{"id":71187,"date":"2026-08-16T12:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/71187\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:55:27","slug":"messi-vs-yamal-stats-after-three-barcelona-seasons-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/71187\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi vs Yamal: Stats after three Barcelona seasons compared"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does Lamine Yamal<\/a> stack up against the great Lionel Messi when you compare them at the same stages of their Barcelona<\/a> careers?<\/p>\n

It feels ridiculous to compare any La Masia graduate to Barcelona\u2019s greatest-ever player, who has won eight Ballon d\u2019Or, but Yamal\u2019s meteoric rise has made comparisons inevitable.<\/p>\n

Messi has spoken repeatedly of his respect and admiration for Yamal, who has taken his iconic No.10 shirt at the Camp Nou.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best in the world right now,\u201d the Argentina captain told reporters at a media event ahead of their first meeting in the 2026 World Cup final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish him luck because his success will be Barcelona\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try to keep him from playing at his best. Spain has a great team, not just him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous player \u2013 a global star. He\u2019s 19 years old and has his whole career ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamal is actually quite a way ahead of Messi when you consider what they\u2019ve achieved at the same age<\/a>. The Argentinian didn\u2019t break into Barcelona\u2019s team, and certainly wasn\u2019t a key player for his country, until he was a bit older.<\/p>\n

But what about if you compare Messi and Yamal at the same stage of their respective Barcelona careers? The numbers are interesting in a number of ways.<\/p>\n

Yamal has both scored and assisted more than Messi had in his first three full seasons at Barcelona. But context is key here; he\u2019s also played about 50% more games over that period.<\/p>\n

Barcelona had a more patient approach when it came to integrating Messi into Frank Rijkaard\u2019s Barca side back in the mid-noughties. He also struggled with injuries early on, missing the latter stages of the club\u2019s 2005-06 Champions League triumph.<\/p>\n

Yamal, by contrast, has basically made himself indispensable and is already among the first names on the team sheet if he\u2019s fit and available. Which, invariably, he has been.<\/p>\n

While Yamal has notched more than twice as many assists as Messi at the same stage,<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t included Yamal\u2019s first season on the fringes (one appearance in 2022-23) or Messi\u2019s similarly peripheral first season (nine appearances totalling just 234 minutes in 2004-05) but rather the three seasons once they\u2019d really broken through into the first-team set-up.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how they stack up against one another from their first three full, proper seasons at Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi\u2019s first three full seasons at Barcelona<\/p>\n

Games: 101
Goals: 41
Assists: 19
Goal contributions: 60<\/p>\n

Penalties: 5
Free-kicks: 0<\/p>\n

Minutes per goal: 174 \u2b50
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 198 \u2b50
Minutes per goal or assist: 119 \u2b50<\/p>\n

Trophies Won: La Liga x 1, Champions League x 1, Supercopa de Espana x 1<\/p>\n

Lamine Yamal\u2019s first three full seasons at Barcelona<\/p>\n

Games: 150 \u2b50
Goals: 49 \u2b50
Assists: 52 \u2b50
Goal contributions: 101 \u2b50<\/p>\n

Penalties: 6 \u2b50
Free-kicks: 0<\/p>\n

Minutes per goal: 234
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 267
Minutes per goal or assist: 113<\/p>\n

Trophies Won: La Liga x 2, Copa del Rey x 1, Supercopa de Espana x 2<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Comparing Lamine Yamal\u2019s stats at 19 to Messi & Ronaldo at the same age<\/a><\/p>\n

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Barcelona\u2019s top 25 goalscorers of all time?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How does Lamine Yamal stack up against the great Lionel Messi when you compare them at the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,938,4966,332,4298,7287],"class_list":["post-71187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-latest","tag-lionel-messi","tag-popular","tag-stats-and-tables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71187","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=71187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}