FC Barcelona player Lamine Yamal gave an interview to AS from the Spanish national team’s training camp.
He is the second highest-ranked player in terms of attacking performance, according to the CIES Football Observatory: “It doesn’t speak to me because I don’t like statistics. You can get past ten opponents, give the ball to someone else, and still not get anything out of it. I prefer to look at the match as a whole and analyze each player, their overall contribution to the team. Statistics don’t reflect football as it is.”
The Real-Barça duel could be epic in La Liga, how will it end? “I think it will go in favor of whoever fails the least. Barça and Madrid are world-class teams, we don’t drop many points, and we’re in a good period. I think the Clasico in May, at Montjuïc, will be very important… just like the match we played on Sunday at the Metropolitano against Atlético. But championships are sometimes decided by games that get away from you without you expecting them. That happened to us in December, against Betis and Leganés. If we had won them, we would have a good advantage. That’s why the Clasico at Montjuïc could be decisive in this championship.”
There’s also the Champions League: would you like a Real Madrid-Barça final on May 31 in Munich? It would be a first in history… “As long as Barça is in the final, I don’t care about the rival, but if it’s Real Madrid, it would be even more special. It would be something unique that we would all really appreciate.”
Would you say then that Real Madrid is the rival to beat? “In the end, it’s almost always Barça-Real Madrid. Atlético is difficult to beat, and I don’t consider them dead in La Liga, far from it. But in the end, it’s always Madrid and Barça, who are also in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. So I think that in the end, Real Madrid will be the team to beat.”
Do you understand former players when they complain about the schedule? “We young players just want to play and have fun, and we don’t have anything else on our minds. Football, besides being our job, is what we love doing the most. I have no complaints.”
You’ve already won the Golden Boy, when will you win the Ballon d’Or? “First of all, Barça has to win titles and the rest will follow. It’s something that usually comes with team titles, and that’s what I’m most excited about.”
The other day, Artificial Intelligence made a projection of the next 20 Ballon d’Or winners. The AI awarded you the 2029 Ballon d’Or with Barça. It then announced that you’ll win it two more times, in 2035 and 2037… with Real Madrid! Any comments on that? “As for 2029, I hope to win it before then, because that would mean I’ve won the Champions League with Barça and the World Cup with Spain, which are my two big dreams. As for the other thing the artificial intelligence says, well, it’s wrong. It’s got it all wrong.”
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