Yamal is eclipsing young Ronaldo, Messi. Are Barcelona too dependent on him already?

"At the identical age (18 years and seven months), the two great modern players (one of whom is arguably the best in history), Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, respectively only had five and four goal contributions for club and country. Meanwhile, Yamal is 60 ahead of where Real Madrid and France forward Kylian Mbappé was at the same age."

"This inventive, daring, creative, technically exquisite young lad, from a working-class background, is at least 95 goal contributions ahead of the game's two behemoths, Messi and Ronaldo, and is increasing the like-for-like gap with each passing week. And he's doing so while suffering painfully for months from the type of groin injury which should either be drastically restricting his development, or leaving him on the sidelines."

"Even if you set the stats aside, we've learned several inarguable things about Yamal already; firstly, that he possesses the same inherent, ferocious, indomitable competitive aggression which fed, and still feeds, Messi. Neither Messi nor Yamal are as driven by that individualistic, egotistic compartment of human nature. For them, the constant demand is: 'Give me the ball, give me an opponent, let me thrill, let me beat him.'"

Lamine Yamal has reached 100 combined goals and assists for Barcelona and Spain by age 18 years and seven months, an extraordinary achievement compared to football's greatest players. At the same age, Messi had only five goal contributions and Ronaldo had four, while Mbappé had 40. Yamal accomplishes this while managing a groin injury that typically sidelines players. Beyond statistics, Yamal demonstrates the fierce competitive aggression characteristic of Messi, driven by the desire to compete and thrill rather than individual ego. His working-class background and resilience suggest immunity to wealth's corrupting influence and pressure from comparisons to legendary players.

Read at ESPN.com