A higher ceiling than Messi? What next for Lamine Yamal?

Article excerpt

Lamine Yamal, 18, has become integral to Spain's World Cup plans, but the young winger resists comparisons to Lionel Messi despite displaying precocious talent. Barcelona's academy product has drawn inevitable parallels to football's greatest players given his early impact at elite level. Yet Yamal deflects such talk, preferring to forge his own path and establish what ceiling his abilities might reach. The BBC examines what comes next for a player who, on early evidence, may have room to grow beyond even Messi's considerable shadow.