Raphinha sends fresh Ballon d’Or message to Barcelona teammate after Racing clash

Barcelona star Raphinha has taken to social media this week, to send a public message of support the way of teammate Lamine Yamal. This comes amid the latter’s ongoing campaign for the 2026 Ballon d’Or.

Winger Lamine was for his part afforded a place on the 30-man shortlist for this year’s ‘Golden Ball’, released by France Football last week.

The 19-year-old is considered as being amongst the frontrunners for the award, fresh off a La Liga and World Cup double.

Fellow members of Hansi Flick’s Barcelona squad have not been at all shy in publicly backing their young teammate to be named world football’s standout performer for the last 12 months.

And as alluded to above, in the early hours of Thursday, Raphinha was the latest to send a message of support to Lamine. After the pair played starring roles in Barca’s dominant La Liga victory over Racing Santander, the Brazilian took to the comments of Lamine’s latest Instagram post, to write:

“You are a phenomenon! You’re my Ballon d’Or.”

Raphinha sends fresh Ballon d’Or message

Conor Laird – GSFN