"There's no doubt, for me, he's the best." That's Lionel Messi, at an Adidas event this week, picking Lamine Yamal as the standout young footballer on the planet. Coming from the man whose jersey Yamal now wears at Barcelona, it's not exactly a throwaway compliment.
Messi was specific about why: age, what Yamal has already done, and the runway still ahead of him. At 17, Yamal is Barcelona's top scorer and top assist provider this season. He just won the Laureus Young Sportsperson of the Year award — the first-ever recipient — and finished second in the 2025 Ballon d'Or vote behind PSG's Ousmane Dembélé. The career arc is steep.
A connection that started before Yamal could walk
The Messi-Yamal bond has a backstory that no scriptwriter would dare pitch. In 2007, a six-month-old baby from Rocafonda, Mataró, won a charity raffle — the prize being a photoshoot at Camp Nou with a Barcelona player. That player was a 20-year-old Messi, freshly out of the locker room and suddenly holding a baby in a plastic tub.
"Messi didn't even know how to hold him at first," recalled photographer Joan Monfort. "He's a pretty introverted guy, he's shy."
That baby was Yamal. The same Yamal who now wears the No. 10, wins awards named after Messi's era, and says things like: "For me, Messi is the best player in history. He's been a part of the childhood of all the kids who played at school, in the park. I hope I can follow in his footsteps."
What comes next — and what's at stake
Right now, Yamal is sidelined with a hamstring injury that rules him out for the rest of the La Liga season. For Barcelona, who are in a title race, that's a real problem — their most creative outlet gone at the worst possible time. Any punter backing Barça to win La Liga needs to factor in just how much of their attacking output runs through a teenager who currently can't play.
The next chapter is the 2026 World Cup, where Yamal is expected to make his tournament debut for Spain. If the draw cooperates, reigning European champions Spain could face World Cup holders Argentina as early as the round of 32 — putting Yamal and Messi on the same pitch for the first time ever.
Nearly 20 years after a raffle in Mataró, that would be quite the full circle. Or, as Monfort put it: "It's especially nice in today's football, when so much is to do with money and power."
