Lamine Yamal: Barcelona and Spain star's Champions League and national team records

A household name by the time he was 17, winger Lamine Yamal became Barcelona's youngest-ever player when he made his senior debut against Real Betis in April 2023 aged 15 years 291 days.

In autumn 2023, he became the youngest scorer in the history of the Spanish Liga when he struck in a 2-2 draw at Granada on 8 October. By that time, he was already breaking new ground in the UEFA Champions League, and by the following summer he would be a UEFA EURO 2024 winnner and a global sensation.

Lamine Yamal's Champions League records

Youngest starter in history
16 years 83 days (Porto 0-1 Barcelona, 04/10/2023)

Youngest player in knockout phase
16 years 223 days (Napoli 1-1 Barcelona, 21/02/2024)

Youngest player in quarter-final
16 years 272 days (Paris 2-3 Barcelona, 10/04/2024)

Youngest player to reach ten appearances
16 years 278 days (Barcelona 1-4 Paris, 16/04/2024)

Youngest player to score and assist in a game
17 years 241 days (Barcelona 3-1 Benfica, 11/03/2025)

Youngest player to reach 20 appearances
17 years 270 days (Barcelona 4-0 Dortmund, 09/04/2025)

Youngest player to score in a semi-final
17 years 291 days (Barcelona 3-3 Inter, 30/04/2025)

Yamal is not the youngest player to feature in a Champions League game – Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko (16 years 18 days, Zenit 1-2 Dortmund, 8 December 2020) holds that honour – but he is the competition's youngest starter, having been in the first XI for Barcelona's 1-0 win against Porto aged 16 years 83 days.

In that same season he also became the youngest player to appear in the knockout stage of the competition (away against Napoli) and the youngest player to make a Champions League quarter-final appearance (away against Paris).

Yamal is not the competition's youngest scorer; his Barcelona team-mate Ansu Fati is (17 years 40 days, Inter 1-2 Barcelona, 10/12/2019). Yamal is second in that list, having hit his first goal in a 2-1 defeat at Monaco on 19 September 2024 aged 17 years and 68 days.

More recently, he became the youngest player to both score and assist in a Champions League game, aged 17 years and 241 days in this season's round of 16 decider against Benfica. That goal also made him the second youngest scorer in the Champions League knockout phase after Bojan Krkić, who was 17 years and 217 days old when he struck for Barcelona at Schalke on 1 April 2008.

Having become the youngest player to reach 20 Champions League appearances in the 4-0 quarter-final first-leg success against Dortmund, he then became the youngest player in Barcelona history to play 100 competitive games in the semi-final first leg against Inter – at 17 years and 291 days old – and marked that achievement in style.

In that game, he became the second youngest player to start a Champions League semi-final after Julian Draxler (17 years and 226 days for Schalke against Manchester United on 4 May 2011) and the youngest scorer at that stage, taking that record from Kylian Mbappé, who was 18 years and 140 days when he struck for Monaco at Juventus on 9 May 2017.

Lamine Yamal's EURO and national team competition records

Youngest player to score in a European Qualifiers game
16 years 57 days (Georgia 1-7 Spain, 08/09/2023)

Youngest player to appear at a EURO
16 years 338 days (Spain 3-0 Croatia, 15/06/2024)

Youngest scorer at a EURO
16 years 362 days (Spain 2-1 France, 09/07/2024)

Youngest player to appear in a EURO or World Cup final
17 years 1 day (Spain 2-1 England, 14/07/2024)

Youngest player to win a major international tournament
17 years 1 day (Spain 2-1 England, 14/07/2024)

The youngest player to appear in a European Qualifiers game is Norway’s Martin Ødegaard, who was only 15 years 300 days when he came on against Bulgaria on 13 October 2014. Yamal is second in that ranking; he was 16 years 57 days when he came on in Spain's 7-1 win in Georgia on 8 September 2023, breaking a national record set by his Barcelona team-mate Gavi (17 years 62 days) in 2021.

