{"id":302361,"date":"2025-10-14T10:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:16:08","slug":"real-madrid-legend-amazed-by-barcelona-teenage-superstar-he-excites-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302361\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid legend amazed by Barcelona teenage superstar\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0&#8216;He\u00a0excites\u00a0me&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is not often that a Real Madrid legend openly admits admiration for a Barcelona player.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Zinedine Zidane, one of the most respected figures in world football, has done exactly that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The French, who enjoyed glory days at Real Madrid both as a player and a manager, has once again praised Barcelona\u2019s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, calling him the player who excites him the most in world football right now.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent media appearance, Zidane was asked which players currently capture his imagination. Without hesitation, he named the 18-year-old Bar\u00e7a star.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRegardless of position, one player who excites me when he touches the ball is Lamine Yamal.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cAgainst Inter last year in the Champions League at San Siro, he did it all on his own. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Then I think of Vitinha or Joao Neves. They never lose the ball,\u201d<\/strong> said Zidane.<\/p>\n<p>Yamal\u2019s continues to earn admiration<\/p>\n<p>What makes this recognition even more special is that it is <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/real-madrid-legend-hails-barcelona-star-never-seen-anything-like-it-in-my-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not the first time Zidane has spoken so glowingly<\/a> about Yamal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During a publicity event earlier this year, in May, Zidane was equally emphatic in his admiration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"637\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fc-barcelona-v-paris-saint-germain-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-league-phase-md2-6-2-1024x637.jpg\" alt=\"Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-181015\"  \/>Zidane has once again praised Lamine Yamal. (Photo by Angel Martinez\/Getty Images for Qatar Airways)<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWhen you see him play, for example, the semi-final against Inter Milan. In the second half\u2026 I\u2019ve never seen anything like it in my life.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s enough to see someone who is so dominant on the pitch. It\u2019s fabulous to see him like that.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSo we all enjoy ourselves and that\u2019s why, for all these young people, Lamine is the one to watch,\u201d<\/strong> he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>For a player barely out of his teens, to be singled out by someone of Zidane\u2019s stature speaks volumes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is also a powerful reflection of how far Yamal has come in such a short time.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona have always been a club defined by generational talents, from Xavi and Iniesta to Messi and now Yamal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Zidane\u2019s words add further weight to the growing belief that Yamal is not just another young player breaking through, but the next great emblem of Bar\u00e7a\u2019s footballing philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/real-madrid\/zidane-rendido-completo-lamine-emociona-122565489\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SPORT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not often that a Real Madrid legend openly admits admiration for a Barcelona player.\u00a0 Yet, Zinedine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":302362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1386,4444,5727,7115,221,62,67,132,68,99639],"class_list":{"0":"post-302361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-fc-barcelona","11":"tag-lamine-yamal","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-zinedine-zidane"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115372004894361568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}