Flick praises Lamine Yamal's reaction to finishing third in Ballon d'Or voting

Finishing third in the Ballon d'Or race sounds like a letdown for anyone who arrives as a favorite. For Lamine Yamal, it seems to have been something else entirely: a lesson he chose to take in stride. At least that's how his coach, Hansi Flick, sees it, and he came out publicly to back the young winger after the ceremony.

The award was handed out last Monday at the London Palladium, and everything pointed to Yamal, just 19 years old, having a real shot at taking it home. That's not how it played out. The honor went to Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane, while Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe took second place. Yamal rounded out the podium in third.

There's something of a pattern here: last year, the Barcelona academy product was also left wanting, finishing behind Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele, who won the trophy that time. Two years, two runner-up type finishes for a player who hasn't even turned twenty yet. Standing near the top two years running is no small feat, even if the ultimate prize keeps slipping away.

What Flick chose to highlight wasn't the result itself, but how his player handled it. The German coach described it as a winner's reaction, someone who doesn't dwell on what he didn't get, but looks ahead instead.

Lamine Yamal reacted like a champion to missing out on the Ballon d'Or.Hansi Flick

And that detail matters, especially for a kid who's still building his career. For such a young player, the pressure of being tagged as "the next great Ballon d'Or winner" can weigh just as heavily as the vote itself. The fact that his coach is publicly praising the maturity with which he took third place says a lot about how Barcelona's locker room is managing the expectations surrounding him.

Kane and Mbappe, two forwards of world class standing, claimed the top two spots. Yamal, meanwhile, remains a winger, remains young, and judging by Flick's words, still has his mind set on continuing to grow rather than dwelling on a ceremony that, once again, narrowly got away from him.