- 5 hours ago
Barcelona sign star who will SAVE Lamine Yamal’s career
Analysis
Barcelona have made a signing that will probably save Lamine Yamal's career.
After a quick round of negotiations, Barcelona have signed Roony Bardghji from Copenhagen for approximately €2 million (plus add-ons).
Roony (remember the name!) is a 19 year-old Swedish winger with a bag of tricks up his sleeve and a game-winning Champions League goal against Man Utd under his belt.
Current ETV
Roony Bardghji
F (CR)
Kobenhavn
Roony Bardghji
F (CR)
Kobenhavn
ETV Range
€9.7M - €11.9M
And while he arrives at Barcelona to little fanfare, being massively overshadowed by the club's pursuit of Nico Williams, he could have just as big a role as the Basque winger in helping to save Lamine Yamal.
Sort of.
While Nico Williams could be used as part of a three-man wing rotation with Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, odds are Hansi Flick will try and find a way to get all three men on the pitch at the same time as often as he can.
Current ETV
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
ETV Range
€63.5M - €77.7M
This will mean less rest for Lamine Yamal than Barcelona fans had hoped, especially as Nico and Raphinha are both better on the left, so if anyone's rotating it's those two.
Lamine Yamal is playing too much
Last season Lamine Yamal played 4,553 minutes for Barcelona. That's the third-most in the squad only behind Pedri (4,646 minutes) and Raphinha (4,661).
And that's not including the 606 minutes he played for Spain this season, nor the 508 minutes he played for Spain at Euro 2024 before the season began.
All told, Lamine Yamal is clearing 5,000 minutes for club and country. That is quite simply too much football for him to be playing.
While Pedri and Raphinha have more, Pedri will naturally have more chances to rest and rotate due to the increasing options to play his position available for Barcelona (Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, Marc Casado and Marc Bernal). Meanwhile Raphinha is a 28 year-old man at the peak of his physical prowess.
Lamine Yamal is 17 years-old.
STATS
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Barcelona
Lamine Yamal
M, AM (R)
Barcelona
Ok he's soon to be 18, but he's still far too young to be playing that much. If he keeps playing at that rate then, like Michael Owen or Ansu Fati before him, he could be completely burned out by 25. Done as a top level performer because the accumulation of minutes just wrecked his body in some horrendous way.
Lamine Yamal needs to be rested, rotated, protected - even from himself as I'm sure if you asked him he'd constantly say he was fine to play (as he did against Red Star Belgrade this season when he carried on playing after taking a knock and then missed time through injury).
STATS
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
Obviously Nico Williams could certainly provide that but given the rumours about Raphinha taking up a central role, it seems like the Basque winger will be a starter.
And while there is Dani Rodriguez at the club, another 19 year-old winger this time from La Masia, he is prone to injury as seen last season on debut he dislocated his shoulder trying to hold a defender off. This after a season disrupted by hamstring trouble.
No, Dani Rodriguez is unlikely to be a factor for a couple years until his body stops breaking every few seconds.
Roony Bardghji: the ideal back-up?
Roony Bardghji, though?
STATS
Roony Bardghji
F (CR)
Kobenhavn
Roony Bardghji
F (CR)
Kobenhavn
This is a young talent coming off a bad injury, he wouldn't be able to handle a full load of games anyway. But 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there?
Instead of leaving Lamine Yamal on at the end of games because whenever he goes off Barcelona loses their main dynamic dribbler in tight spaces, you could get the teenager some rest and give that role to Roony, it's a role he knows how to play.
Roony has a stocky, powerful frame and is able to ride through contact. He packs a mean left-footed shot, can dribble through pressure and has an eye for a neat flick or first-time pass.
He's obviously a raw prospect, far moreso than the younger Lamine Yamal, but he has that same kind of spark that makes Lamine Yamal light up the game.
That spark makes him unpredictable and dangerous to opponents, which is the key quality Lamine Yamal brings and why he is so omnipresent to his own physical detriment.
Roony Bardghji's €2 million fee and low wages mean Barcelona don't have to stress too much about finding him significant minutes. This is the definition of a low-risk deal.
Hansi Flick can just keep Roony on hand to bring on for Lamine Yamal, maybe just for 10-20 minutes in games where they're winning, but add up all those 20 minute cameos as the season wears on and you start seeing significant gains.
Not to mention the potential to just straight rest Lamine Yamal for certain games, not even have to bring him on. Whether that's Roony Bardghji starting, or him coming off the bench for Nico Williams... he provides depth.
And that depth is going to be what allows Hansi Flick to give Lamine Yamal more rest, and that additional rest is going to be what prolongs Lamine Yamal's career.
And who doesn't want more Lamine Yamal?!
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