Lamine Yamal takes aim at how the Ballon d'Or is judged today

Some players talk in numbers, and some players talk in soccer. Lamine Yamal clearly fell into the second camp in an interview on Universo Valdano, where he had no problem raising a topic that stirs debate every year: the criteria behind how the Ballon d'Or gets handed out.

The Barcelona winger looked back to an era that shaped how he understands the sport: that of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. For Yamal, those years had something that's been lost today: clarity.

When Messi and Cristiano were around, everyone knew they were the two best in the world, so the award basically went to one of two playersLamine Yamal

From there, the young Barcelona star went further and pointed to what he believes is distorting the selection process for soccer's most important individual honor today.

The problem now is that people are valuing things that have nothing to do with the Ballon d'OrLamine Yamal

Champions League, yes, but not as an individual criterion

Yamal got specific with his example and brought the Champions League straight into the conversation. For him, there's a key difference between rewarding a champion team and rewarding the best player on the planet, and that's where he thinks concepts are getting mixed up that shouldn't be.

When you win the Champions League, they give the Champions League award to PSG, who were the best team. It's a different thing entirely whether the best player in the world happens to be at PSGLamine Yamal

His conclusion was blunt, almost like a personal manifesto: the Ballon d'Or should have one job and nothing else should complicate it.

That award has to go to the best player in the world, periodLamine Yamal

Soccer without apps or goal counters

The conversation also revealed where that mindset comes from. Yamal said he grew up watching full matches, without checking screens or stats running alongside the game.

When I grew up around soccer, we used to watch the whole match, from minute zero to ninety. I wasn't opening an app to check how many goals or assists each player hadLamine Yamal

That's when a name came up that might surprise anyone who only looks at scoring charts: Mesut Özil. Yamal held him up as the perfect example of a player worth admiring without needing outrageous numbers.

You'd watch a No. 10 who maybe wasn't scoring 20 goals but who was a delight to watch, like Özil, for example, I really liked himLamine Yamal

He wrapped up the idea with a reflection on what leaves him satisfied after a game, beyond his own personal scoreline.

There are moments, and this has happened to me in a lot of games, where I've felt like I put on a show even if I didn't score, and I still go to bed really happyLamine Yamal

The line that best summed up his philosophy came at the end, almost like a closing statement to everything before it:

I'll never go home angry because I didn't score a goal, scoring a goal is just a statistic. What upsets me is not touching the ball, not being able to enjoy myselfLamine Yamal

An interview in which the Barcelona player made clear that, for him, soccer is measured by a different standard: influence on the game itself, not just what ends up written down on a stat sheet.