At a glance
- With Raphinha out injured, and Ferran Torres or Robert Lewandowski in mixed form, Lamine Yamal will have to step up for FC Barcelona.
- Confessing to enjoying his football again, the youngster is well-positioned to rise to the challenge.
- He’s been a thorn in Atletico Madrid’s side before, and needs to be across three meetings this month in La Liga and the Champions League.
FC Barcelona’s star teenager Lamine Yamal is used to having the weight of the world on his shoulders to deliver.
After all, while celebrating his 17th birthday on the road to victory, the La Masia gem helped deliver Spain the Euros on German soil in 2024 to emulate Pele in 1958.
Indeed, it was at the tournament that Lamine surpassed the Brazilian great by becoming the youngest player since him to score at a major tournament aged just 16 years and 362 days.
That was through an equaliser against France in the semi-final, where the Barça number 10 shut up Adrien Rabiot and made him eat his pre-semifinal comments with a typical curving wonder strike off his blessed left foot into the top corner.
Lamine then provided the assist for Nico Williams to score against England in an eventual final win, and went on to help the Blaugrana deliver a domestic treble in 2024/2025 in Hansi Flick‘s first season immediately after.
Lamine and FC Barcelona have new challenges
Scoring his first hat trick against Villarreal in a 4-1 win on February 28th, which ReadBarcelona witnessed up in the press box at the Spotify Camp Nou, Lamine in turn smashed another record by becoming the youngest ever player to take the match ball home in La Liga.
At full-time, the prodigy confessed to having had a monkey on his back yet now starting to enjoy himself again when speaking to Movistar.
“I didn’t feel well. It was a mixture of everything, plus the pubalgia that I think is already forgotten, but I wasn’t happy playing and I think it showed… For a week or so I feel much better, it makes me want to smile on the pitch, which I haven’t had for a long time, and I’m very happy. Now I’m happy playing,” Lamine said.
“People want me to score 100 goals at the age of 16, I would like to too, but little by little. Scoring a goal, two… Helping the team makes me very happy.”
Though this week there has been racist chanting while representing Spain to deal with, which both he and head coach Hansi Flick have addressed, Lamine seems well-positioned to face new challenges.
These are namely leading Barça to the Champions League final, retaining the La Liga title and then once again echoing Pele by delivering the World Cup for La Roja in the United States.
While it’s nothing new for him, though, he’ll have to do that pretty much on his own in attack – at least until May.
Raphinha’s absence is a huge blow
While the Brazilian was just beginning to find the kind of form that made him a Ballon d’Or contender alongside Lamine last term, Raphinha injured himself in a friendly for Brazil against France during the March international break.
The 29-year-old has hurt his right thigh again and will be out of action for another month.
This means he’s unavailable for three crunch La Liga and Champions League quarterfinal meetings with Atletico Madrid over the next 10 days or so, plus other important domestic fixtures.
Already terrorising Atleti in the Metropolitano in a 2-4 remontada ReadBarcelona experienced in the away end, Lamine will have to repeat those kind of exploits to become a European champion for club and country.
With 21 goals in all competitions, he’s exceeded his 18 strikes from last season while on course to eclipse 21 assists then with 15 at the beginning of April.
Though Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford has a golden opportunity to fill Raphinha’s void, the irregularity of Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski mean that, once more, it’s again down to a figure barely of adult age in Lamine to stand and deliver.
Last month, a carbon copy of that France screamer in San Mames to sink Athletic Club 1-0 out of nowhere was once again a reminder that such missions are ticked off as second nature for the golden boy.
