"I see myself as much better than people see me." Lamine Yamal said that. Eighteen years old, one game into a World Cup, coming off a 0-0 draw with Cape Verde that no Spain fan wants to revisit — and he's telling El Pais he's still scratching the surface. Bold. But probably accurate.
The Barcelona winger came off the bench in Spain's opener after battling injuries in the build-up to the tournament. He's expected to play a bigger role on Sunday against Saudi Arabia, and if Spain are going to shift the mood around this campaign, that shift probably runs through him.
Not peak Yamal — not even close
"I know people see me as if this is my level and that's it," he said. "I have a long way to go, a lot to improve. And a lot, a lot, a lot of football."
That's either a player with unusual self-awareness or one with an ego so finely tuned it sounds like humility. Either way, the underlying point is hard to argue. He's 18. Players typically don't peak until their mid-to-late twenties. The version of Yamal that exists right now — already one of Europe's most dangerous wide players — is a work in progress.
He drew comparisons to Messi in the interview, though not in the way you'd expect. Asked if he'd still be playing elite football at 40 like Argentina's captain, Yamal was blunt: "Impossible. For me, Messi's the best and he keeps proving it." Refreshingly honest from someone who could easily have leaned into the comparison.
Street football, not coaching manuals
Yamal credited his development to street football rather than structured academies, and took a subtle dig at the conveyor-belt approach to youth development. "They join a football team at four years old, and on the team, they tell you: the full-back has to control the ball and pass it to the winger; the winger has to control it and pass it to the midfielder." His point: systems coached into kids before they can think for themselves produce predictable players.
There's something to that. His unpredictability is precisely what makes him hard to price — and hard to defend. Spain's odds of going deep in this tournament lean heavily on whether he can find form fast. A stalled opener against Cape Verde already has the market re-evaluating La Roja's ceiling.
Fame arrived at 13, he noted — shopping trips and cinema visits replaced by constant recognition. Normal teenage life, gone. What remained was football, and apparently an unshakeable belief that the best of it is still ahead.
