Ryan O'Hanlon May 8, 2026, 05:26 AM ET Close Ryan O'Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He's also the author of "Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution." These two things might both be true -- even if they really shouldn't be: 1) Lamine Yamal is the best player in LaLiga . 2) Lamine Yamal is 18 years old. This isn't news to anyone, given that Yamal finished second in Ballon d'Or voting just last year. And as his father told us , his son not winning the award was "the biggest moral damage done to a human being." This was wrong because, uh, [frantically waves arms in a way that signifies the entire multi-millennium sweep of humanity's transgressions against one another] . But it was also wrong because Yamal just wasn't the best player in the world last year. He registered fewer goals+assists than the likes of Ollie Watkins , Yoane Wissa , and Tim Kleindienst . Mohamed Salah put up 47 goals+assists; Yamal had 22.…