BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The fear that Lamine Yamal provokes in defenders when he gets the ball on Barcelona’s right flank has inevitably conjured up comparisons to a young, floppy-haired Lionel Messi.
Now, Barcelona 17-year-old star will face one of the very few teams that Messi never could score against when Inter Milan visits on Wednesday in the opening game of their Champions League semifinal.
But let the record state that Yamal wants nothing do to with that Messi version 2.0 talk. Nor does he think Inter supposedly had Messi figured out — even if he sure would like to score against the Italian side and help Barcelona reach its first European final in a decade.
“I don’t want to be compared to any player, much less Messi. He is the best in the world,” Yamal said Tuesday at Barcelona’s training grounds during his first news conference for the club, during one of his biggest weeks as a player.
“So what if Messi never scored against Inter? He scored against so many teams, and I sure hope I can score tomorrow,” Yamal said about the Barcelona great who once held him in his arms as a baby.
Sporting his new dyed blond hairdo, the teenager who has emerged as arguably the top young talent in global soccer said that he was only focused on trying to help his team on its quest for a treble of titles.
100 games in burgundy-and-blue
Yamal still has more than two months before turning 18, but the Inter game will be his 100th game for Barcelona’s senior team.
“Not everyone can play that many games at age 18, so I am proud of that,” he said, adding that the jitters he used to feel when he started in the elite were now gone.
The Champions League semifinal is his biggest match so far for Barcelona, right up there with the Copa del Rey final that Yamal helped Barcelona win against Real Madrid on Saturday. Yamal delivered two assists in that clasico thriller to set up Pedri González’s opener and Ferran Torres’ clutch equalizer to send it into extra time, where Barcelona came out on top 3-2.
During that comeback win, Yamal said he told a teammate that it didn’t matter how many goals Madrid scored, since “they can’t hang with us this season.”
Yamal will now take that same swagger with him against one of the top defenses in Europe; Inter has kept a Champions League-leading eight clean sheets this campaign.
Barcelona boasts the top attack with 37 goals scored, compared to just 19 for Inter. Yamal has notched four of those while passing for teammates to add another four.
“Everyone knows that Inter is a great defensive team and good on the counter,” Yamal said. “We will have to be good with the ball and play like we know how to as a team.”
The winner of the the two-match series will face either Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal in Munich on May 31.
Age is only a number
Yamal took Barcelona by storm last season when he swept up records, including for youngest scorer in La Liga, at age 16. His boom continued last summer when he became the youngest scorer in the history of the European Championship, curling in the goal of the tournament in the semifinals against France before Spain won the final over England on his 17th birthday.
He has kept it up this season for Barcelona. His 14 goals and 24 assists across all competitions also have Barcelona closing in on the La Liga title.
And just when it looked like there were no more records left, he went and became the youngest player to score in a clasico.
Yamal is taking his rapid rise in stride, brushing aside questions that it could all be happening too fast, at too young an age.
“I think soccer is not about age, it is about talent and mentality of each player,” he said. “Age is just a number.”
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