{"id":1584,"date":"2026-06-05T11:34:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:34:32","slug":"i-didnt-believe-i-could-win-it-rodri-admits-ballon-dor-win-was-never-a-dream-as-man-city-star-backs-beast-lamine-yamal-to-claim-top-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=1584","title":{"rendered":"‘I didn’t believe I could win it’ – Rodri admits Ballon d’Or win was never a dream as Man City star backs ‘beast’ Lamine Yamal to claim top prize"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The City star also reserved immense praise for Barcelona’s teenage prodigy Yamal, who finished second in the rankings a year after Rodri’s win, finishing behind Paris Saint-Germain hero Ousmane Dembele.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much more is expected of the youngster, though, and Rodri believes his Spain team-mate will go on to win the award eventually, saying: \u201cTwo Spanish players, one of the present and one of the future. He’s already a star, but with the future he has ahead of him, it’s impressive.<\/span><\/p>\n

“One day he’ll win the Ballon d’Or, he’s a beast. He’s a spectacular guy. I have a very good relationship with him. People don’t know him that well. I would encourage people to get to know him. He’s a fantastic guy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dismissing claims that the youngster faces unfair media scrutiny, Rodri added: \u201cNo, I think players of his calibre, who have that ability and are unique, have that kind of impact, for better or for worse. You have to live with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He’s incredibly mature. In some ways, he has a somewhat distorted image. He’s a fantastic kid. He has amazing values \u200b\u200bfor his age. Very focused, very mature. Let’s not forget he’s 18, just like we all were. I’m happy because he’s growing so much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City star also reserved immense praise for Barcelona’s teenage prodigy Yamal, who finished second in the rankings a year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}