Thierry Henry has explained the question he asked Lamine Yamal on stage at the Ballon d’Or ceremony. The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker said in a video on Instagram that he was joking and never meant to put the young Barcelona winger down.
“I wasn’t checking his ego at all,” Henry said. He called himself a big fan of Yamal and said: “He’s one of the players I’d pay to watch.”
What happened on the night
The ceremony took place on Monday night at the London Palladium. Henry hosted it together with broadcaster Kate Scott. Harry Kane of Bayern Munich and England won the Ballon d’Or, the biggest individual prize in the game.
Yamal was one of the favourites for that award. He did not get it, but he did win the Kopa Trophy for the best young player in the world. It was his third Kopa Trophy in a row. He also won it in 2024 and 2025.
When Yamal came up to collect it, Henry asked him something close to this: that’s your third one, but is it the one you really wanted tonight? Yamal stayed calm and gave a short answer. Many fans online did not like the question. Some said it was a cheap shot at a 19-year-old on a night when he had just missed the main prize.
Henry answers the criticism
In his video, Henry said he only pointed out that it was Yamal’s third Kopa Trophy and asked if it was the one he wanted. He added that he can understand it if people did not like the joke.
He also spoke about two other moments from the night. During the Socrates Award, Henry corrected the way Scott said the name Socrates. He said this was planned. “Kate was in on the joke,” he said, and added: “I would never do that.” Scott backed him up in the comments under his post and said she had not felt disrespected.
Henry made no secret that he wanted his fellow Frenchman Kylian Mbappe to win. In the video he turned to Kane: “You are a worthy winner. You deserve it.” He said he has called him “Sir Harry Kane” since the World Cup.
A big week for Kane
Kane is the first Englishman to win the men’s Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001. He has scored goals for fun since he moved to Bayern in 2023, and this award is the biggest personal prize of his career.
Our take
Henry is a pundit who likes to tease people, and most of the time it works on TV. On a gala stage it can land the wrong way, and this one did. Still, the video helps. He explained himself, and he was warm about Yamal. Yamal is 19 and already has three Kopa Trophies. If he keeps playing like this, a Ballon d’Or will come, and nobody will need to ask him which trophy he wanted.
Was Henry’s question a harmless joke, or did it go too far? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Lamine Yamal by Bryan Berlin (CC BY-SA 4.0), Thierry Henry by Web Summit (CC BY 2.0), London Palladium by MrsEllacott (CC BY-SA 3.0).