Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal was further developed at 19 than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were at the same stage of their careers.
Yamal has attracted widespread attention since joining Barcelona’s senior team in 2023 and has emerged as a strong Ballon d’Or contender over the past two years, finishing behind Ousmane Dembélé and Harry Kane.
“In terms of talent and potential, Yamal is doing things on a football pitch that I have never seen a 19-year-old do,” Gerrard said on The Overlap Daily.
“He is more advanced than Ronaldo was at 19. I played against Messi as a youngster, and he is probably more advanced than he was too.”
Messi made his Barcelona debut at 17 in 2004, while Ronaldo had become a regular member of Manchester United’s first team by the age of 19.
