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CIES Crowns Lamine Yamal its 'Golden Ball' Winner, Leaves Ballon d’Or Favorite in the Dust

Originally posted on Total Apex Sports | By Fahad Hamid | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 9:32 AM ET

Just when you thought the football awards season couldn’t get any more dramatic, the CIES Football Observatory has decided to toss a statistical grenade into the mix. According to their number-crunching, Barcelona’s teenage sensation, Lamine Yamal, is the best footballer on the planet, awarding him their version of the “Golden Ball.” Yes, you read that correctly. The kid who still probably gets asked for ID at the cinema is, according to the data, outperforming everyone.

This bombshell places Real Madrid’s superstar Kylian Mbappe in the runner-up spot, which is a headline in itself. But the real kicker? Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele, the man widely tipped to hoist the actual, prestigious Ballon d’Or trophy, didn’t even crack the top five. He’s languishing down in seventh place. You can almost hear the collective gasp from Paris.

So, what’s going on here? Has CIES been watching a different sport, or have they unlocked a footballing matrix the rest of us are blind to? Let’s dive into this statistical rabbit hole.

How Did Yamal Beat the Ballon d’Or Favorite?

As the football world holds its breath for the official Ballon d’Or ceremony, where Dembele is the front-runner after a stellar season with PSG, CIES dropped its list of the top 100 players. This isn’t based on vibes, narratives, or how many journalists you can charm. It’s a cold, hard analysis of performance data across six key areas of the game. They factor in everything from on-field engagement to the sporting level of matches played.

According to this mountain of data, Yamal isn’t just a promising youngster; he’s the most consistently impactful player over the past year. He’s followed by Mbappe and his own Barcelona teammate, Pedri. The list gets even more bewildering for Dembele fans, as Virgil van Dijk, Michael Olise, and Mohamed Salah all rank ahead of him. It’s a brutal assessment that essentially calls the Ballon d’Or favorite a statistical afterthought. This feels less like a ranking and more like a public roast.

Is Data the Future or Just a Spoiler?

Now, before you start engraving Yamal’s name on every trophy in sight, it’s crucial to understand the difference here. The CIES analysis provides an objective, almost robotic, framework. It measures tangible outputs and efficiencies, stripping away all the emotional and narrative-driven elements that make football so captivating.

The Ballon d’Or, on the other hand, is a different beast entirely. It’s a vote. It considers those “unquantifiable” moments of magic, leadership under pressure, and whether you delivered on the biggest stages. That’s why, despite CIES basically handing Yamal a data-driven crown, Dembele remains the odds-on favorite to win the real prize in Paris tonight. His impact in decisive Champions League moments and his international recognition carry immense weight with the voters, something a spreadsheet can’t fully appreciate.

Think of it this way: CIES tells you who did the homework most efficiently all year, while the Ballon d’Or tells you who aced the final exam when everyone was watching. Both are impressive, but only one gets you the diploma that hangs on the wall.

What Does This Mean for Lamine Yamal?

For Lamine Yamal, this is a monumental, if slightly awkward, endorsement. At an age when most are just hoping to break into the first team, he’s being statistically anointed as the best in the world. It’s a testament to his freakish talent and the complete, all-around game he already possesses. He isn’t just a flashy winger; the data suggests he’s a highly efficient and impactful player across the board.

However, it also heaps a mountain of pressure on his young shoulders. Being labeled “better than Mbappe” by any metric is a heavy burden to carry. Barcelona now has the statistical proof to back up their claims that they have the next generational talent, but they also have the responsibility to manage his development so he can one day win the awards that are decided by votes, not just algorithms. For now, it’s a wild headline and a glimpse into a future that Lamine Yamal seems destined to dominate.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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