A teen with no desire to be Messi: How Lamine Yamal is forging own path

"Yes," Ferdinand replied on ESPN. "His potential or ceiling might be better than theirs. The body of work at 17 years old - no-one has done it. Pele may have, but I didn't see Pele."

Figure caption,

Lamine Yamal - The Boy King

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has watched Lamine Yamal develop across age groups with the national team and believes what he is seeing is not just talent.

"He is a player blessed by God. Football geniuses have something special, and he has it," De la Fuente said. "You can immediately see those kinds of footballers who are touched by magic that says: you are going to be special."

Hansi Flick, who sees him in training every day and has watched him perform in the biggest matches all season, uses similar language.

The Barcelona head coach said: "He is special, he is a genius. In the big matches, he shows up. Players do not usually reach this level of maturity until they are 24 or 25 years old. If this kind of talent only comes every half-century, I am glad it is for Barcelona."

What separates Lamine Yamal from most prodigies is he is not trying to become Messi. He admires him, but there is a quiet stubbornness in how he frames his own ambition.

"For me, Messi is the greatest football player in history," he said. "He is a legend and I do not find myself worthy of being compared to him.

"I do not want to be Messi and he knows it. I want to follow my own path."

The same applies when Cristiano Ronaldo enters the conversation. Lamine Yamal does not dismiss the comparison or the legacy - he just declines to organise his ambition around it.

"It is best not to compare yourself to anyone," he said at an awards ceremony.

"Players like Cristiano Ronaldo did what they did because they wanted to be themselves. I try to be me, play my game, and get people to recognise me for being Lamine."

'Pressure does not exist, it's an excuse'

Football is littered with any number of former pretenders to the Messi throne, all of whom have achieved and suffered varying degrees of success and adversity.

Giovani dos Santos, Gerard Deulofeu, Ansu Fati, Munir El Haddadi and, most notably, Bojan Krkic are just a few of the players who have been cited as the next great thing.

Lamine Yamal prefers to let the media talk the talk while he concentrates on walking the walk, even with the constant Ballon d'Or chatter that has followed him since he was 16.

He plays so that people have fun. He wants children to want to be like him, not like Messi or Ronaldo.

"I am not thinking about the Ballon d'Or. I want to enjoy myself and win with Barca and the national team," he said.

"Pressure does not exist, it is an excuse. If you just think about enjoying yourself and having fun, there is no pressure."

His youth coach Inocente Diaz, who watched him come through the Barcelona academy, was saying this years ago.

"He is even better than Messi," he told Spanish newspaper Sport in 2025. "He possesses a unique blend of physical attributes reminiscent of both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In six years, he will win the Ballon d'Or."

Lamine Yamal, for his part, keeps the World Cup in his sights.

He has already told us what he thinks about Spain's chances there. One word, delivered in English. But behind the smile is a player who has been dreaming about this tournament his entire life.

"I have always imagined playing in a World Cup, seeing my mother in the stands. I hope I can win it," he said.

Modric inspiration a sign for the future?

There is something hidden in plain sight about Lamine Yamal that his coaches at La Masia - Barcelona's academy - understood long before the rest of the world caught up.

He is listed as a winger. He terrorises full-backs from the left flank. His dribbling numbers are elite. And yet, when CBS asked him how he played as a boy, the answer landed like a reveal.

"When I was small I never dribbled much or got past many opponents. I scored a lot of goals, ran a lot, but above all I had very good vision of the game," he said. "I focused on what Messi did because he gave different passes - passes that led to goals. And I looked at Modric, who passed with the outside of his foot. That seemed more interesting to me than dribbling, because it is more about the mind."

Modric. Not Arjen Robben, not Franck Ribery, not any of the great wide forwards he could have cited. A deep-lying central midfielder whose genius was spatial. A player Yamal was watching and thinking about as a child.

Albert Puig, one of his coaches in Barcelona's academy, picked up on this years ago.

"Lamine expresses himself better when he has passing lines and some reference in front of him," Puig said. "I think he can evolve the way Messi did - getting closer to the game, being in contact with the ball, and participating more."

The data is beginning to confirm it. Across the past two seasons, Lamine Yamal has increasingly drifted more into interior zones, operating as a second playmaker as much as a winger.

Julen Guerrero, who worked with him in Spain's youth system, is unsurprised by the direction of travel.

"Of course I can picture him as a false nine," Guerrero said. "But it is a less comfortable position because teams block the centre more, there are fewer spaces, you have to be more patient. But he is very intelligent. He knows how to move."

The winger's role rewards pace and isolation. The central role rewards everything Lamine Yamal was drawn to as a child: vision, timing, the pass destined to become a goal before it leaves your foot.

Messi made exactly this journey. From right wing to false nine, from the flank to the centre of the greatest club side in history.

It took him until his mid-20s to complete it. Lamine Yamal may not need that long.

The World Cup is coming. Lamine Yamal will be 18 when it arrives and not turn 19 until the day before the first semi-final on July 14.

Spain will go there as one of the favourites, built around him.