Barcelona legend Lionel Messi is often the unattainable yardstick by which highly-promising, left-footed talents are measured by early in their careers, but one current 'wonderkid' has maturely downplayed any comparisons with the Argentine great.
Messi, who ranked at no.1 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest players of all time, is still tearing up MLS at 37-years-old, having picked up eight Ballon d'Ors during his time at Barcelona before leaving in 2021.
Lamine Yamal has since emerged as the next talent for Barcelona fans to pin their hopes of success on, but, despite the comparisons with Messi, the 17-year-old is comfortable just making his way in the game like he has managed.
Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal responds to comparison with Lionel Messi
"Luckily, I'm not the first to have this happen to me," Yamal told Mundo Deportivo. "That means that it's something that people have inside them every time they see a left-footed winger, or sometimes just when one is left-footed.
"I try to be myself. Obviously Messi, and I always say this, is the best player in history and being compared to him means that you're doing things right, but I try to be myself. I try to make my way and give everything for this shirt."
As Yamal mentions, he isn't even close to being the first player dubbed 'the next Lionel Messi' at Barcelona, with Gerard Delofeu, Bojan, Giovani Dos Santos, Alen Halilovic, Munir El Haddadi and Ansu Fati all youngsters brought through La Masia and given the moniker.
Yamal, though, looks best set to emulate the Argentine great out of those aforementioned individuals, with the 17-year-old having already starred at the European Championships and dominated La Liga on a consistent basis.
Matching the heights set by Messi will prove incredibly difficult, if not impossible, but Yamal is clearly content with his career trajectory and paving his own way at Barcelona and with Spain.
Still six months away from turning 18, Yamal has already played 83 first team games, scoring 18 goals. History has proven that young players subjected to such large amounts of minutes so early in their career can often come back to haunt them later on, with injuries and inconsistency soon derailing their stratospheric potential.
In FourFourTwo's view, it's slightly unfair for players to constantly be compared to Lionel Messi while they're still finding their feet in the game. Yes, Yamal is an incredible footballer already who could go onto become even better than the Argentine, but right now he is a long way off of that and should just be allowed to develop and grow at his own rate.
Barcelona will take on either PSG or Benfica when the Champions League last-16 draw is made.
