Could Lamine Yamal become the best footballer ever?

[Gunnersaurus]

Pele was the top scorer in Brazil st age 16 I think. I don't remember Messi being as good at age 16. It's hard to tell but from you have seen do you think could he become the best ever footballer? 

[Stan]

Too early to tell. 

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Gunnersaurus said:

Pele was the top scorer in Brazil st age 16 I think

Also not sure this is true? 

 

[Gunnersaurus]

45 minutes ago, Stan said:

Also not sure this is true? 

 

I've looked on wikipidia. It's a bit confusing because of the way the league was divided into 2 parts. But it says he was top scorer. 

[Mel81x+]

Hard to tell if hes going to be anything really. The Euros are not an indicative of longevity at club level so we will have to wait and see.

[OrangeKhrush]

2 hours ago, Gunnersaurus said:

Pele was the top scorer in Brazil st age 16 I think. I don't remember Messi being as good at age 16. It's hard to tell but from you have seen do you think could he become the best ever footballer? 

At 16 years his ceiling is very high,  so it is not beyond the realms of possibility. 

[Gunnersaurus]

22 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Hard to tell if hes going to be anything really. The Euros are not an indicative of longevity at club level so we will have to wait and see.

True. But I think when you perform at the level he did in the euros at age 16 it's OK to look at some of the all time greats and look at how good they were at that age. And if they weren't as good as him it's OK to speculate he could be the best ever.  But there are so many factors that could affect it I agree  

[Cicero]

Difficult to see any player in the future come close to the consistency of Messi and Ronaldo. 

Going to be interesting to see how Mbappe's career fairs now that he's left PSG. 

[Spike]

3 hours ago, Gunnersaurus said:

I've looked on wikipidia. It's a bit confusing because of the way the league was divided into 2 parts. But it says he was top scorer. 

Brazil had local leagues still at the time, so I think the league Pele played in was the Paulista League not the 'Brazilian League'. Let's ask @El Profesor

[Gunnersaurus]

1 hour ago, Cicero said:

Difficult to see any player in the future come close to the consistency of Messi and Ronaldo. 

Going to be interesting to see how Mbappe's career fairs now that he's left PSG. 

I think by the time Messi was 17 he was extremely well regarded. By 19 he was considered by many to be the best in the world if I remember rightly. If not second to Ronaldo. 

I remember when he scored 4 goals against arsenal. Although we went out of the champions league, the disappointment to that came second to the admiration for Messi. 

[Tommy]

He's still so incredibly young, and even though he is extremely talented, there's a lot that could happen in his career. So it's definitely too early to tell. Professional football can take it's toll on a body, so him being involved at such a high level that young could come back to haunt him one day. Hopefully it won't though. 

[Panflute]

Let's not put that amount of pressure on him... I remember a lot of 'new Pelé/Maradona/Messi/Ronaldo' hypes that faded into nothingness. Granted, none of them achieved what Lamine Yamal achieved at the Euros, but he's still not fully developed as a player and I hope he gets the space to make mistakes and learn from them.

[Dr. Gonzo]

It's hard to say. They've got short careers and so much can go wrong/right for a player in their career.

But he's clearly special to be that good at that young age. Hopefully pressure doesn't get to him too much so we can just sit back and watch him. I'm sure he'll be very good for a long time. Whether he'll be the best in the world... hard to say, really.

[El Profesor]

1 hour ago, Spike said:

Brazil had local leagues still at the time, so I think the league Pele played in was the Paulista League not the 'Brazilian League'. Let's ask @El Profesor

 

Pelé became a full-time starter when he was 17, in 1958.

He was Santos´ best player in the 1958 Rio-São Paulo tournament, which - as the name suggests - contained clubs from the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It was the closest Brazil had to a national tournament at the time, considering it included 8 of the 12 big brazilian clubs.

Like you´ve mentioned, he also played the state championship of São Paulo in 1958, which Santos won.

 

 

I consider Lamine Yamal the best U-20 footballer in the world. He definitely has the potential to become the best player of his era and I consider him better than the likes of Endryck, Kendry Paez, Arda Guler and Estevão. 

But I think it´s too premature to put him in the same league of football legends like Messi, Ronaldo, Pelé and Maradona. Ansu Fati looked really good at age 16 and look where he is now.

 

Maybe I´m biased but the best teenage footballer I´ve ever seen is the original Ronaldo. He was the complete package both from a technical and physical point of view. His age 16 and 17 stats:

58 Games

56 Goals

21 Assists.

He then went to PSV and kept a 1 goal per game average. 

His peak was really short though. Despite being great in the 2002 World Cup, he was never the same player after his injury against Lazio in 2000.

 

[Dan+]

He could but I would say the smart money would be on no. I'd agree that he has done more in the game than virtually anybody of his age ever, but players development is rarely linear. Him being better than Messi at 16 doesn't mean he'll be better at 20, for example.

He's an absolute star though. I didn't realise quite how good he actually was. Fantastic footballer - as is Nico Williams.

[Carnivore Chris]

6 hours ago, Dan said:

He could but I would say the smart money would be on no. I'd agree that he has done more in the game than virtually anybody of his age ever, but players development is rarely linear. Him being better than Messi at 16 doesn't mean he'll be better at 20, for example.

He's an absolute star though. I didn't realise quite how good he actually was. Fantastic footballer - as is Nico Williams.

He was Barcelona's best player last season for me, or atleast top 3.

But you can't predict how a player's career will pan out. A serious injury can change everything. Look at Fati.

Fati wasn't this good(Yamal has generational talent potential), but he had the potential to be a world class player and 1 injury looks to have ruined him.

Either way, Barcelona need to start looking after these young players as there is a golden generation emerging but keeping everybody fit has been an issue.

If everyone is fit tomorrow, Balde, Araújo, Cubarsí, Gavi, Pedri and Yamal would all start and all broke into the team as teenagers, but they need looking after and not burning out.

The Pedri situation is the most frustrating as the team play far better when he's fit, although whenever he gets back to his best, he picks up another injury and is out for a month or 2. 

It's not just the young players either, but Ter Stegen, Christensen, De Jong...all suffered injuries last season. 

With everyone fit, this team can beat anyone. It only lacks a top young striker really and a manager that can take them to the next level.

As for Yamal being the best ever, let him play his football.

[Cicero]

Also credit to any footballer in our lifetime that comes close to 2010-2012 Lionel Messi.