season, including his Champions League victory, and I was happy for him. (…) Did I feel frustrated? No, I see it as an achievement. I finished second at 18 years old. It also motivates me to push myself further.”
This compliment is all the more significant given that Yamal was one of Dembélé’s main rivals for the trophy. The Barcelona player does not dispute the result and directly links the Frenchman’s individual triumph to his season with PSG—specifically the Champions League victory. It serves as a reminder of just how much PSG’s collective success contributed to the recognition Dembélé received as an individual.
Yamal: “PSG won two in a row”
“I haven’t won the Champions League yet; I want to win it. If I win one—knowing that PSG won two in a row—I’ll want to win three in a row.”
The reference to PSG is far from trivial. To illustrate the extent of his Champions League ambitions, Yamal spontaneously points to Paris’s consecutive titles as a benchmark. The shift in the club’s European standing can also be gauged by statements like this: PSG is no longer merely cited as a contender for the trophy, but as a winning streak that an FC Barcelona player now dreams of surpassing.
