Lamine Yamal: The greatest teenage footballer the world has ever seen

Yamal was still only 16 when he was named in Spain's squad for Euro 2024. He even had to bring homework with him to Germany - and yet it was the student who ended up schooling established senior stars on one of the game's grandest stages.

In the run-up to France's semi-final showdown with Spain, midfielder Adrien Rabiot made the dreadful mistake of underestimating Yamal. "If Lamine Yamal wants to play in the Euros final with Spain, he will have to do much more against us than he has done so far," the Bleus midfielder warned in a pre-match press conference. "We will put pressure on him so that he is not comfortable."

Rabiot didn't put any pressure on Yamal, though. On the contrary, he couldn't even get close to the teenager, sent one way, then the other, as Yamal swiftly shifted the ball onto his left foot before bending into the top corner of the France goal to cancel out Randal Kolo Muani's early opener as Spain came from behind to triumph 2-1 at the Allianz Arena.

When the full-time whistle blew in Munich, Yamal screamed into the camera, "Speak now!". Rabiot didn't, though, which was probably for the best. There was no need to embarrass himself any further. He'd just been taught a lesson by a kid that wouldn't turn 17 until the eve of the final.

The following day, Yamal made more history, breaking Pele's record as the youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup or European Championship final.

He created a goal in Berlin, too, setting up Nico Williams for Spain's opener in their 2-1 victory over England, meaning he ended the Euros with four assists - twice as many as any other player at a tournament that featured world-class playmakers such as Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes - which is frankly farcical for one so young.

What was arguably even more impressive, though, was that he finished with 15 or more chances created (19 in total), shots on goal (18) and dribbles attempted (33). The only other player to do that at any of the last two Euros or World Cups? Messi, of course.

Plenty of players over the past decade have been hailed as 'The new Messi' - and each and every one of them has found the label far too heavy a burden to bear. Some were simply overhyped, others just couldn't cope with the weight of expectancy, while Ansu Fati, for example, has had the gross misfortune to be blighted by injury issues that have stalled a once-promising career.

In that context, there's always been a reluctance to pile too much pressure on Yamal's slender shoulders. As former Barcelona striker Gary Lineker told The Guardian during last summer's Euros, "Messi is from another planet and I don't think you want to put that [comparison] on him, but there's no question that if Lamine keeps his feet on the ground and doesn’t have serious injuries, he is going to be very special indeed.

"He already is, of course: if you judge the players at [the Euros] and age has nothing to do with it, he would be top three or four. And at 16! He's still a child! I've not seen anything like this.

“I remember the emergence of Wayne Rooney. You could tell he was special but even he didn’t do this. Pele scored two in a World Cup final but he was 17, nearly 18. Even Messi didn’t really emerge internationally until his late teens.

“What we’re seeing here is something very, very special. How special, we will have to wait and see. To do what he is doing, I can’t quite get my head around it. Some kids live up to the expectations, a lot don't. But with this kind of talent, I would be surprised if we don’t see some kind of greatness."

We've certainly seen nothing since the Euros to challenge that assertion. In truth, Yamal's performances during the 2024-25 campaign have made the Messi comparisons utterly unavoidable.

There obviously remains a risk that Yamal will fail to realise his stratospheric potential. Fame and fortune can change players, no matter how well supported they are by a club, coaches, family and friends.

"It's essential to look after him because he's still a kid, he's talked about a lot in the press and he knows he’s important," Barcelona legend Rivaldo pointed out in an interview with MARCA. "He has to be very intelligent because football changes you a lot. He must have people by his side who talk to him and help him in his career so that he can be the best in the world."

Furthermore, when the goals are so lofty, and the targets set so high, the lows can be devastating, especially in a modern era characterised by kneejerk reactions and social media pile-ons. It's already abundantly clear that Yamal will now be judged by the most rigorous of standards, with the great Francesco Totti arguing earlier this season that the youngster doesn't score enough goals.

"He is very strong, he flew at the Euros... And he seemed to be flying this season, but then he dropped a bit,” the World Cup winner told the Viva la Futbol podcast. “He is still very good, but he still scores very few goals."

One could kind of see where Totti was coming from. Yamal's deflected strike in Sunday's massive 4-2 win over Spanish title rivals Atletico Madrid was his first goal in La Liga since October. However, it wasn't as if he hadn't scored in other competitions (including the Champions League) during his Primera Division ‘drought’ - or been making a difference on a weekly basis with his penetrative runs.

Indeed, this season Yamal has become so important to Barca that they don't look anything like the same side without him in the starting line-up, as underlined during his short spells on the sidelines, in November and December.

A little perspective is also required. Yamal has 29 direct goal involvements in all competitions - that would be a fantastic figure at this stage of the campaign for a proven performer, let alone a teenager still learning his trade.

The truly staggering thing is that Yamal plays the game with a maturity that is ridiculously rare in a teenager. He appears completely unaffected by pressure, which can be partly attributed to the precociousness of youth, but he feels and reads the game like few others to have come before him.

He never appears to be rushed and, as former Barca boss Xavi noted, Yamal does not dribble for the sake of it. Just like Messi, he evaluates every option - and picks the right one.

"Lamine's decision-making is almost always correct, which is surprising for someone so young,” acknowledged Xavi, who knows a thing or two about footballing intelligence. “I hope he will be at Barca for many years because I think he is a player who can define an era."

It's certainly possible. Or arguably even probable at this stage. Because he's undeniably ahead of so many of the game's great prodigies at this particular point in time.

Cristiano Ronaldo was serving notice of his superstar potential at Sporting CP at 17, while Kylian Mbappe was already shining for Monaco in the Champions League. Yamal, though, is on a different level, with Pele probably the only other teenage talent in football history that really comes close.

Having already illuminated a European Championship, the Masia product has already racked up more than 100 appearances at senior level and is now one of the key players in a Barcelona team that is perfectly placed to win both La Liga and the Champions League before he even turns 18.

Just last week, in the last-16 second-leg win over Benfica, Yamal became the youngest player in Champions League history to both score and assist in a game. Just to put that in context, Messi hadn't even opened his account in La Liga at the same age.

Nobody wants to get carried away, of course, and Italian coaching icon Fabio Capello has argued that Yamal isn't blessed with quite the same "genius" as Messi. He does have the Argentine's blessing, though.

Just over 17 years after the bath that effectively served as a baptism, Messi admitted Yamal was the young player that most reminded him of himself. “It depends on him now and many things [outside of the field] because that's how football is these days,” the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner told Goke Oyewo, “but Yamal is the present. And definitely has a huge future too.”

It would be asking too much to expect Yamal to reach Messi’s level, but it’s clearly not impossible - because never before has one so young either achieved or promised so much.