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Lamine Yamal’s Stats Compared to Ronaldo, Messi and Rooney’s First Two Seasons

HIGHLIGHTS

Lamine Yamal has already broken a host of records in his short career.
Yamal leads in appearances and goal contributions against Ronaldo, Rooney, and Messi at comparative ages.
Messi leads in early-career trophies over the trio, although Yamal could add the European Championships to his trophy cabinet in Berlin.

Lamine Yamal’s incredible strike against France in the Euro 2024 semi-final cemented his place in history as the youngest ever goalscorer at the European Championships. The remarkable effort from outside the box by the 16-year-old Barcelona prodigy has seen comparisons drawn to footballing legends who too made their breakthrough at an early age.

The obvious comparison is that of Lionel Messi. At the time of his 17-year-old, 2004 debut, he was the youngest Barcelona player in the modern era, until his record was surpassed by Bojan Krkic in 2007. What Messi went on to achieve in his career needs zero introduction, but it’s suffice to say it means incredibly high praise for Yamal to be compared to the Argentine.

Two other comparisons made have been that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Ronaldo is also regarded to have been one of the greatest players of all time having broken out at Sporting CP at the age of 17, whereas Rooney, one of England and the Premier League’s most iconic players, burst onto the scene at the age of 16 for boyhood club Everton. The comparisons to such greats of the game are understandable, but how do they directly compare numerically? To solve that puzzle and provide backing to the talent of Yamal, GIVEMESPORT has taken a look at each player at Yamal’s age to see how they compared, and just how far Yamal can reach.

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Lamine Yamal’s First Two Seasons Compared to Messi, Ronaldo & Rooney

Yamal
Messi
Ronaldo
Rooney

Appearances
64
34
71
77

Goal Contributions
26
14
25
22

Trophies
1
3
2
0

Appearances

Rooney leads the way

One area of his career where Yamal has already started catching Ronaldo, Rooney and Messi is on appearances alone. Yamal, aged just 16 at time of writing, has already clocked up 51 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions.

His 2023/24 season saw him break several “youngest player” records. He is now: The youngest player to start a La Liga game, the youngest Barcelona player in history, the fifth-youngest La Liga player of all time, the youngest Barcelona and La Liga goalscorer, the second-youngest Champions League player (behind Youssoufa Moukoko), the youngest Champions League starter, the youngest player in a Champions League knockout stage, the youngest Barcelona player to feature in El Clasico, the youngest player to record 10 goal contributions in La Liga history and the youngest ever player to score a brace in La Liga, whilst being the only player to do so aged under 17. It’s quite the list of records, and testament to his talent.

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Rooney is the only player from this list of four to have also made a single senior appearance in any sense before his 17th birthday, let alone 51. The Everton prodigy had made seven appearances before he turned 17 years old, scoring three goals, and made a grand total of 37 appearances in his debut season, 13 less than Yamal’s first season as a full-fledged first-teamer. Rooney does take the lead of the group in total, though, from his first two seasons with 77.

Ronaldo and Messi did not make their debuts before they turned 17, both breaking into the senior sides of Sporting and Barcelona, respectively, at the age of 17. Ronaldo went on to make 71 total appearances in his first two seasons with Sporting and Manchester United, debuting fully against Milan in the Champions League, whereas Messi trails the list with nine total appearances in his senior breakout year.

Yamal is however, the youngest of the four to have been capped for his country, and the only one of them to have scored on their international debut, netting in the 74th minute of a EURO 2024 qualifier against Georgia in a 7-1 victory.

Rooney was the next youngest to earn a cap, debuting at 17 in a friendly against Australia, whereas Ronaldo and Messi both earned their first international caps at the age of 18, the former against Kazakhstan and the latter against Hungary. Messi’s international bow was not one to remember, however, being sent off just 30 seconds after his introduction after a scuffle with Vilmos Vanczak.

Lamine Yamal’s Euro 2024 Statistics

Appearances
6

Goal Contributions
4

Dribbles
30

Goal Contributions

Yamal leads the pack

When looking directly at early-age goal contributions between the quadrants, it is again Yamal who leads the way, though the margins are smaller on this occasion. Lamine Yamal, who turns 17 on July 13th, 2024, has had a deeply impressive breakout season, notching seven goals and 10 assists in all competitions already. He’s also found the back of the net on three occasions for Spain, having added a brilliant record-breaker last night against France, as well as having recorded six assists, leaving the prodigy with a grand total of 26 goal contributions from 64 career games. A marvellous output from a player with so much entrusted to him.

Following him would be Ronaldo, who secured 11 goal contributions for Sporting in his breakthrough campaign, with five goals and six assists in all competitions. Ronaldo followed this campaign up with Manchester United with a further 14 goal contributions, leaving him just one behind Yamal, whereas Rooney grabbed nine, with eight goals and one assist. Rooney was also booked that season as many times as he scored, but added another 13 goal contributions in his second pro season.

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Lionel Messi only found the net once in his debut year, a brilliant goal as it was with a loft over the goalkeeper being supplied by mentor Ronaldhino, but his full-on breakthrough year was much more successful, being directly involved in 13 goal contributions, eight goals and five assists. Still, though, it is again Yamal who takes the cake on goal contributions in the breakout stage of these careers, again showcasing just why he has been heralded so highly.

Lamine Yamal’s 2023-24 LaLiga Statistics

Appearances
37

Goals
5

Assists
5

Successful Take-Ons Per 90 Minutes
3.01

Honours

Messi takes the prize of early-career trophies

Whilst Lamine Yamal can still count himself as a La Liga winner, having made a solitary appearance in Barcelona’s 22/23 league-winning season, he can’t boast accolades at this stage of his career in comparison to Messi. He was nominated for the Golden Boy award that same year, but was forced to miss the ceremony because of prior engagements (he had school).

Leo, however, nets the grand prize for accolades achieved in his formative years. He made seven league appearances in his debut season as Barcelona won the 04/05 La Liga title, and was a full-fledged first-teamer the season after as Barca won the league again, though this time accompanied by a Champions League trophy, although Messi was suspended for the final. Leo was also named as the Argentine player of the year after the 2005 season, aged just 18.

Ronaldo is the only one of the other two to have won a trophy within their first two seasons in senior football, picking up the 2002 edition Portuguese Super Cup, though he did not make it off of the bench in the game. Ronaldo’s second year as a senior took him to Manchester in 2003, where he picked up the 03/04 FA Cup in his debut year, scoring in the final against Millwall.

Rooney is the only one of the four to have not won a major honour within his first two years in football, but did pick up personal trinkets within his opening two campaigns, picking up the 2004 Golden Boy award as well as the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2002.

When looking at the differences between these areas of career between Yamal and his comparison points, it makes sense to see the Spaniard listed in such high praise amongst footballing immortality.