FC Barcelona whizzkid Lamine Yamal received public praise and an order from his idol Neymar on social media, after the youngster put up another world class display against Real Betis in the Copa del Rey to usher in talk of him being the best player in the world on current form.
Teammate Gavi and head coach Hansi Flick made it clear that they agreed with this conclusion in separate post-match interviews in Montjuic.
Elsewhere, Lamine is being talked up as a mix of Lionel Messi – who El Chiringuito says he will inherit the number 10 shirt from next season – and Neymar by figures including the popular Spanish soccer program’s panelist and diehard Culer Jota Jordi.
While Lamine has often been compared to Messi because of their similarities as left-footed La Masia prodigies that debuted for the first team as teenagers and began their careers on the right wing, the Spain international has made it clear that his idol is the Santos academy product.
Speaking to CNN Sport earlier this month, Lamine explained: “I was five years old when I saw him at Santos, but seven years old when I saw him in person at FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou.”
“It was incredible to see him. Yes, it’s true that Messi was there who was also incredible, but he was something totally different. Neymar has always been my idol. He’s a star, a football legend.”
How thrilling it must have been for Lamine to receive praise from his idol following the Real Betis thrashing then.
As Lamine shared photos from the match on his Instagram account accompanied by the Spanish caption “disfrutando” – a declaration that he is enjoying himself – and a Brazilian funk song from Oruam, MC Tuto and Ze Felipe, a famous user of the social media platform showed up in the comments section.
“You are very Brazilian,” Neymar replied, alongside laughing and applause emojis.
“Dance, craque,” he added, with the latter word a name in Portuguese for a phenomenon or star player in soccer.
Considering the way the 17-year-old dribbles and boasts complete, skillful dominance of the ball at his feet while full of tricks, it is difficult to argue with the former statement that the Spaniard of Moroccan and Equitorial-Guinean descent looks like he could have easily derived from the land of the five-time World Cup winners.