Lamine Yamal has now turned 18 years old, but how do his stats compare with Lionel Messi‘s at the same age? We’ve crunched the numbers.
Considering that he’s only just turned 18, the career that Yamal has already had is quite astonishing. He’s already won five major trophies with Barcelona and Spain, having already established himself as one of the best players in the world.
Of course, that’s no guarantee that he’ll go on to become as good as Messi, but the early signs have been unbelievably promising.
Aged 18, he’s already racked up 127 appearances for club and country, producing a whopping 74 goal contributions during that time.
Both Spain and Barcelona will have to be wary of overworking him at such a young age, but having already established himself as a world-class player, he’s one of the first names on the teamsheet right now.
After making his senior debut for Barcelona at the age of 16, the teenage wonderkid has gone from strength to strength.
Following a sublime individual campaign in 2024-25, he’s among the Ballon d’Or favourites for this year, although he is currently behind PSG’s Ousmane Dembele in our power rankings.
In comparison, Messi had only just announced himself to the world when celebrating his 18th birthday.
The Argentine forward made his senior debut at the age of 17 and up until his 18th birthday, he only made nine senior appearances. That’s 118 fewer matches than Yamal has played at the same age.
Upon turning 18, Messi had only scored one professional goal and he hadn’t produced any assists at that stage of his career.
Of course, things quickly took off for Messi from that point onward. He became a more established first-team star in 2005-06 and come 2007, he was widely being discussed as one of the best players on the planet.
In the case of Messi, he was at the peak of his goalscoring powers when he turned 24. If Yamal follows in his footsteps, he’s still got another six years until he reaches that stage.
Messi himself has followed Yamal’s career from afar and he clearly rates the Barcelona wonderkid as one of the best upcoming players in the world right now.
“There’s a very good generation of young footballers who have many years ahead of them,” Messi said at an Adidas event last year.
“If I have to choose someone, because of the age and because of the future that he has, I’ve heard that they have chosen Lamine Yamal and without doubt (it’s him) for me, too.
“I agree it depends on him and many things because that’s how soccer is, but he’s the present and without a doubt has a huge future.”
Here’s the full breakdown of how Yamal’s stats at the age of 18 compare with Yamal’s
Lionel Messi’s stats at the age of 18
Games: 9
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
Goal contributions: 1
Penalties: 0
Minutes per goal: 234 ⭐
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 234 ⭐
Minutes per goal or assist: 234
Lamine Yamal’s stats at the age of 18
Games: 127 ⭐
Goals: 31 ⭐
Assists: 43 ⭐
Goal contributions: 74 ⭐
Penalties: 1 ⭐
Minutes per goal: 290.8
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 300.5
Minutes per goal or assist: 121.8 ⭐
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