Lamine Yamal emerges from Lionel Messi's shadow as Barcelona stand on the brink of greatness

A decade ago, Lionel Messi left Bayern Munich defenders trailing in his wake, frozen in time, bamboozled by the brilliance of the world's best player in the prime of his career. Now, as Barcelona stand once again on the brink of a Uefa Champions League final, it is another left-footed prodigy with a slalom in his stride and a menacing mindset who shoulders the Catalans' burden of expectation.

For 26-year-old Messi in 2015 read 17-year-old Lamine Yamal in 2025. Like Messi before him, Yamal has taken the mantle of Barcelona torch-bearer, game-changer, the team’s X-factor.

When Barca host Inter Milan on Wednesday night at the Olympic Stadium atop Montjuic, the spotlight won’t fall on Robert Lewandowski or Raphinha. It will track the No 19 Spanish wunderkind – hugging the touchline, ready to receive the ball and weave the kind of chaos that once defined Messi in his pomp.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona is a team of daring, one committed to the front foot. It is swashbuckling, flawed for sure, but fearless – and it revolves around a teenager with the world at his feet.

After lighting up the European Championship last summer with Spain, the expectations placed on Yamal were high. What he has achieved since then has been nothing short of staggering, his contribution to Barcelona's push for an unprecedented quadruple as bright as his new bleached-blond locks. Fourteen goals, twenty-four assists, and countless moments that have left defenders flailing and fans rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

In Saturday’s Copa del Rey Clasico against Real Madrid, it was Yamal, predictably, who unlocked the door twice, playing creator-in-chief in a 3–2 win that crackled with the kind of drama Barcelona have made their trademark this season. He is already among the frontrunners for the 2025 Ballon d'Or.

It was the third final in a row in which not only did Yamal pick up a winners' medal but made a telling contribution. His goal in January's Spanish Super Cup final in Riyadh began the comeback against Real Madrid that eventually saw Barca run out 5-2 winners.

And yet, for all the buzz and bold headlines, what sets Yamal apart is a disarming composure. When he made his debut at 15 – thrown on by Xavi in a near-empty Camp Nou against Real Betis in a Liga match on April 29, 2023 – he looked, understandably, like a boy surrounded by giants. But that was the last time he looked unsure. Since then, Yamal has been the personification of calmness. He has already crammed more into a nascent career less than three years old than some players achieve in a lifetime.

Barcelona's more experienced players remain stunned by his temperament. "These kids from La Masia, they don’t get flustered anymore," said captain Ronald Araujo.

Of course, the Messi comparisons are inevitable. Yamal, though, responds with the maturity you might not expect in one so young but with the reverence of one who grew up worshipping at the alter of the Argentine.

“Messi is the best player in history," says Yamal. "Being compared to him means I’m doing something right. But I try to be myself.”

This photo taken in September 2007 shows a 20-year-old Barcelona forward Lionel Messi cradling Lamine Yamal, six months old, during a photo session at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. AP

The photo of Messi bathing a baby Yamal in 2007 for a charity calendar feels like a plot point too absurd for fiction, or even AI. The symmetry too perfect. Myth and reality make for strange bedfellows, but this is Barcelona and now, with Flick's side needing a talisman – it is Yamal who stands ready.

Should Barcelona find their way back to the summit of European football, Yamal will not just be part of the story. He will be its protagonist. And then, whether he wants them or not, those Messi comparisons will only grow more frequent, more louder, more justified.

Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history

Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)

Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.

Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)

A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.

Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)

Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.

Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)

Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.