🚨🎙️Jurgen Klopp on Harry Kane winning the Ballon d’Or over Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal. 🎙️Reporter: Do you think Harry Kane deserved to win the Ballon d’Or ahead of Mbappé and Lamine Yamal? 🗣️Klopp: First of all, Harry Kane had an incredible season, and I have nothing against him winning the award. He’s a fantastic striker, and nobody can deny what he brings to his team. But if we’re being completely honest about this conversation, I think Lamine Yamal has been treated unfairly, and that’s what bothers me. We’ve seen this happen before. Robert Lewandowski scored 55 goals in the 2019/20 season, won the Champions League and almost everything available with Bayern Munich, yet he didn’t receive the Ballon d’Or because the award. Erling Haaland scored 52 goals in his first season at Manchester City, won the treble and still finished behind Lionel Messi. Those decisions were already difficult to understand, but with Lamine, I feel there’s another problem: people are beginning to treat his age as a reason to overlook what he’s achieving. 🎙️Reporter: So you believe Yamal deserved to win it this year? 🗣️Klopp: I believe his season deserved much more recognition than he’s receiving. This is a boy who is still a teenager, competing against the best players in the world and consistently putting up performances that make you stop and watch. Instead of celebrating that and judging him fairly, people keep saying he’s young and will have more chances. But who guarantees that? Who says he’ll have the same opportunities, the same team around him or the same conditions every season? What message are we sending to young players if they can work this hard, deliver at the highest level and still be told to wait because they’re too young? We cannot keep saying young players are the future of football and then refuse to judge them fairly when they arrive. If a player is good enough to compete for the biggest individual award, his age should not become an argument against him. 🎙️Reporter: But some people argue that goals and statistics should determine the winner. 🗣️Klopp: That’s exactly what I disagree with. Statistics matter, of course, but football is much more than numbers. You have to watch the matches and understand how important a player is to his team’s success. Look at what Lamine does with the ball, the pressure he puts on defenders, the chances he creates and the way he changes games. You cannot reduce all of that to goals and assists. I’m not taking anything away from Kane or Mbappé. They are outstanding players, and I’m not saying they don’t deserve their positions. But I refuse to accept that Lamine should have to wait for his turn simply because he’s younger. If we’re not going to reward a teenager fairly when he produces a season like this, then honestly, we need to ask ourselves what we’re actually rewarding with this award.