Ballon d'Or Contenders: Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé Lead the Charge
Forty-one days. That is all that separates football from its next Ballon d'Or verdict, yet the debate is already raging like it’s the eve of the gala.
The front pages have made their choice: it’s award season.
Lamine, Mbappé and the early ballot
AS and L'Équipe step straight into the fire, splashing candidates across their covers. Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé sit front and centre, the headline acts in a race that refuses to wait for the final whistle on the year.
Around them, the supporting cast is heavyweight. Harry Kane, Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and even Lionel Messi are all pushed into the frame, a mix of goals, control, elegance and legacy bundled into one early shortlist.
In Barcelona, the tone changes slightly but the message does not. Mundo Deportivo and Sport both lead with interviews — Rodri on one side, Gabriel Jesus on the other — yet when the subject turns to the Ballon d'Or, the Catalan press closes ranks.
Lamine Yamal does not hide. He says he deserves the Ballon d'Or. Gabriel Jesus, newly arrived and already tuned into the local frequency, backs him. It is bold. It is partisan. It is exactly what you expect from a city that treats this trophy like a local matter.
Mourinho, penalties and a familiar smirk
While awards chatter fills the kiosks, José Mourinho lands in Elche with the attack purring and the old edge sharpened.
The BMV — his forward line in full flow — arrives firing, and so does the manager. Marca picks up the quote that instantly cuts through the noise: “No questions about the penalties? Strange, isn’t it?”
Classic Mourinho. A result, a performance, and yet he drags the spotlight back onto refereeing, pressure and narrative. Even on a day dominated by Ballon d'Or talk, he finds a way to wedge his story into the headlines.
Unbeaten giants and English fury
Beyond the Ballon d'Or boards and Mourinho’s barbs, the rest of Europe is hardly quiet.
In Italy, Inter and Roma head into a huge Saturday clash still unbeaten. It is the kind of meeting that can bend a season, and the local papers treat it that way — not as a routine fixture, but as a marker of who really intends to run the show.
Across the Channel, the noise is different. England is locked in another refereeing storm, VAR once again at the centre, with Howard Webb dragged into the debate. The fallout from the Manchester derby refuses to die down, feeding back-page columns and phone-ins alike. Every frame, every freeze, every decision is being pulled apart.
The technology was meant to calm things. Instead, it has become the weekly villain.
A bold move in Valencia
To round it off, one of the most striking headlines comes from Superdeporte. Not a player. Not a coach. A sporting director.
Braulio Vázquez is leaving Osasuna to take charge of Valencia’s sporting operations, a move that feels as surprising as it is significant. A club stuck in a spiral has handed the keys of its football project to a man known for method and structure.
The question writes itself: can Braulio convince Valverde to come and breathe life into a Valencia side described as abysmal? If he pulls that off and turns the club around, they might not just thank him at Mestalla.
They might start measuring up space for a statue.
