Lamine Yamal has belatedly congratulated winners at the Ballon d'Or ceremony but stopped short of naming Harry Kane after missing out on the top prize to the England captain.

Kane claimed football's ultimate individual honour in 25 years on Monday night, becoming the first Englishman to win since Michael Owen in 2001.

The Bayern Munich and England star clinched the award ahead of closest rivals Yamal and Kylian Mbappe, whose supporters have questioned why their favourite lost out. 

Footage from inside the London Palladium showed Mbappe and Yamal failing to stand to shake Kane's hand after he had accepted the top prize.

Yamal has now taken to social media to offer congratulations to all winners on the evening, while underlining his clear desire to win the Ballon d'Or in the future.

'IT WILL COME, good things take time, I trust the path I'm building,' Yamal wrote on Tuesday night.

'Without a hurry, with excitement and with tranquility that someday my time will come.

'Congratulations to the winners, my focus is again on what's important, to make FC Barcelona win again.'

Yamal had still come away from the evening with an honour having collected the Young Talent of the Year award for a staggering third consecutive year. 

When asked cheekily by co-host Thierry Henry if this was the award that he really wanted, Yamal was politely bashful, noting that he believed that the honour belonged to his Barcelona and Spain team-mate Pau Cubarsi.

Yamal's message has struck a more conciliatory tone compared to his uncle Abdul, who took a swipe at Kane as he insisted his nephew should have claimed the prize.

Speaking to Cadena SER in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, he stressed that 'my nephew was fantastic, he was the best player in the world'. 

'Everyone knows it. If you love football, you go to see Lamine, not Harry Kane,' he added. 'Lamine is very young, he's 19, he'll win more, but Harry only has three days of competition left and they give him the Ballon d'Or.

'Lamine has won a World Cup, La Liga, and the Super Cup. He plays very well. He's had an incredible season. He scores goals that no one else scores. Passes, assists, he has it all. He'll win five Ballon d'Or awards.'

Real Madrid legend Guti also suggested that the change of venue had played a large part in the timing of Kane's honour.

'It just so happens that, for the 70th anniversary, they move the ceremony to London and someone from London wins it,' the former Los Blancos claimed on Spanish panel show El Chiringuito. 'It's an incredible coincidence that they move it to London and someone from London wins it, isn't it? 

'I mean, it's as if everything is…' he deliberately trailed off, before another member of the panel suggested the word 'orchestrated'. 

'Completely. Absolutely. That's what I think, and it's what I've thought about this award for a long time,' Guti added, before bafflingly citing Kane's surprise at having been named the best footballer in the world as further evidence in favour of his theory. 

'I'm telling you, when I saw the look on his face when they announced Harry Kane, he never in his life thought he was going to win it,' he continued. 'Never. I think he expected both Lamine Yamal and Mbappe to finish ahead of him. 

'You only have to look at his face.' 

The decision to move the legendary French event to London as a one-off was made to pay tribute to the award's first ever winner, Sir Stanley Matthews. 

The Stoke City icon's family were present at the event and featured on the red carpet. 

While Kane's triumph was won on merit rather than skulduggery, France Football editor in chief Vincent Garcia confirmed that the voting had been incredibly tight between the English star and his closest competitor Mbappe. 

'This year, there were several serious contenders,' Garcia said. 'The two closest were the top two, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, and the race between them was decided by very little. 

'The points gap between Kane and Mbappe was smaller than the gap between Rodri and Vinicius in 2024, which was 41 points - and that was already a very narrow margin at the time.

'I was watching the results in real time during the month of the vote. Kylian led the race for a long time, but Harry Kane came back into contention, and in the end, it was decided by a very, very small number of points.' 

Kane's success came off the back of a stunning year with Bayern Munich and England, with the forward netting a staggering 73 goals during the 2025-26 season.

He spearheaded Bayern Munich's domestic Treble and captained England to third place at the World Cup. 

READ MORE: Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or triumph was a vindication for a superstar brimming with quiet excellence, writes OLIVER HOLT - and a win for English football

READ MORE: How chaos erupted behind the curtain on Harry Kane's big night: I watched embarrassment for Strictly star John Nellis, fights and upset stars - and conspiracy theories were flying, writes NATHAN SALT at the Palladium