From baby baths to the biggest game of all: Lamine Yamal can use World Cup final to show why he is truly Lionel Messi's heir

It must be said that it feels unfair to place such enormous pressure on Yamal's shoulders, even if it's a burden he's grown accustomed to carrying every since he burst into the Barca starting line-up as a 16-year-old.

Messi's sustained excellence over more than two decades is what sets him apart from every other player in history. It's asking a lot for Yamal to emulate that legendary level of longevity.

Still, while the teenager says that "reaching Messi's level is impossible", he hopes to "maybe one day be like him" - and that kind of stated ambition is actually unsurprising coming from him.

Yamal has always insisted that he doesn't feel pressure anymore. He says he left it behind him in Mataro years ago. And we've no reason to doubt him. How else could a 16-year-old perform so fearlessly at a European Championship?

But while Yamal is unburdened by external pressure, he perhaps feels the weight of his own expectations. As he revealed after the quarter-final clash with Belgium, "I'm very demanding of myself. I'm never satisfied with what I'm doing."

And that probably explains why he's been occasionally guilty of trying to do too much during Spain's 2026 World Cup campaign.

The common consensus long before the tournament began was that Yamal was utterly integral to his country's hopes of victory - which is why him missing the end of Barcelona's 2025-26 season through injury was such a cause for concern.

The feeling that Spain lacked a cutting edge without the game's most talented teenager only intensified after the shock opening draw with Cape Verde, which Yamal began on the bench, and once he was restored to the starting line-up, La Roja looked like a completely different team.

He only played the first half of the matchday-one meeting with Saudi Arabia but he sent his side on their way to a morale-boosting 4-0 win.

Rather surprisingly, though, he's not scored since. Or even contributed a single assist. And that's inevitably affected a young man who is unnecessarily hard on himself.

"I think Lamine needs to calm down a bit, [because of] that anxiety that he has to prove himself," Spain captain Rodri admitted to reporters. "But he's a very important player for us because of what he does with and without the ball.

"It's true that he's 19 years old and that we have to calm him down at certain moments of the game. He's a very mature young man but he still has room to improve when it comes to reading the game, which is completely normal for his age.

"I'm the one who always tells him to keep going and not to stop playing if he doesn't get a foul, but he's a young man who listens, who wants to learn, and above all, sets a real example with his attitude."

It's certainly been impressive to see how Yamal has dealt with all of the constant questions around his lack of goals and assists, and he is aware of just how important his mere presence on the pitch is to Spain, who have yet to lose a single game that he's started since he made his international debut in September 2023.

"I know that with my movement I draw a lot of opponents away, so I can create space for a team-mate," he quite correctly pointed out.

"Anything I can do to help, even if I don't touch the ball in a play, is a positive. I think everyone's obsessed with scoring goals, but we won the European Championship with me scoring a single goal."

In fairness, that solitary strike was as significant as it was spectacular, as it sparked Spain's comeback in their 2-1 win over France in the Euro 2024 semi-finals, and the suspicion persists that this World Cup won't end without Yamal leaving his mark on the competition.

Crucially, he feels his big moment is coming too.

"I've never been the best player in the group stage," Yamal told Mundo Deportivo last week. "The closer the important matches get, the semi-finals or the final, the better I play."

And there was enough evidence against France to support that argument. Yamal may not have scored or assisted in Texas, but he tormented Lucas Digne throughout and it was the French full-back's foul on the 19-year-old that enabled Mikel Oyarzabal to open the scoring from the spot.

Yamal was also involved in the build-up to Spain's killer second goal, and he thought he'd netted their third, too, with a typically emphatic finish with his Messi-like left foot, until the offside flag was raised.

Rather remarkably, Yamal has already left it too late to deny Messi a third World Cup Golden Ball - which is insane for two reasons: firstly, nobody had even won two before Messi came along; secondly, he's 39 years of age now!

However, his game-changing performance in Argentina's dramatic come-from-behind win over England in the semis has almost certainly sealed the deal for Messi, and might also secure him a ninth Ballon d'Or.

It's these kind of ridiculous achievements that make the mere idea of Yamal matching Messi almost unfathomable. However, there is nobody better placed than Spain's teenage sensation to fill the void left by the great Argentine whenever he finally decides to retire. Messi's even said so himself.

"There is a new generation of footballers who are very good and who have many years ahead of them, but if I have to choose one because of age, for what he has done so far and for the future he may have, it is Lamine," the Argentina captain said just a couple of months ago. "There’s no doubt, for me, he’s the best."

On Sunday, Yamal gets the chance to prove it, and in front of his one and only idol, the footballing messiah he was always seemingly destined to follow.