Lamine Yamal’s father stirs things up: “Something strange has happened here...”

Mounir Nasraoui, father of Lamine Yamal, expressed his disappointment at his son’s second-place finish in the 2025 Ballon d’Or. The Spanish winger ended up behind Ousmane Dembélé, a result that failed to convince Nasraoui – also known on social media as ‘Hustle_Hard_304’ – who voiced doubts about the decision-making process in an interview with Spanish programme, El Chiringuito.

Speaking via video call, Nasraoui stopped short of saying his son had been “robbed” of the award but insisted he had been harmed by the outcome. “It’s not theft, but moral damage to a human being,” he argued. For him, “Lamine Yamal is by far the best player in the world.” He stressed that his opinion was not simply a father’s bias but an objective view: “It’s not just because he’s my son – he really is the best player in the world.”

Nasraoui closed his comments by once again casting doubt on how the prize was awarded. “Lamine is Lamine... We have to admit something strange has happened here,” he said. “Next year is ours. The Ballon d’Or will be Spanish.”

Nasraoui stood by his son in Paris during the ceremony that crowned him the world’s second-best player. The proud father shared a photo captioned “We are blood” alongside Yamal, as well as with Barcelona president Joan Laporta and club legend Andrés Iniesta. Lamine was also accompanied by his mother Sheila Ebana, his paternal grandmother and his cousin Mohamed Abde.

In the days leading up to the gala, Nasraoui made the most of his trip to the French capital to meet one of his musical idols – the rapper La Fouine, who has 2.5 million followers on Instagram.