Lamine Yamal, a 16-year-old prodigy, is supposed to usher in a new era of football, but coach Xavi won’t put his pupil up against Lionel Messi.
At Estadio do Dragao, Barca is Porto’s guest in round two of Group H of the Champions League. At the age of 16, Messi made his Barca debut here in a friendly game against Porto in 2003.
Yamal, who has played nine games across all competitions this season and inspired a counterattack from veteran midfielder Sergio Ramos, is another young player that Barcelona now has. Yamal helped Barca defeat Sevilla 1-0 in La Liga last week. On October 2, Yamal agreed to a new deal with a release clause for one billion euros, or 1.05 billion US dollars, through June 2026. If he scores against Porto today, he would surpass Ansu Fati’s record set in the Barca match against Inter in 2019 at the age of just 17 and become the youngest player to score in the Champions League.
When asked about parallels between Messi and Yamal during the pre-game press conference, Xavi said: “I hope Yamal can mark an era in modern football, but such comparisons do not help anything.” Yamal is playing at a very high level at the age of 16, which is good considering the enormous expectations. Do not contrast Yamal with Messi, though; instead, wait and see what the future brings. For those who have been compared to Messi, it didn’t go so well.
In actuality, a lot of players fall short of what is expected of them as Messi’s successors at Camp Nou. Bojan Krkic was once regarded as the most potential young striker on the Barcelona team and grew up at the La Masia training facility. When he was just 17 years old and 22 days old, he even surpassed Messi’s own record for being the youngest Barcelona player to play in La Liga in the Champions League. Prior to his retirement in March, the Spanish striker was forced to leave Camp Nou and join Roma, Milan, Ajax, Stoke City, or Vissel Kobe since he was unable to contend for a position there.
The most recent is Fati, who was promoted to Barca’s first squad for the 2019–2020 season and grew up in La Masia. After Messi’s contract expired and he went to PSG in the summer of 2021, the Spanish striker switched to shirt number 10, then wore numbers 22, 17, and finally 10. The 20-year-old player is tipped to establish himself as a new emblem for Camp Nou, but a string of ailments has slowed down his progress. Fati only started 12 La Liga games last year, came on as a substitute in the other 24, contributed to seven and four goals, and this summer joined Brighton on loan.