-
News
- 10 hours ago
Is Lamine Yamal the best 17 year-old in football history?
Analysis
Is Lamine Yamal the greatest 17 year-old footballer of all-time?
Lamine Yamal's performance against Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-finals was so devastatingly dynamic that people are now asking if he's the best to ever do it at 17.
Current ETV
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Barcelona
ETV Range
€155.9M - €190.5M
A bold claim, but consider that Lamine Yamal won Euro 2024 just days after his 17th birthday and is an established starter for Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
He's already won the Supercopa and the Copa del Rey this season (defeating Real Madrid in both finals) and he has a great chance to win La Liga and the Champions League too.
He just dominated Inter Milan and became the youngest ever player to score in a Champions League semi-final (just one of many "youngest ever to X" records he holds).
READ MORE: The INSANE Raphinha transfer that Rio Ferdinand doesn't know about
Lamine Yamal has completed the most take-ons in Europe's top five leagues (131) and the Champions League (42).
He also has the most goal creating actions in Europe's top five leagues (26, level with Mohamed Salah) and the Champions League (11, level with Pedri and Raphinha).
STATS
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Barcelona
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Barcelona
He is Barcelona's chief playmaker in the final third. The one they all look for. When the ball is at his feet you can hear excitement ripple through the crowd. He moves with a superstar aura, can look iconic even with a terrible haircut, speaks with the confident, near-arrogant authority of an NBA veteran, and then backs it up on the pitch.
But... is he the best 17 year-old ever?
Kylian Mbappe
Mbappe's terror of a breakout season in 2016/17 saw him capture Ligue 1 with AS Monaco and make the Champions League semi-finals. He was a staggeringly complete player and a terrifying force of nature.
Was Kylian Mbappe better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Mostly because Mbappe's birthday is in December and while he was good in the first half of the season he only really exploded after turning 18.
STATS
Kylian Mbappé
F (C)
Real Madrid
Kylian Mbappé
F (C)
Real Madrid
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Donnarumma is just 26 but already has a decade of experience at the top flight level. He made his debut for Milan and much like Yamal was an established starter by the time he turned 17.
Was Gianluigi Donnarumma better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. While he deserves huge credit for being established as a starting goalkeeper even at 17, he wasn't among the best in the world as Lamine Yamal is.
READ MORE: Pep Guardiola has BRAINWASHED people into hating Donnarumma
Romelu Lukaku
Lukaku has always been a physical marvel and debuted just 11 days after turning 16. He was a first-team regular as a 16 year-old, scoring 19 times in 45 appearances in his debut season. And then bagging 20 in 50 the next campaign when he was 17. He had even played a handful of games for Belgium, scoring twice.
Was Romelu Lukaku better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Lukaku's goalscoring consistency makes this close, but Lamine Yamal's performances against the very best teams in the world at the very highest levels of the game put him ahead.
STATS
Romelu Lukaku
F (C)
Napoli
Romelu Lukaku
F (C)
Napoli
Sergio Aguero
Like Lamine Yamal, Aguero debuted as a 15 year-old with Independiente in Argentina. During the season he was 17 he played 36 times and scored 18 goals.
Was Sergio Aguero better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Aguero was quality for sure but doing it in Argentina and doing it against the best of the best in Europe is, with the greatest of respect, very different.
READ MORE: The 10 worst transfers of the season in Europe
Lionel Messi
The greatest footballer of all-time, Lionel Messi, was also a left-footed right-winger out of La Masia. You know the deal.
Was Lionel Messi better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Messi's true breakout game (tormenting Jose Mourinho's Chelsea in February 2006) came when he was 18 and, even then, injuries limited what he could do in his first few seasons in Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona side.
Wayne Rooney
"Wayne Rooney, remember the name!" cried the commentator as a 16 year-old Rooney bent a barely believable 25 yarder in to defeat defending Premier League champions Arsenal and end their long unbeaten run.
The things Wayne Rooney was doing as a teenager, before all the fun was taken out of his game in the name of efficiency and tactical rigour, were devastatingly good fun. A proper street footballer.
Was Wayne Rooney better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. At 17 Rooney was fun but ineffective for Everton. He didn't truly take off until he joined Man Utd, by which time he was already 18 years-old.
Michael Owen
Before his hamstrings went, Michael Owen was a blur. A tiny striker in a shirt three times too big for him running like he had rocket boots on.
Was Michael Owen better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Owen's first full season at Liverpool started when he was 17 and saw him score 23 goals across all competition but, like Mbappe, he didn't truly take off until after he had already turned 18.
Gianluigi Buffon
Imagine being a 17 year-old goalkeeper and being asked to go out and make your debut against the best team in the world (AC Milan) in the best league in the world (90's Serie A). And still keeping a clean sheet. That's what Gianluigi Buffon did back in 1995.
Was Gianluigi Buffon better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No, but it's closer than anyone else so far. Buffon was an established starting goalkeeper at 17 and unlike Donnarumma did it in the best era of Serie A where he would play against some of the very best players in the world.
Raul
Mr. Champions League is one of the game's most overlooked greats, and he debuted as a 17 year-old under Jorge Valdano, taking the legendary Emiliano Butragueno's spot.
Was Raul better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Raul was a Real Madrid regular at 17, and they did win La Liga that year, but he wasn't a focal part of the team in the same way Lamine Yamal is.
Ronaldo
El Fenomeno himself. Ronaldo was like nothing the world had seen for years when he debuted. Shooting to fame with PSV and really setting the world alight for Sir Bobby Robson's Barcelona, Ronaldo was like if someone combined Lamine Yamal's dribbling, Raphinha's speed and Robert Lewandowski's strength. He was preposterous.
Was Ronaldo better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. While Ronaldo was a truly terrifying prospect, and showed hints of his genius at 17, he didn't explode until he turned 18 at which point he just never stopped until his knees exploded in 1999.
Diego Maradona
Like his eventual son in-law Aguero, Maradona debuted at 15. By the time he turned 17 he was terrorising the Argentine Primera Division for Argentinos Juniors.
Was Diego Maradona better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
No. Maradona was a sensational teenage talent and was so good that Argentina genuinely considered taking him to the 1978 World Cup when he was just 18, but at 17 he was not the world-conquering force Lamine Yamal is.
Pele
Pele turned 18 in October 1958.
By that time he had scored 130 goals for Santos and Brasil and won the World Cup by scoring once in the quarter-final, twice in the semi-final and twice in the final including arguably the greatest goal ever scored in a World Cup final to this day.
All as a 17 year-old.
Was Pele better than Lamine Yamal at 17?
Yes.
Come on, what are we doing here?
It's Pele!
They don't call him O Rei for nothing.
