In Argentina, the story is told of a player skipping through the opposition to score a goal of outrageous quality before then erasing their footsteps in the dust as they saunter back into their own half so no-one can retrace their brilliance. It would appear as though Lamine Yamal has managed to find Lionel Messi’s tracks.
Barcelona’s snubbed Ballon d’Or contender shrugged off the disappointment of London’s award ceremony to deliver another devastating performance. Yamal scored twice and set up Fermín López in Saturday’s 6–1 rout of Alavés, taking his personal tally to 12 goals and 11 assists across just 14 games for Barcelona in all competitions this season.
The last time a player hit double digits for goals and assists before October for any Spanish side was a certain Messi back in 2011. That was the start of the most prolific season of the legendary Argentine’s goal-laden career.
By the end of the 2011–12 campaign, Messi had amassed a frankly ridiculous 73 goals and 30 assists across all competitions for Barcelona.
How Lamine Yamal Compares to Lionel Messi’s Annus Mirabilis
|
Record After 14 Games |
Lamine Yamal |
Lionel Messi |
|---|---|---|
|
Season |
2026–27 |
2011–12 |
|
Minutes |
1,171 |
1,198 |
|
Goals |
12 |
15 |
|
Assists |
11 |
11 |
|
Minute per Goal or Assist |
50.9 |
46.1 |
Yamal is not quite on course to surpass that annus mirabilis of a season, yet the fact that the 19-year-old is even in the same ballpark is a testament to his staggering level of output thus far. However, Messi’s brilliance was let down by his teammates. The record-shattering No. 10 scored more times just in the final 15 minutes of matches that season (19) than any of his Barça colleagues could manage throughout the entire course of contests (Cesc Fàbregas was the squad’s second top scorer with 15 goals).
As the sole source of scoring output, Messi saw Barcelona fail to win La Liga or the Champions League. Yamal, by contrast has a similarly prolific supporting cast.
Yamal may be enjoying the best campaign of his career, but he isn’t even Barcelona’s top scorer this season. That distinction belongs to Raphinha, who rattled in his 14th and 15th goals of the La Liga campaign already against Alavés.
No player in Spain’s top flight has amassed as many as 15 league goals after just 11 games of the season since Cristiano Ronaldo’s bountiful 2014–15 campaign. The Real Madrid icon plundered 18 goals by the 11th week of the season and would end that term with an obscene 48 in the top flight alone.
Across the last 75 La Liga seasons, Raphinha is one of only three players to have enjoyed such a prolific start to a new campaign. Messi joins Ronaldo as the only other challengers to the Brazilian.
The Best Scoring Starts to a La Liga Season in the Last 75 Years
- Cristiano Ronaldo: 18 goals (2014–15)
- Raphinha: 15 goals (2026–27)
- Lionel Messi: 15 goals (2012–13)
Stats via Mister Chip, record across first 11 matchdays of a new La Liga season.
Yamal finished a disappointing third in the freshly awarded Ballon d’Or while Raphinha failed to even get a nomination. By contrast, both Messi and Ronaldo’s prolific brilliance was recognized with the most prestigious individual prize in soccer.
Should the Barcelona pair continue to put up numbers comparable to the game’s modern greats, they may not be so disappointed at next year’s ceremony.
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