Yamal is making a claim as Europe’s best player

Excitement has long surrounded 17-year-old Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona, from his moment of perfection at the 2024 European Championship to the comparisons with Lionel Messi that he has been keen to avoid. (Instagram via fanstribehq)

By The Athletic Staff

After watching 17-year-old Lamine Yamal shine against his Inter team, manager Simone Inzaghi could not help but gush.

“Lamine is the kind of talent that comes along every 50 years,” Inzaghi said last week after a breathless 3-3 draw in the first leg of a Champions League semifinal.

In the afterglow of a Yamal’s performance, in which he scored once, turned defenders inside out and showed off his range of tricks, there was no shortage of praise.

“As a pure football talent, I’m going as far as to say I think Lamine Yamal is on another level to any player playing the game in the top five leagues in world football,” said former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand.

The draw with Inter was Yamal’s 100th appearance; in those matches, he has tallied 22 goals and 33 assists. At the same age, Cristiano Ronaldo had made 19 appearances (featuring five goals and four assists) and Lionel Messi had made nine, scoring once.

Excitement has long surrounded Yamal, from his moment of perfection at the 2024 European Championship to the comparisons with Messi that he has been keen to avoid. But is he already the best soccer player in Europe? And if he isn’t, who is?

Writers for The Athletic weigh in before the second leg of Barcelona’s tie with Inter on Tuesday.

Ballon d’Or in his future

If I could watch anyone play right now, it would be Lamine Yamal. Every time Yamal got the ball against Inter, you expected something to happen — and that something could be anything because of his incredible talent and the fact that he plays with so much freedom. His goal was breathtaking — a sinuous run and then a shot that was executed in a way (taken early, minimal backlift) that left Yann Sommer, the Inter goalkeeper, rooted.

To say that Yamal is the best in the world right now, at the age of 17, feels like a big claim. There’s an argument that he needs to score more prolifically, and for that reason, I would put him behind someone like Mohamed Salah, whose numbers are astonishing. But Yamal is a genius, and it’s a matter of when, not if, he wins the Ballon d’Or. — STUART JAMES

Part of the conversation

Yamal is phenomenal, and I love watching him. I would go so far as to say that I have never seen a better 17-year-old soccer player.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were incredibly talented, but they were not influencing games at the highest level at 17. What Yamal is doing is almost unheard of, but a word of caution: What Ansu Fati was doing at 17 was also extraordinary. Progression is rarely linear.

This season has brought arguments, at various points, for Mohamed Salah, Raphinha, Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Junior and Rodri, the deserving winner of last year’s Ballon d’Or. It is wonderful to think that a 17-year-old might be part of that conversation for years to come if he continues to develop. — OLIVER KAY

Salah with the edge

Yamal is the player I most enjoy watching at the moment, and to turn a Champions League semifinal in the way that he did, against players of that caliber, clearly describes ability that should terrify everyone.

But the best? I would still put Mohamed Salah ahead of him, on the numbers and the consistency of his output. Salah is still dominating opponents at 32, having been studied and strategized against for years, which is a hard value to quantify but clearly worth something.

It’s extremely close, though, and if you ask me again in a year, I will probably have changed my mind. — SEB STAFFORD-BLOOR

Key for Barcelona

Barcelona’s youngest player is already its on-pitch leader — his goal against Inter was the game’s key moment, coming with his team reeling at 2-0 down.

You keep having to remind yourself that he does not turn 18 for another few months. But he is already clearly Barcelona’s most important player. Nothing seems to faze him at all, and the really scary part is that he can still get a lot better. — DERMOT CORRIGAN