FC Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, did not avoid comparisons between Lamine Yamal and Leo Messi during the Azulgrana pre-season tour of Asia. The new '10' of the team is already, for many, the best football player of today and confirms it in each performance on the field.
"Messi has been the best player in the world and I think that Lamine is, today, in the position to become the best in the world. We will see how far he can go", the Azulgrana president began by saying in a chat with the 'CNN' channel.
Laporta surrenders to Lamine and puts Messi in his place
In that sense, Laporta highlighted Yamal's personality as one of the keys, along with his talent, to mark an era in football. The 'presi', however, warns of the need to "take care of him", without overloading him with expectations. Giving him stability in the club is the best way to exploit his talent.
"He has an impressive personality, like Leo in his beginnings. Also a surprisingly precocious maturity, like Leo. We are talking about a true genius of football, of which there are very few and who mark an era", argued 'Jan'.
However, the president of Barça made it clear that each 'crack' is different. Of course, Messi won everything. Messi did everything. For me, he is probably the best player in history.", added Laporta.
"Lamine is Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi was Lionel Messi"
The future of Barça excites Joan Laporta
In addition, the Azulgrana president valued the current situation of the team led by Hansi Flick. Although the board could not close the signing of Nico Williams, they brought Joan García, Marcus Rashford and Roony Bardghji, three players who bring much more quality and depth to the squad.
"I see a team with energy and ambition. We have a squad that can win everything", Jan sentenced. Similarly, he praised the young talent of a brilliant generation, which can give many joys to Barça in the next decade.
"The world continues and new geniuses appear; those that appear today are players like Lamine Yamal, like Pedri, Raphinha... very talented players who are in the world of football", he commented. In turn, he added:
"I mention players from Barcelona but, of course, there are footballers from other teams who are fantastic too", Laporta pointed out. Barça will remain in South Korea until next Monday, when they will play the last friendly of the Asian tour against FC Daegu. Afterwards, they will return to Catalonia to conclude the pre-season with the dispute of the Joan Gamper Trophy.
"We have to protect Lamine, surround him with stability and not load him with expectations. He has a unique talent and our duty is to take care of him"