By scoring in that game – at a stage when he had only played five first-team matches and never scored for his hometown club – Yamal became the youngest ever European Qualifiers scorer, finishing from Nico Williams' cutback. "I felt quite comfortable right from the get-go," said the teenager. "Nico set it all up. He left me one-on-one with the keeper and I just hit the ball where my body and soul told me to. That's it!"

If that created a minor stir, Yamal was to cause a sensation at UEFA EURO 2024 the following summer. To begin with, he started for Luis de la Fuente’s side in their opener against Croatia at the age of 16 years 338 days, making him the youngest player to make a finals appearance. He then became the youngest player to feature in the knockout phase (16 years 354 days) as Spain won 4-1 against Georgia in the round of 16.

The records kept coming – his fabulous finish against France in the semi-finals made him the youngest player ever to score in the tournament, at the age of 16 years 362 days, breaking a record set by Switzerland's Johan Vonlanthen, who was aged 18 years 141 days owhen he equalised against France at EURO 2004.

Yamal then delivered his fourth assist of the finals as he set up Nico Williams for the first goal in Spain's 2-1 final win against England. He was already the youngest player to feature in a EURO final, and by full-time he was the youngest player to have won any major international competition, the day after his 17th birthday. He was 248 days younger than Pelé when he won the 1958 FIFA World Cup with Brazil.

Yamal was denied a goal by England's Jordan Pickford in the EURO 2024 final so missed the chance to break Pietro Anastasi's record and become the youngest-ever EURO final scorer. Anastasi was aged 20 years 64 days when his right-footed volley from outside the box doubled Italy's advantage against Yugoslavia in the 1968 final replay in Rome.

Yamal is also the third-youngest player to make a Nations League appearance.

Lamine Yamal's individual honours

Joint-top scorer at the 2023 UEFA European Under-17 Championship – four goals
Topped the assists ranking at EURO 2024 – four assists
Young Player of the Tournament at EURO 2024
Scored the EURO 2024 Goal of the Tournament (Spain 2-1 France, 09/07/2024)
Won the 2024 Kopa Trophy

Yamal's only appearance in a UEFA youth tournament ended with Spain being eliminated in the 2023 U17 EURO semi-finals in Hungary, though his four goals made him the joint-top scorer in the final tournament, alongside Germany's Paris Brunner and Robert Ramsak and Spain team-mate Marc Guiu.

At EURO 2024, he was included in the official Team of the Tournament and was named Young Player of the Tournament, while his stunning strike against France was chosen as Goal of the Tournament by the UEFA Technical Observers.

His eye-catching performances in Germany were a factor in his being given the Kopa Trophy, awarded annually to the best player under the age of 21.

What they say about Lamine Yamal

Simone Inzaghi, Inter coach: "Lamine is the kind of talent that comes along every 50 years, and to see him up close really impressed me."

Hansi Flick, Barcelona coach: "He's special. He's a genius. When I'm watching from the outside you see things, but when you watch back on video it's incredible the detail of what he does. In the big matches he shows up. This talent, if it only comes every 50 years like Simone [Inzaghi] said, I'm glad it's for Barcelona."

Nico Williams, Spain team-mate: "Lamine and I are really similar. We love to watch videos of great footballers, and we are 'street' players. That's why we understand one another. We're constantly kidding each other on. It's a friendship which was born in Georgia [in 2023] – we sought each other out with the ball [in Spain's 7-1 win] and he scored his first international goal, aged 16!"

Luis de la Fuente, Spain coach: "Lamine is a natural football talent on an exceptional scale. There are very few like him. His greatness will be measured in how much he manages to stay even more humble each day."

Álvaro Morata, Spain captain: "It's a pleasure to have him playing with us. He offers something different. If he is lucky and doesn't suffer major injuries, then he will be among the very best in the world."