The key facts
- Lamine Yamal has won the Kopa Trophy three years in a row — in 2024, 2025 and 2026
- He is the first footballer to win the award three times; previous winners include Mbappé, de Ligt, Pedri, Gavi and Bellingham
- The Ballon d'Or ceremony was held on 26 October in London; Messi did not attend despite being a contender for the award
Third Kopa Trophy in a row
Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal has won the Kopa Trophy, awarded to the world's best young footballer, for 2026. The 19-year-old Spaniard received the award on 26 October in London at the Ballon d'Or ceremony, reports Life.ru.
First three-time winner in the award's history
Yamal also won the trophy in the two previous seasons — in 2024 and 2025. He thus became the first footballer to claim the Kopa Trophy three times: no one before him had won the award more than once. In the race for the 2026 prize he beat nine other nominees, including his Barcelona teammate Pau Cubarsí, as well as Warren Zaïre-Emery of Paris Saint-Germain, Yan Diomande, Lennart Karl of Bayern Munich, Ayoub Bouaddi, Johan Manzambi, Ibrahim Maza, Kerim Alajbegovic and Eli Junior Kroupi.
How the award works
The Kopa Trophy was established by the French magazine France Football in 2018. It is named after Raymond Kopa, the French footballer who won the Ballon d'Or in 1958. Players aged 21 or younger are eligible for the prize, and the winner is chosen by a jury of former Ballon d'Or winners. Over the years the trophy has gone to Kylian Mbappé, Matthijs de Ligt, Pedri, Gavi and Jude Bellingham — Yamal became the first to hold the award for three seasons in a row.
A ceremony without Messi
According to the same outlet, the Ballon d'Or ceremony in London started 50 minutes late due to traffic jams and crowds. In addition, it was previously reported that Lionel Messi would not attend the 2026 ceremony, even though he himself was a contender for the award. Among the possible reasons cited was the Argentine's busy schedule: he had recently been in Spain and was due to return to the United States for the final stretch of the MLS regular season, and another long transatlantic flight in a short time could have interfered with his preparation for matches.
