Lamine Yamal picks his all-time Barça XI ahead of his 18th birthday, leaving out two legends.

He signed a Ballon d'Or contract with Barcelona before reaching the age of majority. This will happen on July 13th, when Lamine Yamal turns 18, a year he's lived at a dizzying pace, a time when he has broken all records for precocity in professional football.

The son of a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea, the man raised in the Rocafonda neighborhood will celebrate his coming of age with a worthy celebration , yet shrouded in great secrecy. A party will conclude a vacation that has taken him to Sicily, Brazil, Ibiza, Marbella, and Shanghai.

The Catalan, who is scheduled to attend the Ciutat Esportiva this Sunday to undergo his medical check-ups and kick off a new season, will celebrate his birthday with prominent and well-known names, including influencers, singers, and teammates.

The footballer called to lead Barcelona and the Spanish national team for the next decade has put together what he considers to be his best starting eleven in the 125-year history of the Catalan club. Barcelona's official account on the social network X, formerly Twitter, has published a video in which the Spanish international explains who his favorites are.

The Barça player started in goal, where he had no hesitation in placing Víctor Valdés . After all, he's the goalkeeper he's seen play the most, and it makes sense to place him between the posts. "In my mind, he's the most historic goalkeeper we've ever had. He's the one I've seen," confesses the player, who continues in the defensive positions.

Lamine opts for a three-man formation at the back—without a full-back—something that doesn't usually fit with the traditional Camp Nou formation. Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, and Javier Mascherano . Two legendary center-backs who lifted the Barça title alongside the Argentine boss, who left the Blaugrana team with 19 titles under his belt, including two Champions Leagues.

"In the midfield, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, obviously... and I'll put Ronaldinho, because I already know who I'll put up front and I won't have any space," the player says in the recording on his club's official account, before the moment everyone wanted to see arrived: the attacking positions.

The footballer is more than clear about it: "Messi, obviously, and I wanted to put Neymar because he's my favorite player, and Luis Suárez as a striker; for me, he's top," he concluded.

And the choice of the so-called MSN does not surprise anyone: the trident marked an era and is an indisputable reference for any young culé, although it is true that there are very striking absences of legends such as Johayn Cruyff or Diego Armando Maradona , historical figures that Lamine has only been able to see on video.