The young footballer Lamine Yamal has been turning the heads around with his consistent performance in the elite competitions for Barcelona.
His performances has drawn a fair comparison with Barcelona great and one of the greatest footballers of all time, Lionel Messi.
After his recent performance against Inter Milan in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final, Yamal has drawn praises from Simone Inzaghi,the Inter Milan manager.
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“Yamal is a phenomenon that only happens once every 50 years. I haven’t seen something like this for a long time. He created enormous problems for us; we had to double his coverage, and when that wasn’t enough, we brought in a third player,” Inter manager Simone Inzaghi lavished praise on the Esplugues de Llobregat native.
Similar to Inzaghi comments on Yamal, back in 2004 another Italian coach was stunned by the talent of Lionel Messi. In the 2005 Joan Gamper Trophy, then Juventus manager Fabio Capello had approached Frank Rijkaard to ask for the Argentine on the loan.”It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a player with such quality at his age. Well! With personality, speed. I love him. I’d already watched him with the Argentine youth team and I thought he was a great player, but it’s another thing to see him in this stadium, in this shirt, in front of so many people,” Capello said.
Festive offer
Lamine Yamal v Lionel Messi- Statistical Comparison
There ain’t much difference between both the players when it comes to their first 100 appearances. While Messi has scored 41 goals as compared to Yamal’s 22 goals, the Spainard has 33 assists as compared to Messi’s 15. Overall, Messi is involved in 56 goals while Yamal is in 55.
The winning record in their first 100 games is in favour of Yamal as he has won 77 games while Messi has won 67 games in his first 100.
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They’re also tied in terms of titles won . In his first 100 games, Leo won two domestic league titles (2004/2005 and 2005/2006), the 2006 Spanish Super Cup, and the 2005/2006 Champions League.
Yamal has three trophies so far: the 2022/2023 Spanish League, the 2025 Copa del Rey, and the 2025 Spanish Super Cup. He is also in contention of Champions League and La Liga as the seasons moves to a closure.
When Messi was asked about Yamal few weeks also, he told Simplemente Fútbol,”It’s impressive what Lamine Yamal is showing, what he’s doing, and what he’s already done. He’s already been a European Championship champion with Spain. He’s only 17, he’s in the midst of growing, and he’ll continue to grow as a player and contribute to his game, just like I did. He has incredible qualities and is already one of the best players in the world.”
“I don’t think about whether I have more or less than someone else. I think the key is to think about yourself, to try to do the best for the team. I don’t look at statistics much. I play to enjoy myself, to make people enjoy themselves, and to win. I don’t focus on whether someone else has more or less than me at a certain age. It’s an honor to be compared to Messi, but I try to write my own story. Leo is the best in history; I’m still in my early stages. Those comparisons sometimes don’t help,” Yamal said when asked about comparisons with Lionel Messi.
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After all this comparison, Lamine Yamal faces most difficult challenge: to play at this level of consistency at for the next 19 seasons.