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Lamine Yamal has already announced himself as one of the world’s elite attacking forces, but as he nears his 100th game for Barcelona, stats have shown just how close to Lionel Messi he actually is.
Yamal and Barcelona will take on Inter Milan on Wednesday night at the San Siro in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash, and the youngster is currently on red-hot form.
The 17-year-old, who spear-headed Spain’s European Championship victory last summer, already has 14 goals and 20 assists to his name this term from 48 games.
Along with Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha he is also firing the Catalan giants towards a potential treble this term, having already pocketed the Copa del Rey last weekend.
Any youngster who erupts out the blocks like Yamal has from Barcelona, naturally draws comparison to the greatest of all greats in Messi, and the 17-year-old has seemingly tried to distance himself from those links.
But ahead of his century of Blaugrana appearances, those connections are impossible to ignore, especially as he is already three years ahead of Messi in that regard.
Lamine Yamal will make his 100th appearance for Barcelona on Thursday against Inter Milan
His stats are eerily similar to those of Barcelona’s greatest legend of all in Lionel Messi
In a bizarre twist of fate Messi and Yamal featured in a photoshoot before the former was at the peak of his powers back in 2007
Messi played his 100th match back in 2010 under Pep Guardiola, and by that time he had already scored a stunning 41 goals and provided 14 assists.
Yamal, meanwhile has managed to rack up 21 goals and 33 assists, putting him just one contribution behind the great Messi’s tally.
Similarly, Yamal has won three trophies with Barca to Messi’s four, and that’s not counting international honours; the former of course earned a Euros crown in 2024, while the latter won the Olympic Games gold medal in 2008.
Messi, it’s worth pointing out, had also won the first of his eight Ballon d’Or awards before his 100th game, which of course Yamal has not quite managed yet.
The Argentine legend went on to make 778 appearances, and in that time he somehow managed 672 goals and 303 assists for the Blaugrana, a staggering rate of 1.17 contributions per game.
Messi left in 2021 for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, and is now in the MLS with Inter Miami, having added a World Cup and two Copa Americas to his litany of club trophies.
The two bizarrely featured in a photoshoot together before Messi was at the peak of his powers and Yamal was just a young child back in 2007.
Yamal’s career trajectory has been quite frankly frightening, but if he can continue that path, then he could even see himself cropping up in conversations with Messi on a very regular basis indeed for the next two decades.
