Lamine Yamal has told ESPN it feels as if he’s “playing Pro Evolution Soccer [sic]” as the teenager targets a treble with Barcelona this season.
The 17-year-old has scored 13 goals and provided 19 assists this year to help keep Barça alive in three competitions going into the final stretch of the campaign.
Barça lead LaLiga by four points with eight games to go, face Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final on April 26 and welcome Borussia Dortmund to the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.
“I’m one of those people who always trusts their team,” Yamal told ESPN when asked if treble talk was premature. “From the start of the season, I always aim for the maximum.
“So, if we can win the treble at the start of the season, that’s the aim. It’s no different now. It’s not because of over confidence or anything like that, it’s because you have to believe in yourself.
“If you are saying that another team is going to win, I don’t know why you go out on to the pitch to play, so we can win the treble. We are Barça. We have already achieved it [in 2009 and 2015] — hopefully we can do it again.”
It is now two years since Yamal made his debut for Barça as a 15-year-old. Since then, he has become the youngest player to ever find the back of the net in LaLiga and the Champions League knockout rounds, Spain’s youngest ever debutant and goal scorer, and a European champion with his country last summer.
He equates his rapid rise to playing a video game, saying that the pressure of being involved in some of football’s biggest matches has not fazed him.
“It is like a dream,” he added. “I still think that. If we reach the final of the Champions League, the final of the Copa del Rey, the [Clásico] final this month, the World Cup [next year with Spain] … Everything is like a dream.
“It’s as if I’m playing PES. It’s incredible. When you get home and you say ‘Pffff I played in the final of the Euros …’ It’s incredible.
“I don’t [notice the pressure]. I just try to enjoy myself. I don’t think too much about other things. I also don’t think too much about what I am doing, what I am doing tomorrow, what game I am playing, if it’s more important [than others].
“Obviously I know I am playing for Barça. I know the importance of that, but I don’t think about pressure. I play, enjoy myself … And that’s all.”
What has been remarkable is how quickly Yamal has become a key player for both club and country.
He has played 3,448 minutes for Barça in all competitions this season — only Jules Koundé, Pedri and Raphinha have played more — and has started the last 21 matches for the Catalan club.
That exposure to so much football at such a young age has led to some calls for him to be rested more, but Yamal says he is feeling fit going into the final two months of the season.
“[I’m feeling] very good,” he said. “I think one thing I have learned this year is how to manage myself. There are people who say: ‘Why don’t you move for 10 minutes?’ But at the end of the day, there are moments when you don’t have to run all the time.
“You have to know how to manage yourself during the game, during the season, to know during training what you have to do … So I think that’s something I’ve learned. And, to be honest, I am doing really well.”
Yamal’s contract expires in 2026, but he has previously confirmed he will sign a new, long-term deal, with ESPN explaining he will do so when he turns 18 later this year.
He hopes this will just be the start of a long career with Barça.
“That’s a difficult question,” he said when asked where he sees himself in 10 years. “[I’ll be] 27 [years old] … I think similar to now, going between the training ground and my house, and back to the training ground.”
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