A few days after the Ballon d’Or gala, France Football shared the full voting details from the Theatre du Chatelet ceremony. Ousmane Dembele and Aitana Bonmati won the main Ballon d’Or awards. Lamine Yamal and Vicky Lopez picked up the Kopa Trophy prizes for best young players in men’s and women’s football.
The voting breakdown revealed just how dominant Lamine was in the Kopa Trophy race.
Lamine Yamal Dominates the Vote
As reported overnight, Lamine lost to Dembele in the Ballon d’Or race by a margin of 321 votes. But in the Kopa Trophy, he had almost total support.
Unlike the Ballon d’Or, which is decided by 100 journalists from FIFA’s top-ranked nations, the Kopa Trophy is voted on by past Ballon d’Or winners. A total of 27 players took part. This included modern winners like Rodri, Karim Benzema, Lionel Messi, and Luka Modric, along with past legends such as Gianni Rivera, Oleg Blokhin, Allan Simonsen, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Out of 27 voters, 24 put Lamine in first place. The only exceptions were Roberto Baggio, Ruud Gullit, and Pavel Nedved. Baggio voted for Desire Doue, Joao Neves, and Lamine in third. Gullit did not include him in his Top 3. Nedved placed him second.
Everyone else voted the 18-year-old winger first. Lionel Messi put Lamine first and teammate Pau Cubarsi third. Club icons Hristo Stoichkov, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho all gave him first place.
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Real Madrid legends Zinedine Zidane, Kaka, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, and Luis Figo also ranked Lamine first. Other winners, including Rivera, Blokhin, Simonsen, Rummenigge, Igor Belanov, Marco van Basten, Lothar Matthaus, Jean-Pierre Papin, George Weah, Matthias Sammer, Michael Owen, Andriy Shevchenko, Fabio Cannavaro, and Rodri, also voted for him.
Only three past winners did not take part: Kevin Keegan, Michel Platini, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the end, Lamine earned 124 points out of a maximum 135. Last year, in 2024, he won the Kopa Trophy with 113 points.
Do you also want me to create a quick region-wise summary of who voted for him (like Barca legends, Real legends, others) for easy reading?
