Lamine Yamal has spoken out for the first time since losing the Ballon d’Or to Ousmane Dembele

Yamal finished second in the rankings

Despite being touted by much of the Spanish press as the man to take home the main award, the 18-year-old ultimately finished second behind PSG forward Ousmane Dembele in the rankings for football's most prestigious individual honour.

Yamal scored 18 goals and registered 25 assists as Barcelona won La Liga and made the Champions League semi-finals.

Despite not receiving enough votes to take home the Ballon d'Or, Yamal is by far the youngest player to ever make the award's top 10, demolishing a record set by an 20-year-old Ronaldo Nazario in 1998.

Yamal also became the first player in history to win back-to-back Kopa trophies, awarded to the best young player on the continent.

In the end, Yamal was beaten to the Ballon d'Or by a very deserving Ousmane Dembele who is on the back of the best season of his life.

The French winger finally put his bad memories at Yamal's club Barcelona to bed, scoring 35 times in all competitions as PSG won the quadruple.

The 28-year-old joined Barcelona back in 2017 for almost £100 million, but failed to perform consistently due to a series of serious injuries.

Demebele has since reinvented himself at PSG, where he plays up front as a false nine, and has now earned recognition as the world's best footballer.

Yamal has today taken to Instagram to pay respect to Dembele for winning the award ahead of him.

The Barcelona winger said: “God’s plan is perfect, you have to climb to get to the top. Happy for the Kopa Trophy x2 and congratulations to Dembele for the award and his great season."

Incredibly Yamal still has three attempts left if he wants to become the youngest Ballon d'Or winner ever.

This 'impressive' smartwatch that rivals Apple discounted to just £21

An impressive smart watch that's been compared to Apple has been given a huge discount for a limited time.

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One review reads: "It looks just like an Apple Watch and works just like it. It can do all what an Apple Watch can do at a cheaper cost."

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