Barcelona phenom given crucial advice by tennis legend – ‘Build a safety net’ | OneFootball

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is quite simply one of the greatest teenage talents in the history of football.

At just 17 years of age, he broke into the top 10 of the Ballon d’Or ranking in 2024, and one year later, he finished second and could well have been crowned the best player on the planet.

Not many players, even across the world of sport, have tasted success as early as Yamal has and enjoyed such a rapid ascent at the highest level of the game. He is, undoubtedly, a freak of nature.

Tennis legend’s words of advice

Speaking in a recent interview (h/t AS), former tennis player Boris Becker, who also tasted elite-level success as a teenager, touched on Lamine Yamal and his ascent. As a player who won the Wimbledon Open at just 17 years of age, he said,

“Lamine is wonderful, he is winning everything. He is the best young player in the world right now. It reminds me of me when I was 17 years old. With him, the alarms sound.”

He then provided advice to the Barcelona youngster to take his career slowly and not rush matters with his progression.

“You just have to see today for everything that is going through Lamine Yamal. I think you have a very high risk of going through certain difficulties in ten or fifteen years.”

Boris Becker tasted huge success very early in his Tennis career. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

“In his case, he comes from very humble origins, and now he and his whole family are rich, and many people will approach him out of interest. He has lost all his privacy,” he added.

Becker then advised Yamal to keep a few serious and rooted people around him to keep his feet on the ground.

“You need to have two or three serious people around you. You must choose your friends, trust your family, and build a safety net.”

Finally, the former tennis player opened up on how it felt to taste success so early in one’s career, as is the case with Yamal.

“When I won Wimbledon at 17, I was still trying to mature and find my place in the world. After winning, whatever you do, it becomes world news and occupies the headlines of the most important newspapers,” said the tennis legend.

“I’m happy to have won three Wimbledon titles, but maybe at 17 I was too young. I was still a child,” he added.