Graham Hunter
Multiple Authors
The fact that Barcelona and Spain forward Lamine Yamal has 100 combined goals and assists for club and country as a teenager is, without using any kind of hyperbole, a little footballing miracle.
At the identical age (18 years and seven months), the two great modern players (one of whom is arguably the best in history), Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, respectively only had five and four goal contributions for club and country. Meanwhile, Yamal is 60 ahead of where Real Madrid and France forward Kylian Mbappé was at the same age.
Just think about that for a second.
This inventive, daring, creative, technically exquisite young lad, from a working-class background, is at least 95 goal contributions ahead of the game’s two behemoths, Messi and Ronaldo, and is increasing the like-for-like gap with each passing week. And he’s doing so while suffering painfully for months from the type of groin injury which should either be drastically restricting his development, or leaving him on the sidelines — as it has done with Nico Williams at Athletic Club.
But, no, right now Yamal is proving immune to pain, immune to Messi/Ronaldo comparisons, immune to the potentially corruptive impact of huge wealth and trophy success as a teenager.
Even if you set the stats aside, we’ve learned several inarguable things about Yamal already; firstly, that he possesses the same inherent, ferocious, indomitable competitive aggression which fed, and still feeds, Messi.
Without in any way deprecating Ronaldo — because his will to win and competitive aggression are both elite — there is something in his personality, something about his ego, which means he wants to be regarded individually as the best. I’ve been in his presence when he has said exactly that.
But neither Messi nor Yamal are as driven by that individualistic, egotistic compartment of human nature. For them, the constant demand is: “Give me the ball, give me an opponent, let me thrill, let me beat him, let me score or assist and let us win.”
“Us” … that’s the key.
That we are watching a close facsimile of Messi, who is already outstripping pound-for-pound comparative numbers, is, legitimately something of a miracle. You don’t have to be a Barcelona fan or follow Spanish football in order to feel genuinely touched by the privilege of witnessing another genius emerge so soon after Messi.
Indisputably, we live in a world of strife, jeopardy, and uncertainty. It’s not an opiate to look for something that is joyous, something that is natural, pure, inspirational, and which gives us a dose of happiness even if it’s only for 90 minutes each time he plays. It’s human nature.
The dazzling hat trick Yamal scored on Saturday at home to Villarreal, the first of his career, again highlights the chasm between him and his two almighty forebears at the same age. Yamal is over a year younger than when Messi achieved the same feat against Real Madrid in March 2007 and over four years quicker than Ronaldo when he registered his aged nearly 23 for Manchester United against Newcastle in 2008.
But this wasn’t just his debut treble, these were three goals of increasingly astonishing wonder.
For many, the pick of them was the second, where Yamal started in a position of apparently no threat and danced like a footballing Rudolf Nureyev past all his opponents before his left foot thrashed the ball beyond goalkeeper Luis Reis Junior. But for my taste the third goal was the most eye-catching one; the timing of his run, his decision-making and his cleverness in finishing, not just through power alone, stood out.
Yamal’s “street-football” style of dribbling, playing “inside” and not on the touchline, while also acting like an outright striker, are some of the things which will elevate him onto the all-time pantheon of greats if he continues to develop this way. If he can add top-level acuity in the penalty box — showing more of a finisher’s touch — then we potentially have another all-time great on our hands.
But of course there are obstacles to overcome.
If he is a little footballing miracle, as I swear to you he is, then that’s precisely what Barcelona require on Tuesday to somehow overturn a four-goal deficit in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal at Camp Nou.
Yes, we all know that Barcelona have the most astonishing result in European football history — having been 4-0 down to Paris before coming back to win 6-1 in the Champions League in 2017 — and maybe it’s coincidence that the heroes of that night were Yamal’s two all-time heroes, Messi and Neymar. But that was an historic achievement that stood out so much because these things do not happen often.
The last time Barcelona and Atleti met in the Catalan capital in the Copa del Rey, Barcelona scored four times alright … but they also conceded four.
So far, Yamal’s record against Atleti is good, without being scintillating: Seven matches, five wins, one draw, one defeat, but only one goal.
The glaringly obvious truth is that while it will need to be a team performance of extraordinary power and discipline in order even to force their way back into the tie on Tuesday, Barça will undoubtedly require some miraculous provision of manna from heaven.
And while midfielder Pedri has some of that in his mind, and his boots, the main provider is Yamal.
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Hansi Flick praises ‘exceptional’ Lamine Yamal performance vs. Villarreal
Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has praised Lamine Yamal’s performance against Villarreal after the 18 year old become the youngest player to score a LaLiga hat-trick this century.
But his club asks a monstrous amount of him. Despite this being a season where he’s had to cope with an injury, and where rivals have double and triple-marked him, his contribution across all competitions has been 32 goals or assists in 34 matches.
That is simply astonishing.
But after the match against Villarreal he admitted: “Over the last few months I haven’t been enjoying myself as much, the groin pain was part of that, I think all that was pretty evident. But for about a week now there’s been a click — things feel better and I’ve got the urge to smile again while I’m playing, which is something I’d lost for a while!”
By now I’ve interviewed Yamal five or six times — on two occasions good, lengthy, interesting conversations — and this is what those meetings taught me:
In general, he’s tough-minded, extremely smart and aware of the talent, responsibility and opportunity which has landed on his doorstep. I honestly think that a large part of his extraordinary makeup is how well his sharp, well-ordered mind — which is mature beyond his age in footballing terms — intersects with his natural talent.
But, in some matters he’s still a kid who dotes on his younger brother and who went to be smothered by hugs and kisses from his mum on the touchline post-match against Villarreal.
One of the first things he revealed to me two years ago was that when he was four or five and put in goal by his dad and uncles during their Rocafonda park games, he felt that they deliberately treated him like an equal and unforgivingly booted shots which hit him in the face. He said that, there and then, he resolved to speed up his development and ability to play outfield so that the next sucker who joined their regular game would have to go in goal instead.
Flinty tough: don’t complain, win.
The fact that Barcelona depend on him to play miraculously on Tuesday against Atletico is fine: he’s ready, willing and able. The fact that Barça have needed him to carry them every week since August to the point that, at 18, he wasn’t happy, or taking joy in his job, isn’t.
I hope someone in their system was taking note: Yamal isn’t theirs alone, he belongs to everyone around the world who looks to football to inspire them. He gives us thrills, joy and hope. And that is a precious thing indeed.
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