Villarreal star Pape Gueye has admitted that he and his teammates were left nothing short of taken aback by the talents of Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal on Sunday.
This, of course, comes after the 17-year-old conjured up another stellar individual performance in the meeting between the two sides.
Barcelona welcomed Villarreal to Catalunya’s capital yesterday evening, as part of the penultimate round of fixtures of the La Liga season.
And though his side were ultimately condemned to the wrong side of a 3-2 result, Lamine shone bright once more.
With his side trailing during the first-half, the Spanish international levelled things up in stunning fashion, courtesy of a jinking run and sumptuous strike from distance.
This came as just one highlight of a stellar all-round showing, the significance of which was not at all lost on the aforementioned Pape Gueye.
Drawn on Lamine’s talents during an interview with Foot Mercato in the aftermath of his side’s victory, Villarreal midfielder Gueye gushed:
“Right now, Lamine Yamal is the one making the plays for Barça… at just 17 years old! He’s incredibly mature in the way he plays. When he was pulling off crazy moves yesterday, some of our players said ‘Wallah, he’s better than Messi!’ The coach even told the wide players to double up on him.”
𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗬𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗟 𝗔 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗤𝗨𝗘́ 𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗝𝗢𝗨𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗦 𝗗𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟 ! 🤯🇪🇸
🎙️ Pape Gueye :
“Aujourd’hui, Yamal, c’est lui qui décide des actions du Barça… à 17 ans ! Il est vraiment très mature dans son jeu. Quand il faisait des dingueries, y’a des joueurs… pic.twitter.com/V7M11FCLps
— Foot Mercato (@footmercato) May 18, 2025
Conor Laird – GSFN