The 16-year-old has had an excellent start to his career, both for the club and for the national team, but he should not be compared to the GOAT.
The statue is barely five years old. A thin Lamine Yamal, wearing gray Nike gear and a Tottenham sweatshirt, poses with a smiling Messi. The photo serves to give context to one of the biggest problems in modern football. Barcelona,
Enter the final candidate: Lamine Yamal. The 16-year-old certainly meets a number of requirements. Here we have a left-footed winger playing on the right, full of dribbling skills and lots of technique. His low center of gravity and silky first touch make it difficult to take the ball away from him, and he has a clinical eye for the final pass. Does this sound familiar? But that’s where the similarities end.
Although Yamal has had a hugely promising start to his career with Barca and Spain, he can shake off comparisons with Messi. While his predecessors were burdened by it (and spent most of their careers trying and failing to reach those lofty heights), Yamal is too good in his own way.
He is no better than Messi. Not one who could be noticeably worse either. Rather, Yamal is an enormous talent who should be given the opportunity to forge his own path, a path that puts him on the path to truly becoming a world-class player.
Source: Goal