Far beyond Messi and Ronaldo!

Once again, the world is talking about Lamine Yamal, as a phenomenon. The “Yamal phenomenon” actually exploded last summer, when the Spanish team won the Euro 2024 championship.

It is highly likely that in the next 2 months, there will be at least 1-2 more climaxes, when the press and football world around the world will be forced to talk about Yamal. One in mid-July, when this talent turns 18. Another on June 1, although not certain, is a possibility. That is the day of the Champions League final.

Comparing Yamal with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is inevitable. It is worth mentioning that Yamal has far surpassed the two biggest monuments in the world football village of the past 15 years, at least in the beginning.

The numbers are clear, Yamal reached the milestone of 100 appearances for Barcelona, when he was not yet 18 years old. At 17, Messi had only played 9 matches, scored 1 goal and had no assists for Barcelona. Ronaldo played 19 matches, scored 5 goals and had 4 assists. And Yamal? He has scored 22 goals and had 33 assists in his last 100 matches.

Ronald de Boer is also a former Barcelona player, so he is certainly qualified to discuss this team. De Boer commented: “At 17, Yamal is above Messi.” De Boer added that this is not a spur-of-the-moment opinion, based on feelings. He discussed it with Henk ten Cate, assistant coach to coach Frank Rijkaard when Messi started his career at Barcelona. Yamal is “far ahead” of Messi, when comparing them at 17 years old.

Is it just because Yamal “started his career” at an earlier age than Messi and Ronaldo that he reached the 100-game milestone earlier and has a better record of scoring and assisting? Not so. Those are just numbers.

Both Messi and Ronaldo only really reached world-class level about 3-4 years after they first appeared in the senior team. Yamal is superior here. He is already a world-class star at this point.

This may be just a hypothetical view. However, based on the odds, Yamal is indeed the number 1 candidate for the title of “Golden Ball 2025”. This means that the world of football currently has no brighter star than Yamal right now, regardless of age.

Forget about age. In the first few years of playing at the top level, neither Ronaldo nor Messi were the pillars that decided the success or failure of their teams, both club and national team. Yamal is better in that people only knew about this star last year, but now Yamal has become a “VIP”, as he just showed in the match between Barcelona and Inter.

Mature like a mature superstar

Yamal is not only excellent in numbers. In fact, the “boy” plays football as if he were an adult, “giving” the feeling of fear, tension, and pressure to his opponents. This is one of the biggest and most important characteristics that makes Yamal a superstar at the age of 17.

The wonderful goal against Inter Milan is a testament to this trait. Perhaps it should be said the other way around, that Yamal’s confidence in his playing style is the reason for such a goal.

He plays as if he is just enjoying playing football. Very free and creative. There is no pressure (or no one feels it) when Yamal plays football. Remember, Yamal’s “masterpiece” goal against Inter came when Barcelona were 2 goals down at home, in the Champions League semi-final.

Here, we have to mention Yamal’s confidence at Euro 2024. The whole world waited to see how the “16-year-old boy” played in the record-setting match (youngest player ever to play at Euro). Too easily, Yamal had a successful assist in his debut match. Then the boy just started, wrote a series of Euro records in terms of age, until becoming the youngest player ever to participate in the scoring stage in the final of a major tournament (Euro or World Cup). Spain won the championship. In the whole tournament, no one assisted more goals than Yamal.

Playing football for fun, which leads to everything being easy and overcoming pressure as a matter of course, is a trait that only the “king of football” Pele had, in the era when football was still a simple game. Neither Messi nor Ronaldo can compare to Yamal in this detail.

The reason is easy to understand, modern football is so important that people used to define it as “hard work”, how could Messi or Ronaldo be comfortable. Until winning the 2022 World Cup, Messi always had a “miserable” image every time he wore the Argentina team shirt. Ronaldo had to pamper and take care of his image and professional appearance both on and off the field.

Is there a risk of burnout?

Since Yamal is only 17 years old and has been “carrying the team” for Barcelona, observers have raised a familiar problem: the risk of burnout. People have called on the Barcelona coaching staff to create conditions for Yamal to rest more. Saying that is no different from the story of “putting a bell around the cat’s neck”. Which coach would dare to let Yamal sit on the bench, when he is the brightest star in the world today? Not to mention, Barcelona is facing the opportunity to become the first team in history to achieve the “treble” three times. It is ridiculous to suggest that Barcelona find a way to let Yamal rest!

On the other hand, the milestone of “playing 100 games” for Barcelona, at the age of 17, is a source of pride and never a worry, not a “too much playing”. If any player cannot reach such a number, the only reason is that they are not talented enough (like Yamal).

The risk of injury is real for any professional player. There are stars who have almost never been injured in their entire lives (like Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United, or Thierry Henry of Arsenal), but those are rare lucky cases. The risk of burnout from playing too much is a different story.

Barcelona run a lot, and constantly, in their legendary “tiki-taka” style of play. But they move actively and regularly, so they don’t run out of energy during the match. On the contrary, opponents have to passively chase the ball, so they waste energy, even though they move less. In short, the physical problem is related to the style of play, not the amount of movement.

More generally, teams that play many matches but have a reasonable and scientific playing style are not necessarily at greater risk of exhaustion than teams that play fewer matches. However, Barcelona only needs to review Yamal’s individual playing style, as well as the team’s overall playing style, to minimize the risk of exhaustion. That is of course an important task for the team of experts. There is no need to remind Barcelona how to protect the precious gem that “appears once every 50 years” in their hands.