Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi: From baby baths to a battle for GOAT status?

Messi's prodigious skillset was, of course, obvious from a very young age. Former Barcelona sporting director Carles Rexach was so desperate to sign the Rosario native that he got a 13-year-old Messi to put pen to napkin at a tennis club in Catalonia on December 14, 2000.

He was also still only 18 when he picked up his first Champions League winners' medal, and even though he missed the final win over Arsenal after suffering a serious hamstring injury in the second leg of the last-16 clash with Chelsea, Messi had already done enough to earn a nomination for the 2006 Ballon d'Or.

In 2024, though, a 17-year-old Yamal became the youngest player ever to be shortlisted for the game's most prestigious individual prize, and ended up finishing eighth in the voting. Last September, meanwhile, he was only denied top spot by Ousmane Dembele, who had played a starring role in Paris Saint-Germain's historic treble triumph.

By that stage, Yamal had already taken on the No.10 jersey that Messi had worn with such distinction for 13 of his 17 trophy-laden seasons at Barcelona - and it really did feel as if Yamal was the chosen one.

Fate had cruelly conspired against the previous incumbent of Messi's shirt, Ansu Fati, who was the victim of a succession of injury setbacks, but destiny was always seemingly on Yamal's side.

His ascent to the throne was almost pre-ordained, with Messi effectively anointing a four-month-old Yamal as his eventual successor during a now famous photoshoot all the way back in 2007.

Still, while Yamal is now widely acknowledged as a most worthy successor to the King of Camp Nou, the big question now is whether he can really match the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner's unprecedented level of sustained excellence.

Because it is Messi's consistency that sets him apart from every other player in history. Nobody has ever performed at such a high level - at the very highest level - for such a long period of time. As 1986 World Cup winner Jorge Valdano once said, "Maradona was Maradona sometimes. Messi is Maradona every day."

The crazy thing is, of course, that Messi isn't done yet. He passed the 900-goal mark just last week and even though he'll turn 39 in June, the Inter Miami ace is now expected to lead Argentina into this summer's World Cup in North America - four years after effectively completing football by finally getting his hands on the trophy in Qatar, after producing one mesmeric display after another at an age when most players have already retired.

Messi obviously has many, many, many attributes, but intelligence is the key to his incredible longevity.

For starters, he had the good sense to look after his body as best he could after suffering a number of worrying muscular injuries at the start of his career. One could certainly argue that both Ronaldinho and Neymar were even more naturally gifted than Messi but neither Brazilian possessed anything like the same discipline or dedication to his craft.

But Messi's unrivalled footballing IQ also enabled him to evolve his game as age began to strip him of the speed that once allowed him to leave markers trailing in his wake. Consequently, Messi now uses positioning rather than pace to create sufficient space for him to work his magic with his wand of a left foot.

Indeed, while others are hurtling around the field at a hundred miles an hour in an increasingly athletic and frenetic modern game, Messi has become renowned for the amount of time he spends walking in between attacks. Why? Because he has an almost unique ability to understand the flow of a game - and thus bend it to his will.

"The rest of us play football," Javier Mascherano once said. "But Messi controls it."

Fabio Capello is among those to have argued that Yamal has yet to demonstrate the same level of "genius" as Messi - but that's hardly surprising for one so young. As even Messi himself pointed out, Yamal is "in a growth process, and he'll continue to develop as a player and add things to his game, just like I did."

What Yamal has already shown, though, is a truly tremendous capacity to cope with intense pressure - whether it's the kind applied by the media or opponents.

Former Barca boss Xavi repeatedly pointed out that the teenager's decision-making was absolutely astounding for one so young, while the Catalans' current coach, Hansi Flick, says that he almost takes it for granted at this stage that the bigger the game, the better Yamal plays.

For example, in last season's epic Champions League semi-final against Inter, Yamal was absolutely outstanding in both legs - in spite of the fact that Simone Inzaghi felt he had no option but to treble up on a "phenomenon" that only occurs every 50 years.

Yamal certainly looked like a young Messi as he repeatedly weaved his way around world-class defenders and when he dragged Barca back into the game at Montjuic with a stunning solo strike, he became the youngest player ever to score in a Champions League semi-final, at 17 years and 291 days old. To put that in context, Messi had only made one appearance in the competition at the same age.

Furthermore, with his characteristically composed penalty in last week's last-16 rout of Newcastle, Yamal usurped Mbappe as the youngest player to reach 10 goals in the tournament's history. Messi had already turned 21 by the time he hit double figures...

As if anyone needs reminding, Yamal has also enjoyed a more successful start to his international career than Messi. The skinny schoolkid with the braces wasn't just a member of Spain's Euro 2024-winning squad; he was the star of the show.

In between doing his homework, the then-16-year-old taught the likes of Adrien Rabiot lessons they're never likely to forget, and while he'll be a marked man again at this summer's World Cup, he's actually better placed to light up the finals than Messi was when he travelled to Germany with Argentina in 2006.

Messi scored on his tournament debut, against Serbia-Montenegro, but he only started one game and remained on the bench for the entirety of his country's frustrating quarter-final loss to the host nation.

Yamal, by contrast, is the best player on the highest-ranked team in the world right now, the generational talent that Luis de la Fuentes' terrific team relies upon for individual inspiration - and the early favourite to win the Golden Ball.

Messi could well have something to say about that, of course - particularly with Argentina scheduled to meet Spain in the final. Were he to lead his country to a second consecutive World Cup, his legacy would become impossible to match, let alone surpass. Truth be told, it probably already is - but based on what we've seen so far, Yamal at least has it in him to enter the GOAT debate.

It won't come down to what happens this summer, though. It will be about what happens over the next decade - and probably even the one after that - because Messi has been rewriting the record books for as long as Yamal has been alive.

It takes a particular kind of character to cope with the rigours of professional football for such a significant period of time - and especially when you've got a target on your back in each and every match.

It's also likely to get more and more difficult in the coming years, given the ever-increasing intensity of both the game itself and the media scrutiny to which superstars are subjected.

We're already seeing more and more negative press coverage of Yamal's behaviour, on and off the pitch, and there's no getting away from the fact that his celebrity status could hinder his hopes of going down as one of the greats. As Messi said himself, "It depends on Yamal now and many external factors because that's how football is these days."

The talent is definitely there, though, and while Yamal himself says that catching Messi is "impossible", there can be no denying that the now three-time NXGN winner is already further down the path to achieving legendary status than the GOAT was at 18 - and that in itself is something well worth celebrating.

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