Star striker Lamine Yamal will reach the historic milestone of 100 appearances for Barcelona at the age of just 17, if he plays in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Inter Milan early on May 1.
The recent Copa del Rey title with Barcelona has helped Lamine Yamal add to his huge collection of titles. At the age of 17, this player has won the EURO 2024 championship with the Spanish national team, won La Liga, the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey with the Catalan team in just 2 seasons.
In addition to the championships, Lamine Yamal also owns a series of individual titles, such as best young player, scoring the most beautiful goal at EURO 2024. Won the Golden Boy and Kopa Trophy titles (best young player in the world of the year), ranked 8th in the 2024 Golden Ball vote. This series of achievements is so great that Lamine Yamal was compared to Messi, a legend of Barcelona Club, early on. Some even say that Lamine Yamal is much better than Messi, because at the age of 17, he achieved successes that his senior could not even dream of.
“Messi? Comparisons are meaningless, especially with Messi. I just try to enjoy being myself and creating my own path. Of course, I admire him as the best player in history, but I don’t compare myself to him,” Lamine Yamal said at a press conference ahead of Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Inter Milan.
Recently, in a private interview in the US, Messi also spoke about Lamine Yamal with great admiration: “With Lamine Yamal, what he shows, what he is doing and has done, is extremely impressive. Yamal won the EURO with the Spanish team.
He is only 17, he is still developing and will continue to develop as a player, and will add more to his game, just like I did. He has incredible qualities and is already one of the best players in the world.
Lamine Yamal and Barcelona are aiming for a historic season, with the ambition of winning the “quadruple” after winning the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. The two most important remaining goals are the La Liga championship (currently leading the table by 4 points over rival Real Madrid) and the Champions League.
The last time Barcelona won the Champions League was in 2015, when the attacking trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar were in charge. Now Lamine Yamal, Lewandowski and Raphinha are expected to bring glory back to the Catalan team in the European arena.