Lamine Yamal Blows Past Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo to Eye Real Madrid Icon’s Record

Yamal’s stunning strike against Athletic Club was also statistically significant.

Lamine Yamal is in a fine run of form. | Cesar Ortiz/Soccrates/Getty Images

Lamine Yamal’s spectacular winner for Barcelona against Athletic Club on Saturday was not only the most aesthetically pleasing strike of his senior career, it was also his 50th.

It would be easy to forget that Barcelona’s No. 10 is still only 18 if it wasn’t relentlessly repeated every time he reached a new landmark, which comes around almost every game.

Jinking onto his left foot with the contest still goalless and Athletic unfortunate to not be in front, Yamal pulled off a finish which has been his signature since childhood (which was only last season, in fairness). The ball curled so far past Unai Simon he didn’t even bother diving, pulling his hands away as he contorted his body to watch the spinning orb clank off the top of the upright and into his net.

Yamal wheeled away to deliver his signature celebration, signing the number 304 with his hands as a nod to the postcode of his local neighborhood, Rocafonda. It was a different digit which stood out in the aftermath: goal number 50.

At just 18 years and 237 days old, Yamal is more than two years younger than Lionel Messi was when the Argentine scored his 50th senior goal. Cristiano Ronaldo was 21 before he hit half a century for club and country.

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Player	Age at 50th Senior Goal	Games Played at 50th Senior Goal
Lamine Yamal	18 years and 237 days	175
Lionel Messi	20 years and 315 days	133
Cristiano Ronaldo	21 years and 297 days	206

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Plotting a comparison of Yamal’s trajectory against the game’s greatest players of the modern era shows just how prodigious Barcelona’s fleet-footed scamp is. Even Kylian Mbappé had to wait until he was 19 years and 28 days before racking up his 50th senior goal.

While Messi and Ronaldo developed later than Yamal, La Liga’s star attraction still has some work to do if he is to topple another of the division’s great icons.

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Yamal Chasing Down Real Madrid’s Raul

Raúl González was a very different type of prodigy to Lamine Yamal. | Sports Nippon/Getty Images

This is the most prolific season of Yamal’s embryonic career. Despite playing 1,500 fewer minutes, the teen has already surpassed last term’s tally of 18 goals across all competitions (Saturday’s sumptuous strike was his 19th). In the realms of La Liga, Yamal boasts an impressive 14 but should he wish to become the competition’s deadliest 18-year-old, he will have to better Raúl González’s record of 19 goals for Real Madrid in 1995–96.

Raúl would finish his career as Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer and retains a lofty position among the club’s pantheon of greats. Yet, there was no guarantee of his gifts.

The former Atlético Madrid academy hopeful did not immediately impress Real’s coaching staff. Ángel Cappa, who served as Jorge Valdano’s assistant manager when Raúl made his debut, recalled the youngster’s performances in training. “Raúl carries the ball badly, he dribbles badly, he can’t head the ball, he strike it badly,” he told Sid Lowe for his seminal work Fear and Loathing in La Liga.

“If you analyze his discernible qualities to understand what he is, if you put together a checklist, there’s little there,” Cappa bluntly explained.

But then the opening whistle blows.

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Raúl González’s La Liga Record in 1995–95

• Age: 18
• Appearances: 40
• Minutes: 3,520
• Goals: 19
• Penalties: 0
• League Finish: 6th

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“When the game starts, he carries the ball well, he dribbles phenomenally well, he can head it, he scores a thousand different types of goal,” Cappa gushed. “He is suddenly perfect.”

Yamal’s talents have been abundantly clear on any stage for years.

“I saw it in the first training session, Lamine was 15 years old,” Robert Lewandowski recounted. “It was the end of the season and some players were trying [out]. He was playing against an experienced left back and he did whatever he wanted against him. I’ve seen a lot of good players but they needed time. With Lamine, I saw something that didn’t need time. I’ve never seen that talent at that age.”

Raúl can still point to his standout campaign as an 18-year-old in 1995–96 to offer a counterpoint to Yamal’s unchallenged status—for now. Barcelona have 11 games of the league campaign left to play and their rampant right winger is just five goals short of matching the Real Madrid legend’s record. Even if his landmark does tumble, Raúl can take solace from the fact that he isn’t the first iconic figure to fall short in a comparison with Yamal.

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