{"id":17139,"date":"2026-05-05T09:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17139\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T09:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:53:10","slug":"barcelona-gem-hailed-as-in-a-league-of-his-own-by-club-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17139\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona gem hailed as \u2018in a league of his own\u2019 by club legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lamine Yamal continues to attract admiration from some of the biggest names in football, and the latest praise has come from a true Barcelona icon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Bar\u00e7a and France forward Thierry Henry has once again spoken highly of the young winger<\/a>, highlighting what makes him stand out at such an early stage of his career.<\/p>\n

In an interview with MARCA<\/a>, Henry reflected on Yamal\u2019s rapid rise and the qualities that have caught his attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite currently being sidelined with an injury<\/a>, the teenager has already made a strong impression at both club and international level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a player in a league of his own,\u201d Henry began saying.<\/p>\n

More to the story<\/p>\n

The former forward then went deeper, pointing to a specific moment that perfectly captures Yamal\u2019s maturity on the pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Henry has nothing but admiration for Lamine Yamal. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Recalling a key situation during an international match, Henry explained, \u201cDo you know what amazes me about Lamine?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember in the Euro semi-final against France, on a counter-attack, and already leading 2-1, he had the chance to keep attacking, but no, at 17, he had the intelligence to stop the game and slow the pace down, because that was what was best for the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what he told his team. He controlled the ball, brought it down and played it back to Carvajal. What? At 17 years old!\u201d<\/p>\n

For Henry, it is not just Yamal\u2019s technical ability that stands out, but his understanding of the game. Continuing his praise, he added,<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople focus on his skill and technique, but what blew me away was his intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat lad plays as if he were in his own neighbourhood. Time will tell what happens, but he\u2019s shown me he can be the star of any tournament,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lamine Yamal continues to attract admiration from some of the biggest names in football, and the latest praise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,938,3565],"class_list":{"0":"post-17139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-fc-barcelona","11":"tag-lamine-yamal","12":"tag-thierry-henry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}