Recently, a picture of Lamine Yamal being held by superstar Lionel Messi since he was a baby appeared. For Barca fans, it is a symbol of continuity. The 17-year-old football prodigy is ready to take on the responsibility of reviving the Catalan team.
Lamine Yamal hopes to become the next Barca player, after Lionel Messi, to win the “Golden Ball”
Yamal not for sale at any price
Immediately after the EURO 2024 finals ended with the championship belonging to the Spanish national team, PSG immediately contacted Barca to buy striker Lamine Yamal . The French rich guy at that time offered a transfer fee of up to… 200 million euros in the hope of getting the signature of the star who was awarded the “Best Young Player” award by UEFA at the recent EURO.
That was the shocking revelation from Barca president Joan Laporta in a recent interview. Of course, PSG was flatly rejected. Yamal is not a player for sale. This 17-year-old striker is even considered Barca’s biggest hope in the 2024/25 season. Figuratively speaking, if Camp Nou is considered a kingdom, then the Spanish player is the “national treasure”.
More than ever, Barca is expecting an explosive season from Yamal, just like the way he stepped into the light at EURO 2024. Because since Lionel Messi left, the Catalan team has lost its symbol. They have not yet found anyone with enough talent and scope to continue the role of the owner of 8 “Golden Ball” titles, although before that there were stars with high expectations such as Ansu Fati, Pedri or Gavi…
Barca expects Yamal to shine in the 2024/25 season after the EURO 2024 boost
Barca determined to build future with Yamal
Barca have recently been in crisis. They are drowning in debt of more than 1 billion euros. The Catalan club has repeatedly applied “financial leverage” measures, but has not yet found the light at the end of the tunnel. And as scheduled, before the 2024/25 season, Barca is again facing difficulties in registering new players (Dani Olmo and Pau Victor are still not eligible to play), due to the “barrier” of the salary ceiling of the La Liga organizing committee.
Also due to numerous financial difficulties, Barca cannot spend money to buy stars. For example, the Catalan team really wanted to bring winger Nico Willams to Camp Nou to pair with Yamal. But the dream of owning the “angel wings” of the Spanish national team could not come true, simply because Barca did not have enough funds to meet the transfer price set by Bilbao. With no other choice, Barca was forced to raise the La Masia flag high this summer with Yamal as the “locomotive”.
President Laporta is hopeful that history will repeat itself with the Catalan team. Remember, during his previous term, Barca fell into a similar situation. At that time, stars like Rafael Marquez, Deco, especially Ronaldinho… were past their prime. Barca had to rebuild the team in the summer of 2008 and they decided to put their faith in the class of players they trained themselves like Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi… Then, under the leadership of young coach Pep Guardiola, Barca went through one of the most glorious periods in history, starting with the “Six Treble” in 2009.
Will Yamal inspire Barca’s young players in the 2024/25 season?
An outstanding talent has been recognized
After EURO 2024, Yamal has risen to a new position, not much different from when Messi first emerged. The Spanish football prodigy even “started” better than his senior. In Germany this summer, Yamal became the youngest player to score at a EURO. He scored a super goal against France at the age of 16 years and 362 days, and that was the turning point that helped the Spanish team overcome the semi-finals, then beat England to win the championship in a worthy way.
Surely many people still remember, when he was first appointed to lead the Spanish national team, coach Luis de La Fuente was extremely surprised by Yamal’s extraordinary talent. He did not hesitate to call him “the second Messi”. That comparison once made Barca coach Xavi feel dissatisfied, because he was afraid that Yamal would be stunted by pressure. But it did not take long for Mr. De la Fuente to prove to the world that his comment was completely correct.
Yamal has all the qualities to become “the second Messi”. He has speed, possesses superb personal technique, passes, dribbles, one-touch passes and finishes are all excellent. Commenting on this prodigy before the EURO 2024 quarter-finals, German national team head coach Julian Nagelsmann once emphasized: “Lamine Yamal is very good in one-on-one situations. You cannot always defend against a flexible player who constantly moves to the wing and into the middle like him. Yamal’s left foot is extremely good and he can also use his right foot excellently.”
Yamal was once held by Messi when he was a baby.
More importantly, Yamal is so confident that he is not afraid. At EURO 2024, despite facing “veterans” like Toni Kroos or Antonio Rudiger of the German national team as well as William Saliba and N’Golo Kante of the French national team, the young star of Barca always showed great composure and handled the ball very “smoothly”. Watching this football prodigy play, it feels like he plays football as carefree as a child, in the style of “A Calf is not afraid of a Tiger”.
With that style, Yamal can absolutely become an inspiration for his young teammates at Barca right now. As mentioned in the previous section, in the context of facing many financial difficulties, the Catalan team really wants to rise up by its own strength in the 2024/25 season, by raising the La Masia flag. “Homegrown” players like Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez…, and young stars recently recruited to Camp Nou like Pablo Torre, Victor Roque or Pau Victor… can absolutely see Yamal as a shining example to look up to and “raise the flag of uprising”.
Will Yamal be the counterweight to Mbappe?
Before the start of La Liga 2024/25, Barca was rated by experts as being much lower than their “arch-enemy” Real Madrid in the race for the championship. This is not too difficult to understand, when the team that won the championship of the capital Madrid team last season was also equipped with a “heavy weapon” named Kylian Mbappe – a new star who just joined Bernabeu from PSG on a free transfer and was the “Top scorer” at the 2022 World Cup with 8 goals.
The Mbappe vs Yamal battle in El Clasico matches in the 2024/25 season promises to be very interesting
But Barca fans don’t see any problem with Mbappe’s appearance in La Liga 2024/25. Because they already have Yamal to counterbalance the French goal machine in the battles with Real Madrid. If before the El Clasico matches in the past two decades, people always mentioned the talent competition between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, then from this season onwards, that will most likely be repeated with the “shootout” between Yamal and Mbappe.
However, in football, nothing is impossible, Yamal needs to be very cautious. In the past, there have been many young Barca players who were praised as “the second Messi”. Names such as Giovanni dos Santos, Bojan Kirkic, or most recently Ansu Fati… However, those stars only flashed across the Camp Nou sky like comets, then faded away. Barca also had very famous players in major tournaments, typically midfielders Pedri and Gavi, but unfortunately they later “regressed” due to injuries.
Yamal really needs to look at those who have gone before him, to avoid making the same mistakes. Only then can he meet the expectations of President Laporta and Barca fans: to become the new icon at Camp Nou after Lionel Messi!
