At a club as massive as FC Barcelona, comparisons between current and former players are to be expected. The Catalan club has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to former icons of the sport. However, especially for Barcelona, there is a clear winner when it comes to who the club’s biggest icon is.
Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, a player who even has the FIFA World Cup and four UEFA Champions League titles in his collection, is the man who is being referred to.
Whenever a promising new talent emerges and makes waves across the world of football, one of the first comparisons that often arises is whether they can be considered the rightful heir to Lionel Messi himself.
This happened with Ansu Fati in the past, and that ultimately did not end up working out so well. Now, however, the player who draws the most comparisons to the former Barcelona superstar, and even more so than what Fati managed, is 17-year-old winger Lamine Yamal.
However, Barcelona captain Raphinha seems to believe that the young La Masia prodigy is ‘more similar’ to a player other than Lionel Messi when it comes to his way of playing and he made this claim in a recent interview with El Pais. Interestingly, that player is also a former Barcelona star who left the club in 2017:
“I see him as more similar to Neymar. The dribbling, how quickly he thinks to get past opponents. When you think you can take the ball from him, he does something you’ve never seen in your life.”
However, the Brazilian forward did not leave without giving Messi his deserved praise as well during the interview: “Messi is from another world. Inexplicable.”
When it comes to Lamine Yamal, however, this particular comparison would be something that the young player will likely look fondly towards. Given the fact that while he has admitted that Messi is the greatest player in the sport, the 17-year-old forward was always more inspired by the way Neymar used to play.
Ultimately, that inspiration can now be seen in Yamal’s own game as well. From his flair to his creativity, the young Barcelona gem is a product of La Masia but with a unique flair to his game that comes from the unmistakable essentials of street football, which is also something that he holds a special connection to.