00:00The Ballon d'Or is in danger of becoming a complete farce, if it isn't already.
00:04The Lamin-Yamal and Kylian Mbappe PR tours for this year's edition have been embarrassing.
00:09Yamal taking digs at Harry Kane's literally historic Bayern season.
00:13Mbappe saying he would dedicate his award to Africa in an attempt to win some votes.
00:17Why am I seeing Fabian Ruiz saying he should be in with a chance because he
00:21won every trophy this season? What are we doing here?
00:25Kane is still the favourite, just, but the relentless push from Yamal in particular
00:29is starting to shift voters, and if he does end up winning it, it will be a farce.
00:34Is Yamal better than Kane as a footballer? Quite possibly. Is he the best player in the world?
00:38Maybe, but Yamal had a good club season that he missed chunks off through injury,
00:43and then had, let's be honest, a disappointing World Cup.
00:46Yamal will 100% win the Ballon d'Or at some point in his career.
00:50He is a generational talent with the world at his feet, and he doesn't need to be literally
00:54begging the media to vote for him every day. This is no longer an award for the best player
00:58in the world. I think Lionel Messi being that, undisputedly, for so long, maybe shifted the
01:04award's purpose. How can we give these other, clearly inferior players a chance to win the award?
01:09Messi can't win it every year from 2008 to 2023, can he? Well, this shift has been damaging.
01:15Storylines matter, of course they do, but when a player has been so clearly better than another
01:20across a season, that should take precedence. Harry Kane had a better season than anyone on the
01:25planet last season. The award should be his.
