After having an astounding last season, in which he got promoted to the FC Barcelona first team and went on to establish himself as a key player for Xavi, Lamine Yamal is having an even better start to the 2024-25 season.
The Barcelona youngster played an integral role in helping his Spanish national team win the UEFA EURO 2024 in the summer and started the new season with very good form. In five league matches up to now, Yamal already has three goals and four assists to his name.
With such performances throughout the last year, he is currently one of the favorites to win the upcoming Golden Boy award. While there is still some time before this award will be officially handed out, it already seems that Yamal is destined to win it.
As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the latest indication of such a possibility came as the media group that hands this award, Tutto Sport, along with the consultancy group Football Benchmark, undertook and published a statistical analysis of the candidates vying for this honor.
This monthly ranking highlighted the young talents born after 1st January 2004, who are making a mark in the top European football leagues. Using big data statistics, the consultancy published a list of players in which the Barcelona star was ranked at the top with a rating of 94.4 out of 100.
Yamal was followed by the Paris Saint Germain midfielder Joao Neves and the Manchester United forward Alejandro Garnacho completed the podium. Other Barcelona players in this list include Pau Cubarsi and Gavi, the Real Madrid player Arda Guler is also one of the names on this list.
Yamal has played 4,184 minutes last year, which is higher than any previous winner of the Golden Boy award at his age. The Real Madrid midfielder, Jude Bellingham, who won the award last time, stands second on the list with 2,944 minutes at this age.
For comparison, some of the biggest names in the history of European football, including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, and Xavi Hernandez had not played even a single minute as a professional at such an age.
