Lamine Yamal has become the youngest male player to ever appear in a major tournament final, breaking the previous record held by Brazilian legend Pele.
Yamal, who turned 17 the day before the final, has excelled for Spain this summer, racking up one goal and three assists to lead his nation to Sunday’s final against England.
At just 17 years and one day, Yamal becomes the youngest male player in major final history, 66 years after Pele set the record.
Pele was 17 years and 249 days when he lined up for Brazil in the final of the 1958 World Cup. The youngster netted twice to seal a 5-2 win over Sweden.
After a sensational campaign with Barcelona, Yamal has truly established himself on the global stage this summer, with his performance in the semi-final triumph over France a real stand-out en route to the final.
Having been subject to some strange comments from France’s Adrien Rabiot, whose insistence that Yamal needed to up his game to stop Les Bleus backfired massively, the Barcelona winger is on top of the world heading into the final, and England’s Declan Rice is not taking the youngster lightly.
“As soon as we won the game the other day, I saw a stat that said [Yamal] was 12 when COVID hit. That’s pretty scary!” Rice told the media. “It shows how good he is. He’s 16, I don’t know why the French players would talk a player down like that.
“What he’s done at Barcelona as a 16-year-old, you have to applaud it. Me, as a football fan as well as a player, you have to respect it. Sometimes you have to say at 16, wow, it shows a lot of guts to play for Barcelona, but also to do what he’s doing at his age, it’s really special.”