The multiple meanings of Lamine Yamal's latest planetarium show

BarcelonaLamine Yamal now has his favorite goal for Barça. Until now, admitted by the pearl of the Barça youth academy herself, his favorite was the one he scored in the semifinals against France in last summer's European Championship with the Spanish national team. Although he had already begun to show what he was capable of with the Catalan club after debuting with Xavi Hernández, it was that goal with the Spanish national team that made his name resonate throughout the football world: it was a showcase for being decisive in the championship that pits the best teams on the continent against each other. Spain won the competition, and Lamine Yamal was named the tournament's best young player.

With the European Championship in his bag, the Barça winger began this season as the main icon of a squad with virtually no changes—the only two new faces were Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor, who had already played for the reserve team on loan from Girona last season—with the responsibility of Rocafonda. On the contrary, it's in the matches marked on the calendar that he shines the most. After a mediocre performance in the first leg in Lisbon, Lamine Yamal secured Barça's victory at Montjuïc. He did so, moreover, breaking a new record for precocity: at 17 years and 241 days old, he became the youngest player to score and assist in a Champions League match.

"I told Dani [Olmo] that what I like are the second leg matches," explained Lamine Yamal after the match. His goal was superlative. A pass into the back of the net flew over the head of goalkeeper Anatoli Trubin, who could only follow the ball's trajectory from Lamine Yamal's left foot until it slid into his own net. "It's the best thing I've achieved with Barça. It was on par with what I scored in the European Championship." Earlier, he had assisted Raphinha in a move that was reminiscent of a legendary goal from Messi's long list of goals as a Barça player.

On May 6, 2015, in a match between Barça and Bayern Munich, the Argentine star broke down Boateng's marking. After hiding to face inside, he broke his defender's waist and escaped to the outside, leaving the defender stretched out in Neuer's box, who ended up collecting the ball from the back of the net. "Football is a game of deception," says Paco Seirul lo. Without intending to, a product of the naturalness characteristic of youth, Lamine Yamal emulated Messi almost a decade later by beating Florentino Perez with his dribbling. Raphinha, opportune and accurate, finished the play cooked up by his best partner up front. "I have to thank Raphinha, I tried to shoot..." confessed Lamine Yamal, amused.

The most outstanding talent at La Masia since Messi

The similarities between Lamine Yamal and Messi certainly don't end there. When the winger from Rocafonda was developing in the youth academy, it wasn't unusual for several coaches at the club to agree that, since the Argentine, he was the greatest talent they had seen developing at La Masia. Barça signed him when he was 7 years old and playing for CF La Torreta, a modest sports club in La Roca del Vallès, whose facilities are close to where he lived at the time with his mother, Sheila. Barça normally holds trial matches with several players to see if they can sign them for the youth teams, as they did, for example, with Leo Messi. However, in the case of Lamine Yamal, he went straight into the Blaugrana under-18s, as Rafa Rodríguez, former president of La Torreta, told ARA.

"When they're so young, you're never sure if you'll get it right, but we knew we had to sign him," explains Jordi Roura, who was in charge of youth football at the time. "It wasn't difficult for him to adapt his creativity and originality to Barça's football philosophy, based on positional play and rondos," says Jordi Font, who coached Lamine Yamal in the U14 A team. "He wasn't just a disruptive force and stood out for his technique, but also for how he shaped up and what he saw. They were so young." That child, now a teenager, is already scoring goals without even reaching the age of majority.