Back when Lionel Messi was playing perhaps the most effective football ever seen, Lamine Yamal’s eyes were drawn elsewhere.
Barcelona’s recent great hope has all the time been a fan of the team, and went to the Camp Nou as a baby to observe his future club.
There he saw club icons like Xavi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta, but he stays a fanboy of another person to at the present time.
When collaborating in some quick-fire questions with Mundo Deportivo, Yamal was asked which player he’d need to be in one other life and quickly replied: “Neymar.”
But when asked who the most effective athlete on the planet is, the 17-year-old answered: “Messi”.
Yamal has previously explained his preference for the Brazilian over the Argentine, stating: “I used to be five years old after I saw him [Neymar] at Santos but seven years old after I saw him in person at FC Barcelona on the Camp Nou it was incredible to see him.
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“Yes, it’s true that Messi was there who was also incredible, but he was something totally different.
“Neymar has all the time been my idol. He’s a star, a football legend.”
When asked to elucidate his snub of his fellow La Masia graduate who most Barca fans consider the best of all time, Yamal selected to give attention to Brazil’s all-time top scorer.
“He made me go see the games,” the teenager added. “He made me have a good time, it was a spectacle, it was nice to observe him play.
“I’ve all the time said that the most effective in history is Leo Messi, however the player I liked to observe was Neymar.”
Yamal commonly replicates Neymar on social media, copying his haircut and wearing his Santos shirt.
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Neymar signed for Barca from Santos in 2013 and went on to form one in every of football’s greatest-ever attacking tridents alongside Messi and Suarez.
The trio won the 2015 Champions League and two LaLigas together before Neymar’s infamous 2017 move to Paris Saint-Germain.
The deal still stands as the most costly in football history at £200m, and it destroyed Barca as they immediately splurged on recent players who didn’t live as much as their price tags.
Nonetheless, though Neymar’s time in France was largely deemed a failure as he did not land the club their first Champions League and Ballon d’Or, Yamal still loved the player, even at Al Hilal.
The pair posed together on the Globe Soccer Awards in 2024, and Neymar commented on his prodigy.
“Lamine Yamal is an important player, a crack,” he said. “Obviously we share some similar characteristics in our sort of play.
“I feel he has every part to turn out to be one in every of the most important stars in world football.”
Yamal’s answer of Neymar wasn’t the one interesting one, though, as he was also asked for his favourite three players who don’t play for Barca.
Yamal responded: “[Jamal] Musiala, Neymar, Savinho.”
And when asked if he could sign one in every of them, he replied: “You wish me to say Neymar… but no: Musiala, who has a contract.”
There was also a cheeky answer when he was asked to call his favourite city break, and he said Madrid, the place where he scored twice in a 4-0 demolition of Real in October.
