Comparing Lamine Yamal’s Barcelona record after 125 games with Lionel Messi’s | OneFootball

Last night, Lamine Yamal made his 125th apperance for Barcelona and we’ve compared his record with Lionel Messi’s after the same number of matches.

It’s staggering in itself that Yamal has already made 125 appearances for the club, given he’s only 18 years old.

For comparison, Messi was 21 years old when he made his 125th appearance for Barcelona back in November 2008.

In terms of Yamal, he marked his 125th appearance with an assist against Guadalajara, during Barcelona’s 2-0 triumph on the road.

Producing assists has become quite a regular occurrence for the teenager, having already racked up 45 assists at club level throughout his career so far.

Messi holds the record as the player with the most assists in football history with 407, but at the same stage of his career, he had fewer assists than Yamal currently has.

After playing 125 games, the Argentine forward had 27 assists to his name, which is 18 fewer than Yamal after the same number of games.

However, while Yamal has the edge in terms of assists, it’s Messi who was more prolific in the early stages of his career.

As of writing, Yamal has scored 33 goals for Barcelona, whereas Messi had already scored 54 by the time he made his 125th appearance.

In total, Yamal has produced 78 goal contributions, whereas Messi had 81 at this stage, highlighting just how close they are.

While comparisions to Messi are frequent, Yamal is determined to forge his own path in the game.

“I respect him for what he has been and what he is for football. To me, he’s the best in history,” Yamal said when discussing Messi.

“But neither do I want to be Messi, nor does Messi want me to be him.

“My football is about fun. I play so people can enjoy watching. It’s not about a million records or a million goals.”

Messi left Barcelona in 2021, but he’s still been keeping up with the team and supporting them and Yamal from afar.

“He [Yamal] is the present and, without a doubt, has a great future,” Messi said during an interview last year.

Given the Spaniard has played so many games at such a young age, his biggest test will be to remain injury-free and to continue playing football with the same spark he has at the moment.

If he continues to develop at his current trajectory, who knows how many records he’ll have broken over the next 10 years?

Here’s the full breakdown of how Yamal’s record after 125 games compares with Messi’s.

Lamine Yamal