Between Messi and Neymar, Lamine Yamal: the best friend of dribbling

They say that a dog is man's best friend. Lamine Yamal He knows the meaning of this phrase. When he was little, he had two pets: Kila and Clara. “I always ran with them. In the end, playing football against a dog is the hardest thing,” he explained in an interview with France Football . As he recounts the experience, his teenage braces shine. A mischievous smile lights up the player’s face. It is the same smile he draws (just) after dribbling past an opponent.

“He played with his dogs because he had trouble dribbling them,” recalls Inocente Díez, popularly known as Kubala , coordinator of CF La Torreta , Lamine Yamal’s first football team. “I saw him as a child and a cadet. He was five years old and his gestures and body positions were the same as now. His style is the same,” adds Díez, who experienced first-hand what he describes as the Barça player’s “ball anxiety.” “Let go of the ball, it’s not yours; it belongs to everyone!” Kubala told him more than once from the bench, a direct witness to that artisanal, improvised training that gradually shaped the young Lamine’s technique.

For Juan Carlos Unzué , former Barcelona coach, what makes Lamine's dribbling "different" is "bringing the ball very close to his foot at high speed." Also, the ability to "trick the opponent to know where he will come out in a one-on-one," he analyzes on the other end of the phone for EL PAÍS. A similar explanation to the one Eduardo Galeano found, at the time, to compare Messi and Maradona. "Leo is a unique case in the history of humanity: he is someone capable of having a ball inside his foot. It is always said that Maradona had it tied up, but Messi has it inside his foot and, scientifically, that is inexplicable," reflected the Uruguayan writer.

“Because he is left-footed,” Unzue says, “Lamine is more like Leo than Neymar in the way he dribbles. His positioning on the field is similar to his, especially at the beginning.” This is when Lamine’s memories resurface from the past to revive them in the present. “We would meet after school at his house (a friend’s house), because he had a computer and we would put on videos of Neymar. We would spend the whole afternoon there watching them. Then I would do it [what the Brazilian did] in my room,” Lamine also admitted a few months ago to the French magazine. The Brazilian footballer from Santos, Lamine’s idol, has a direct influence on how the winger of La Roja understands dribbling as a deterrent, both to leave opponents behind and to burn through training stages.

Lamine Yamal is currently the player in the top five European leagues with the highest number of completed dribbles in all competitions (245) and the player with the most successful dribbles (129), according to Opta data. In this last section, the top-5 is completed by: Jamie Gittens (105), Kylian Mbappé (98), Florian Wirtz (94) and Vinícius Junior (91). Likewise, no one surpasses him in this facet of the game in La Liga (89).

In just 33 games - compared to the 50 he played during the entire last campaign - the Spanish international has already surpassed the number of chances created (53), in relation to those of the 2024-2025 season (50). The same occurs in goal opportunities, after dribbling. In the current one, he has nine, while in the previous one it was five. A circumstance enhanced by the play of Flick's Barça: "They are a team capable of playing very effectively vertically and quickly, but also of overcoming rival retreats," says Unzué.

So, how do you stop Lamine Yamal? The former coach mentions one of the keys: “That he doesn’t have too much time to receive the ball in the right direction.” Then, that “the defenders have help.” Nevertheless, Unzué recognizes that “Lamine can get away from two against one,” but that “the only player who had something different is Messi.” “He showed the ball to the opponent, made him feel that he could take it from him and the moment the opponent started that movement towards the ball, he took advantage to make the touch faster and unbalance him,” explains the former coach about the Barça legend’s dribbling.

“He is the best player in history. If you are compared to Messi, it means that you are doing things well, but I try to be myself,” the Rocafonda winger recently confessed to Mundo Deportivo . However, there is still work to be done. According to Juan Carlos Unzué, some aspects of improvement in the attacker are his position and body orientation to receive the ball in “intermediate spaces.” Also, alternating plays “with deep movements.” “If the rival does not know if he is going to receive it at his feet or behind him, he will be the first to benefit,” he insists in this regard.

Kubala explains that one of the player's main issues in youth football was "not letting go of the ball." "One day we punished him by not playing," he says. That day, Inocente Díez was in charge of a game that was losing 3-1 in the second half. A solution came to his mind: "Take Lamine off." The consequence of the decision was as unexpected for the opposing team as it was predictable for the coordinator: "We ended up winning 6-3. He only scored 3 goals," he recalls with a laugh, referring to Barça's number 19.

Back then, little Yamal was already marking the outcome of the games, while forging the indelible mark that would define him from a young age. When he played against his dogs. When the trunks of the trees in the park became walls. When the chairs in the dining room at home became goals. Those days when Lamine Yamal —yet— did not wear braces as a teenager. But that did not stop him from doing one thing: A smile that lit up his face, after dribbling past an opponent.