This Lamine Yamal is a far cry from the footballer who dazzled last season. That argument is repeated like a mantra among the detractors of the Barcelona winger. And he has them.
The pubic problems that made him miss up to five games this season with Barcelona, back in September, and his controversial call-ups and non-call-ups with the national team put him in the spotlight. The first doubts arose about his figure. He no longer seemed to be the same electric player who dribbled with insulting ease the previous season. That teenager who in a Champions League semifinal took the team on his back and dazzled the whole of Europe with his performances. This precocity led more than one to point out that this irruption was something fleeting and doomed to go downhill.
His tiptoe through the Bernabeu, dragging discomfort from that complicated injury, fueled the narrative. However, after almost six months of competition, this gloomy prediction has fallen by the wayside as the days have gone by. You only have to look at Lamine’s numbers to realize that, at 18 years of age, he is still decisive in Hansi Flick‘s side.
With his goal against Oviedo, Lamine reached 11 goals so far this season. Two more than he scored last season in those first 26 games. Because at this stage of the season, Lamine had played the same number of games and had only scored nine times. He is one goal away from equaling his best record in LaLiga – nine goals in 2024-25 – and the forecast is that he will surpass the 18 goals he scored last season, the most prolific of his short but intense career as a Barcelona player. At the very least, Lamine still has 17 LaLiga games, one Copa del Rey game and three Champions League games ahead of him.
Top assist provider in LaLiga
His position as a winger, in any case, exonerates him from direct responsibility for this scoring production. It is in the influence of the game, or in assists, where he should be held accountable. And here Lamine is the king. He has already provided 12 passes that have resulted in goals for his team, nine of them in La Liga, which makes him the top assist provider in the championship. His teammate Marcus Rashford, with eight, or Luis Milla and Arda Guler, with seven, are close behind. Those 12 assists in all competitions leave him just halfway to the 25 he signed last season, his year of impact at Barca. In other words, if the youth player maintains this productivity he will be very close to surpassing this mark at the end of the season. While his performance is being questioned, Lamine is delivering the numbers. His influence on the game is not even worthy of debate.
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