Lamine Yamal's career ACHIEVEMENTS so far as Lionel Messi EMULATED

Bence Bocsák

• 15 Jul 2024 10:00 BST
• 3 min read

It was ordained from the beginning. During Euro 2024, Lamine Yamal's father shared a picture of Lionel Messi seemingly blessing his son when Yamal was only six months old.

The photo was for a calendar shot by UNICEF back in 2007 and it now serves as a remarkable piece of foreshadowing of the wonderkid who now many believe could be successor to Messi's throne, not just at Barcelona but at the pinnacle of the footballing world.

Yamal's performance against England in Berlin on Sunday night was more confirmation of that, with the 17 year old running his opponents rugged in the final of Euro 2024.

He has now become the youngest ever player to play in the final of either the World Cup or the European Championship at just 17 years and 1 days old - breaking Pele's 66 year record - who was 17 days and 249 days old when he won the World Cup with Brazil back in 1958.

But that is not the only record which now Yamal holds.

Ever since bursting onto the scene at Barcelona just over 12 months ago, he has been breaking one record to another.

Lamine Yamal's records at the European Championship

Yamal is the youngest ever player to appear in the finals of the European Championship making his debut in the competition at 16 years and 338 days.

He is the youngest player to feature in the knock-out stages of the competition, breaking the record Jude Bellingham set back in 2021.

He is also the youngest player to score in the competition's history, netting a crucial strike against France in the semi-final of the competition just four days before his 17th birthday.

And he's also the youngest player to register an assist in a major tournament final after setting up Nico Williams' goal in the final.

Lamine Yamal's records for Spain and Barcelona

Yamal was the youngest player in a century for Barcelona when he made his debut for the club last year at just 15 years, 9 months, and 16 days old.

Yamal is also the youngest goal-scorer of all time for Barcelona at just 16 years, two months and 25 days. He was a year and almost eight months older than Lionel Messi when the Argentine scored his first goal for the Catalans.

For Spain, Yamal is the youngest player to debut for the senior national team of all time at 16 years and 57 days old. He is also the youngest player to score for Spain after netting on his debut against Georgia during a 7-1 victory in a Euro 2024 qualifier.

As well as those records, Yamal also broke the following records last season:

- Becoming the youngest starter for Barcelona in La Liga.

- The youngest player to record an assist.

- The youngest to score for Barcelona and in La Liga.

- The youngest player to feature for Barcelona in El Clásico.

- The youngest player to score a brace in La Liga and first player ever to achieve this record under the age of 17.

- The youngest player to register more than 10 goal contributions in La Liga at 16 years and 213 days.

- The youngest player named in a starting line-up in the Champions League.

- The youngest player to play in the knockout phase of the Champions League.

Lamine Yamal's achievements

Yamal has now won the European Championship and was also named as the Best Young Player of the Tournament.

He's also won La Liga with Barcelona back in the 2022/23 campaign and finished as the top-scorer of the U17 European Championships last year.

Last season he was voted the La Liga U23 Player of the Season and the Emerging Player at the Globe Soccer awards.

At 17 years old, he's got a record collection that even the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo couldn't compete with at the same age. Having shown he is more than capable of performing at the highest of stages, it is no exaggeration to say the sky is the limit for the teenage super talent.