"Lamine Yamal Was Not in That Class": Ghana's Ballon d'Or Juror Defends Decision to Snub Barca Star
- Ghanaian journalist Michael Oti-Adjei ranked Kylian Mbappé first and Harry Kane second in his 2026 Ballon d'Or ballot
- Oti-Adjei questioned how decisive Lamine Yamal was to Spain's World Cup triumph, despite the teenager finishing third in the final count
- The Ghana juror used Fabian Ruiz as a reference point to argue that team success alone does not define the world's best player
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Ghanaian sports broadcaster Michael Oti-Adjei has publicly defended his 2026 Ballon d'Or voting choices, rejecting the notion that Lamine Yamal deserved to rank above Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane in his assessment of the season's best players.
Oti-Adjei served as Ghana's representative on the panel of journalists tasked with selecting the Ballon d'Or, one of football's most prestigious individual honours.
In his final ballot, he placed Mbappé first, Kane second and the Barcelona teenager Yamal third.
Source: Getty Images
Oti-Adjei's case against Lamine Yamal
The Ghanaian juror was unequivocal in his reasoning.
"At no point did I consider Lamine Yamal as the best player in the world in the season under consideration. It was very clear in my mind that between Kane and Mbappe, Yamal was not in that class yet," he said, as quoted by 3news.
A central part of his argument concerned Spain's triumph at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
While Yamal was part of the winning squad, Oti-Adjei maintained that collective glory should not be conflated with individual excellence and suggested the teenager himself would acknowledge his limitations in that regard.
"Spain won the World Cup all right, but even Yamal himself would admit that he was not the most decisive factor in that," he said.
Watch Oti-Adjei's explainer, as shared on X:
Fabian Ruiz as the counterpoint
To reinforce his position, Oti-Adjei pointed to Spain midfielder Fabian Ruiz, who featured prominently for La Roja and Paris Saint-Germain during the campaign period.
The juror argued that Ruiz's involvement in winning teams did not place him anywhere near the top of the individual rankings.
"If that was the case, then Fabian Ruiz would have been the best player in the world. I didn't even put him in the top 10 because Fabian Ruiz was a good team member of three very functional teams. It doesn't make him the most outstanding player in the world," he explained.
Yamal, who has grown into one of Barcelona's most prominent figures at a remarkably young age, ultimately finished third in the overall Ballon d'Or standings, behind Mbappé and eventual winner Kane.
Oti-Adjei's comments bring into focus the inherently subjective process behind Ballon d'Or voting, where jury members weigh individual brilliance against team achievement differently, often arriving at sharply contrasting conclusions.
Why Spain's juror also snubbed Yamal
YEN.com.gh also reported that Spanish juror José Félix Díaz has defended his decision to place Kylian Mbappé above Lamine Yamal in his 2026 Ballon d’Or voting.
He argued that the French forward maintained a higher and more consistent individual level throughout the 2025/26 season, despite Spain’s World Cup triumph.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
