Yamal Lost the Ballon d'Or Monday. This Morning Atlético Took Top Spot.

Eleven games into the season, Barcelona had won eleven games. Then came the worst week of their year — two defeats, a lost Ballon d'Or, and, this morning, a lost first place. Tonight against Alavés at Camp Nou, it becomes Lamine Yamal's week to answer for all of it.

The streak died first. In Paris on October 20, PSG beat Barcelona 4–2: Yamal himself levelled it at 2–2 in the 79th minute, only for Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz to settle it in the last ten minutes. Five days later at Camp Nou, Kylian Mbappé scored twice either side of a Raphinha goal and Real Madrid won the Clásico 2–1 — a game that would have opened a nine-point gap over Madrid instead gave the title race its pulse back. Yamal, Barcelona's best player in Paris, was quiet when it mattered most.

The personal blow landed Monday. At the London Palladium, Harry Kane — 73 goals last season — took the Ballon d'Or, with Mbappé second and Yamal third. The 19-year-old still won the Kopa Trophy, the under-21 prize, for a third straight year, then said his teammate Pau Cubarsí deserved it more. Admirable. Also beside the point. As Sports Illustrated's preview put it, Yamal is "absolutely determined" to get his hands on the real one — and Kane's crowning "will only motivate him."

His coach is selling the same story. "He reacted good in my opinion and has been focused in training," Hansi Flick said Friday. "This is how champions respond." Flick granted that Kane "also deserved to win this prize," then closed the subject: "Now we can focus on other things."

Other things started this morning without them. Atlético Madrid won 2–0 at Levante — Alejandro Grimaldo in the 36th minute, Giuliano Simeone in the 62nd — to reach 28 points and take first place. Barcelona therefore kick off in second, on 27 points with a game in hand. Win tonight and they are top again, by two. Drop points, and they stay behind Atlético while Real Madrid, third on 24, play at Racing Santander tomorrow.

The chase comes with a patched-up team. Flick is expected to rotate with Aston Villa visiting in the Champions League on Tuesday, and the defence is the emergency: Jules Koundé, Eric García, Andreas Christensen and Xavi Espart — hurt early in the Clásico — are all out, with Dani Olmo and Roony Bardghji sidelined too and 16-year-old Ebrima Tunkara called into the squad. The one name nobody expects to rotate is Yamal.

The numbers say he should stay. Yamal has started all ten league games, with eight goals and a team-high six assists; beside him, Raphinha leads LaLiga with 13 goals, and Barcelona have scored 40 in ten games. The fixture, on paper, cooperates: Alavés sit seventh on 12 points but are winless in six — no win since September 6 — and winless in nine straight trips to Camp Nou.

On paper. Alavés won the last meeting between these sides, 1–0 in May, and their midfield includes Carles Aleñá, a La Masia graduate who knows this building. Quique Sánchez Flores will set them up to frustrate, and an experimental Barça back line is exactly what a frustrated favourite does not need.

But tonight is not really about Alavés. It is about whether the best teenager in world football files the worst week of his season under verdict or under fuel. Flick has given his answer already. At 1:00 PM PT, Yamal gives his.

Barcelona vs Alavés — LaLiga, Matchday 11. Saturday, October 31, 1:00 PM PT, Spotify Camp Nou. US TV/stream: ESPN+, ESPN Deportes.