There are portraits that precede greatness, snapshots of youthful genius. The boy with the indie-band bangs celebrating on Ronaldinho’s back, the bleach-blonde teen with blaugrana braces leaving a trail of Inter defenders in his wake.
Almost exactly 20 years separated Lionel Messi’s first goal for Barcelona and Lamine Yamal’s sensational Champions League semi-final strike on his 100th appearance for the Catalan giants last Wednesday.
Yamal, a month younger than Messi was when he lobbed the goalkeeper from Ronaldinho’s scooped assist to become La Liga’s youngest scorer in 2005, has already won a European Championship with Spain and a La Liga, Copa del Rey and Super Cup with Barcelona.
“I don’t want to compare myself with the best player in football’s history,” said the forward before his stunning individual performance against Inter, but conjecture around whether he can emulate Messi is natural.
The stats show Yamal’s trajectory since his debut aged 15 years and 290 days is going up faster than either Messi or the other superstar of his generation, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yamal hit a century of Barcelona appearances two months shy of his 18th birthday. By the same age, Messi had scored once in nine senior games for Barca while Ronaldo had netted five goals in 19 games for Sporting.
Yamal has 22 goals and 27 assists to his name, plus four more goals in his 19 appearances for Spain. Neither Messi or Ronaldo made their international debut until they turned 18.
It took Messi, who made his debut at 16, until shortly before his 21st birthday to hit the 100-game mark in Barcelona colours, scoring 41 goals in the process.
But they were the first of an incredible 672 for the club, to complement the eight Ballon d’Ors, one World Cup, two Copas America, four Champions Leagues and a huge haul of domestic silverware.
“It is not normal,” says former Barcelona midfielder Mark van Bommel of Yamal’s rise. “That’s why everyone is talking about him. [But] to reach the number of Messi, that’s not easy. Even for a guy playing at 17.”
