Sitting at Messi's table

A year ago, the imminent signing of Kylian Mbappé by Real Madrid was perceived as a tragedy at Barça, and some were already internalizing a worrying "there's nothing we can do." Needless to say, the club celebrated by making room for the supposed sixteenth-eared trophy in the trophy cabinet. In the bar comparison, Barça was coming off the loser: with such a young team and such a fragile economy... what could Barça do to change its destiny? Well, fate has rewritten its destiny, beyond the winning mind of Hansi Flick, a genius of just seventeen years old who wants to conquer the world. The Blaugrana have already taken two titles from Florentino Perez's team, are close to virtually winning La Liga right under their noses, and the Champions League throne is still within reach. thanks, in large part, to Lamine Yamal.

The first leg of the semi-final against Inter will be remembered with emotion as an almost biblical revelation. Lamine Yamal emerged, on a stage imposing due to the demands of the script, as the distinguishing actor capable of deciding the course of a match, not only with his legendary goal (and the balls hitting the crossbar and the crossbar) but, above all, with his decisive influence. Simone Inzaghi was still rubbing his eyes when, in the press room, he described him as a unique talent that comes along every fifty years… and since then, praise has piled up from former players of the caliber of Thierry Henry and Rio Ferdinand, as well as the admiration of the press. We already experienced this twenty years ago with the emergence of Leo Messi, but with two notable differences: his finishing wasn't as precocious, and the star who sustained the team was Ronaldinho.

A good way to understand what Lamine Yamal is doing is to travel back to February 2006 and review what Messi did at eighteen against Mourinho's Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. You already know how it went: the first leg of the round of 16, Del Horno and the "good theaterLamine Yamal can sit at the same table as that Messi and not only speak to him as an equal, but do so knowing he's a year ahead of him. La Masía is adding a new legend to the history of football, but it will be up to the striker from Rocafonda to establish himself in the Olympus of the greatest forever. He's a man of the age, with an insatiable and merciless hunger to be the best. That hunger—and the club's help to feed it—will be the bar that sets Lamine Yamal's career and will determine whether this is not only his year, but also the beginning of a new era.