Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal passes Euro 2024 test with flying colours

It’s really difficult not to get excited by Lamine Yamal.

The problem for us all is that the expectation on his shoulders already is at a preposterous level.

During the commentary of the Spain vs Croatia game in the UK, the analysts even mentioned him in the same breath as Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.

Frankly, that’s absurd, and might be the one thing over time that ends up weighing far too heavily on his shoulders.

Special players like Lamine Yamal come along once in a generation if you’re lucky, and it is so, so easy to bestow them as ‘the new …. [insert name here].’

However, in the long run that’s just plain unhelpful.

Photo by Maciej Rogowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

When they have a bad day, you can hear the discontent in the crowd and you can read all about it on social media. It’s relentless in this day and age.

The boy is not even 17 for another month and is already being touted as Barcelona’s saviour.

He’s so young, he’s even brought his schoolwork to the tournament.

“I brought my homework here because I’m in the 4th year of ESO,” he said before the Croatia game. “I have online classes too and those are going fine. I hope the teacher doesn’t get mad at me.”

The problem of course is that he’s good. Unbelievably good.

He is one of that small group of players – already – that when he gets on the ball there is an air of expectation that something is about to happen.

Bums are no longer on seats as the crowd rise as one, waiting for that inevitable moment of brilliance.

The world got to see on Saturday what Barcelona fans have known for the best part of a season – give Lamine Yamal a yard of space and he will destroy you.

He fears no man and, as his epic, pin-point cross to Dani Carvajal showed, he is deadly when given half a chance.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

That made him the youngest ever Spain player to deliver an assist in the European Championship, and he’s also the youngest ever to feature in the competition.

It surely won’t be long before he’s the youngest to get on the scoresheet for La Roja in the competition too.

What’s interesting is that Spain lost the possession battle overall in the game, preferring to go for a more direct route to goal, which also suited the youngster.

Indeed he’s even so good that he’s even got a fan in Thiago Messi.

His anticipation and reading of the game belies his young age, and it’s that maturity that will stand him in good stead as his star continues to rise over the next few years.

For now, just like Thiago Messi, everyone needs to sit back, relax and enjoy him.