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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Michael Butler

Is Lamine Yamal already the best male footballer on the planet?

Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal Photograph: Michael Regan/Uefa/Getty Images

NOTHING BUT A NUMBER

In a world of hyperbole, recency bias and superlatives that are more exhausted than Casemiro on a counterattack, it is still not a stretch to call Lamine Yamal the best male footballer on the planet. Some particularly cantankerous individuals in Madrid might object to that, and while their annual boycott of Football Daily’s Bank Holiday Barbecue continues to be a point of consternation across the footballing world, there is no denying that the Barcelona boy is bit special. We say boy, because that is legally what he is. Akin to mentioning Frank Lampard whenever anyone talks about Coventry City or helicopter rides whenever brings up Michael Owen, we are contractually obliged to remind you of Lamine Yamal’s age whenever we write about him. HE IS JUST 17, FOLKS.

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