Lamine Yamal is set to make his 100th appearance for Barcelona in what will also be his first Champions League semi-final. At the same age, Lionel Messi had made just seven first-team appearances. Lamine will become the youngest player ever to reach this milestone for the Catalan club.
There’s hardly a better tool than BeSoccer Pro to contextualise just how extraordinary it is for a 17-year-old to reach 100 appearances for Barcelona, but even that seems insufficient to explain Yamal’s astonishing rise.
At just 17 years and 291 days, he is set to become a centurion for the club — the first player to do so before turning 18, comfortably beating the previous record held by Gavi. It is, quite simply, otherworldly.
Only months ago, he was celebrating his first European Championship. Days ago, he donned sunglasses for the celebratory team photo shoot. And now, on Wednesday, he will feature in his first Champions League semi-final.
None of this is normal for someone his age. Comparisons with Lionel Messi may be unfair in terms of impact, but a glance at their dates of birth tells its own story. Yamal reaches 100 appearances for Barcelona at an age when Messi had yet to reach double figures.
In fact, by that age, Messi had started only twice — one of those in the Champions League against Shakhtar — and the rest of his appearances had come from the bench.
He hadn’t even scored his first goal yet, which came in his ninth match, against Albacete at the Camp Nou. By contrast, heading into his 100th game, Yamal has already tallied 21 goals and 27 assists for the first team.
Many of those contributions have come in crucial moments this season, including two assists in the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid at La Cartuja.
He will become the youngest Barcelona player to reach 100 appearances — over a year earlier than Gavi, who achieved the feat shortly after turning 19. It was already impressive when Gavi surpassed Bojan Krkic’s record, which itself had bettered Messi’s early benchmark.
Since then, Ansu Fati and Pedri have joined the list, both reaching the century mark after turning 20.
On 29 April — one day before potentially reaching his 100th appearance — Yamal marks the second anniversary of his professional debut with Barcelona. That came in a home fixture against Real Betis, when Xavi Hernandez introduced him with the scoreline already at 4-0.
It made him both Barcelona’s and La Liga’s youngest ever debutant. Since then, he’s been steadily turning from prodigy to record-breaker, rewriting milestones for both club and country.
At just 15, he made his first-team debut. Now, nearing 18, he stands on the verge of a complete century of appearances — with a long and potentially historic career ahead, should his current trajectory continue. For now, he still harbours the dream of becoming the youngest player ever to win a treble.