Lamine Yamal is on track to break 30-year record held by Real Madrid legend | OneFootball

Every passing week Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal seems to break another new record.

And there’s another one on the horizon – one that’s stood unbroken for decades by a Real Madrid icon.

Yamal has just become the youngest player in history to reach 30 Champions League appearances, while only last weekend did he notch his 50th career goal at a considerably younger age than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

As the youngest footballer in the history of European football to reach a hundred appearances, the La Masia prodigy is on the right trajectory to break all kinds of ‘youngest ever’ records.

The next one in his sights is to boast the best goalscoring season by a player under the age of 19 in La Liga history.

Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez currently holds the record, having scored 29 goals in the Spanish top flight before his 19th birthday.

Something of a prodigy himself back in the day, Raul became Los Blancos’ youngest-ever debutant (a record since surpassed) when he first appeared as a 17-year-old, substituted on for Emilio Butragueno – a symbolic passing of the torch moment.

It wouldn’t be long before a teenage Raul was getting on the scoresheet (notching his first La Liga goal in a Madrid derby against Atletico) and nailing down his spot in the senior set-up.

Raul’s return of 19 goals in Real Madrid’s 1995-96 campaign – a season in which they finished sixth, 17 points behind champions Atletico – has remained unsurpassed for 30 years.

Yamal is five goals off matching that record, and six off beating it, with 11 games remaining in Barcelona’s title charge.

It’s far from a given that the 18-year-old will break that record, but when you look at his recent form – seven goals in his last seven La Liga outings, including a first career hat-trick – it looks eminently achievable.

“He trains those situations a lot. It’s great to have him at this level. He decides matches with a single action,” Barcelona boss Hansi Flick said after Yamal’s excellent match-winning strike away to Athletic Club last time out.

Barcelona play three of their next four games at home, with Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano and city rivals Espanyol set to visit the Camp Nou.

Watch this space. We’re backing Yamal to break yet another record before the season’s over.