Lamine Yamal record at 18 compared to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi speaks volumes

Lamine Yamal is on the verge of celebrating his 18th birthday but has already achieved so much in his career.

The Barcelona and Spain star's birthday is on July 13 and Yamal already has multiple pieces of silverware for club and country.

Yamal made his Barca debut in 2023 at the age of just 15 and has gone on to score 25 goals in 106 appearances across all competitions.

The winger has won two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana for the Catalan side.

And that success has also extended to the Spanish national team, having made his debut the same year as his Barca one.

Yamal has six goals in 20 caps for La Roja and was part of the squad which won Euro 2024, helping to beat England 2-1 in the final.

At 17, he has also become the youngest player to ever be nominated for the Ballon d'Or last year, where he finished eighth overall.

Yamal came through the same youth team ranks as the great Lionel Messi - but how does the young Spaniard compare to the Argentine and Cristiano Ronaldo when they had reached the age of 18?

Messi made his competitive Barca debut at 17 in October 2004, slightly older than Yamal did.

Messi's birthday is June 24 and he reached the age of 18 in 2005, by that time he had won the La Liga title with Barcelona, but had made only nine appearances and scored once for the club.

Messi had to wait until after he turned 18 for his senior international debut for Argentina, which came against Hungary in August 2005.

As for Ronaldo, the Portuguese made his debut for Sporting Lisbon at the age of 17 in August 2002.

Lamine Yamal. (Image: Getty)

By the time Ronaldo turned 18 on February 5 in 2003, he had five goals in 19 games for the Portuguese side, and later that year he would move to Manchester United for the first major chapter of his career.

For Portugal, Ronaldo had to wait until he had turned 18 to make his senior debut, which arrived in August 2003 when he came off the bench against Kazakhstan.

Of course, Ronaldo and Messi have had incredible careers to establish themselves as two of the greatest players of all time, with a remarkable 13 Ballon d'Or awards between them.

Yamal still has a very long way to go to get even close to their achievements - but he has achieved much more than Messi and Ronaldo by the time they reached the age of 18.

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