Giovanni van Bronckhorst spent four years of his playing career at Barcelona and left with a Champions League medal. On Wednesday night he came back to the Spotify Camp Nou as an opposing manager, watched his Feyenoord side taken apart 5-1, and then delivered the most generous assessment of Lamine Yamal any rival coach has offered this season.
Van Bronckhorst on Lamine Yamal: ‘I see him like Messi and Ronaldinho’
Asked about the 19-year-old, who scored and wore the captain’s armband late on, the Dutchman did not reach for the usual qualifiers about age and patience.
“At his age he has already won everything. The fans love him. He can win the Ballon d’Or. I see him like Messi and Ronaldinho,” Van Bronckhorst said in his post-match press conference, per Mundo Deportivo.
He then refused to put a ceiling on the forward at all: “He can win it. The question is when.”
It was not a line invented in the aftermath of a hammering. Van Bronckhorst had said something similar on the eve of the tie, telling reporters that people come to the stadium specifically to watch Yamal and that he had no doubt about the player’s potential. Ninety minutes of watching him from the visiting technical area only firmed up the view.
‘Barca is the best team in the world right now’
The verdict on the team was just as emphatic. “If you see how they play, Barca is the best team in the world right now,” Van Bronckhorst said, before adding the line that will travel furthest in Catalonia: “Barca can win this Champions League.”
He declined to hide behind the scoreline. Feyenoord, he insisted, had not travelled to park the bus, even if Raphinha’s goal inside three minutes reshaped the evening. “We had chances. We tried to score,” he said. “There are many things to improve on. You pay for your mistakes. You can learn a lot from the opposition, even though we are very different teams. There is a difference in quality.”
The numbers backed him up. Hansi Flick’s side held 72 per cent of the ball, scored through Raphinha twice, Karim Adeyemi, Yamal and Gabriel Jesus, and sit second in the league-phase table on goal difference alone behind Paris Saint-Germain. It was the fourth time in five matches this season that the Blaugrana have scored five. Our full report on the 5-1 win over Feyenoord has the detail.
A homecoming, of sorts
The night carried a private significance for Van Bronckhorst, who was part of the Barca squad that lifted the trophy in Paris in 2006. “I was focused on the match; I recognised some people, whom I greeted,” he said. “I have very fond memories of this club.”
That history is part of why the compliment lands differently. This is not a neutral observer talking up a teenager. It is a former Barca left-back, a European champion with the club, watching a side he knows how to measure and concluding that they are the best there is.
Flick agrees on the Ballon d’Or
Van Bronckhorst was not alone. Flick, asked the same question, gave the answer you would expect from a manager and meant every word of it. “He’s my player, so of course I do. He deserves to win the Ballon d’Or,” the German said, per Mundo Deportivo. “He’s an exceptional, special player. Anyone who watches his matches knows he deserves it.”
Yamal is up for the award for a record third time, and Wednesday was also the night he became the youngest captain in Barcelona’s history, taking the armband once Raphinha — the club captain, and the scorer of two of the five — had been withdrawn. He marked it with a goal.
The ceremony is still to come. On the evidence of Wednesday night, the opposition dugout has already voted.
