15-Year-old Lamine Yamal DEBUT 2

Lamine Yamal is a once-in-a-lifetime type of player. Recently appearing on the bench for Barcelona's senior team at 15, he's got a very bright future ahead of him. In 2003, a 23 year old Xavi trained with a 16 year-old Lionel Messi for the 1st time and he was blown away with how good the Argentine was. 20 years later, a now 42 year-old Xavi, is apparently blown away by the “mini-Messi”. So… who is 15 year-old Lamine Yamal, and why does Xavi Hernandez believe he’s the next great thing? Now Lamine has risen up the ranks of La Masia at an alarming speed. After joining Barca at just the age of 5, he has been consistently tormenting every level of opposition. As an 11 year old, he scored 68 goals for Barca’s Alevín A. Simply absurd. 3 years later, he was so good that he was moved to Barca's Juvenil A team just right after his 15th birthday. Not even Leo Messi himself can say he played 4 years up at 15. But it gets better. This season he has netted 6 goals and assisted 5 in just over 1000 minutes of gametime. Again, he’s playing 4 years up. He also got a call-up to the Spanish u-19 team, oh and if I haven’t mentioned it enough, he’s 15! Lamine is hands down the most deadly u17 dribbler I;ve seen, and I’m not talking about a skill spammer like Hachim Mastour, I’m talking about a seriously effective dribbler. Yamal and his left foot just effortlessly glide past players. He just moves at a different speed than the opposition. He can beat you with a body faint, a ball fake, a quick 2 dribbles with his left, a singular step-over, or just embarrass you like he’s done to countless defenders; and not just you to be fair, he can embarrass the entire team in the same attack. He can carry the ball from deep and bring it right into the penalty area, he can attack from the wings and somehow end up with a tap-in for him or his teammate, or he can just flat out run through your entire team. The right word would be extraordinary, to describe this 15 year-olds dribbling. His dribbling and his left foot definitely got him the “mini messi” nickname, and despite being just 15 years-old, I’m pretty confident that if he was playing 1st team football, he’d already be a top 25 dribbler on the planet. That’s how talented he is at dribbling. But despite dribbling being his strongest attribute, he does a lot more. Lamine has s-tier vision and passing technique. His through balls are special. He can pick out runners with lob passes or perfectly weighted on-the-ground through balls. Due to him being such an on-ball threat, the opposition is forced to give him extra attention allowing his teammates to slip through the lines. He’s able to frequently pick these players out resulting in a handful of chances created. Sometimes, he can make those passes that just blow you away. He can play these beautiful disguises through balls and his technique is phenomenal.. As it is with his shooting as well. He frequently likes to chip keepers, and he does it with elite technique. As I mentioned earlier he's so good at faking defenders out with dribbling, but he also seems to fool defenders out with his shooting and his passing, and even on a corner pick, in which he placed a disguised corner perfectly into the back of the net. Just like Messi, he prefers to place his shots rather than smash them into the net. This allows Yamal to shoot from a distance consistently and finish with precision rather than hitting it right at the keeper. The shot has low power, which may hurt him at higher levels, but at the U19 level, he’s able to pick out corners with his left consistently. But with his right, it’s a different story as he’s not the most comfortable on his weaker foot. He seems to avoid moving the ball to his right if he can, and won’t ever shoot with his weaker side. It’s easily his greatest weakness and it would make him that much more lethal and unpredictable with a killer right foot. He also is completely unable to get his head on the ball and has extremely poor physical strength and jumping reach in comparison to his height. He’s not that short, yet he kind of plays like he's 4 inches shorter than he is. In comparison to Real’s 72 million men Endrick, he’s tiny. Xavi Simons said a couple of months ago that at Barca you don’t do much work in the gym, and it’s showing with Yamal, as he has no physical prowess. Another somewhat weakness I can point out is his decision-making. Just like so many young dribblers and skills, he can sometimes make that decision that just messes up an easy goal-scoring opportunity. He’s not a #9, and he doesn’t have that killer instinct nor the quick-release shot that can make an attacker so lethal in the penalty box. He over-dribbles in the box sometimes instead of just taking a touch and releasing a shot. For example in this play, that ball should not be going backward. He should be taking a quick touch forward with his left and shooting with his