Rio Ferdinand believes Barcelona’s 17-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal is already the perfect participant on the earth.
Yamal starred in Barcelona’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Inter Milan on Wednesday evening as he scored a surprising solo aim to deliver the Catalan giants again into the sport after they’d fallen 2-0 down inside 21 minutes.
The winger continued to trigger Inter issues all evening, and Ferdinand took to X after the match to heap reward on the teenage sensation.
‘As a pure soccer expertise I’m going so far as to say I feel Lamine Yamal is on one other degree to any participant taking part in the sport within the prime 5 leagues in world soccer,’ Ferdinand wrote.
’17yrs previous – Really unbelievable.’
Regardless of Yamal being the youngest participant on the pitch, Barcelona consistently turned to him for inspiration in Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg.
Rio Ferdinand has topped 17-year-old Barcelona star Lamine Yamal as the perfect participant on the planet
Yamal scored a surprising solo aim in Barcelona’s 3-3 draw with Inter on Wednesday
Ferdinand feels Yamal has extra ‘pure expertise’ than some other participant in world soccer
Talking on co-commentary for TNT Sports activities, Ferdinand was blown away by Yamal’s fearlessness as he grabbed the sport by the scruff of the neck and persistently made issues occur for his workforce.
After Yamal scored after which hit the bar shortly afterwards within the first half, Ferdinand exclaimed: ‘This child the taking the mick. He’s taking liberties on the most important stage.
‘Each time Barcelona get the possibility to open them up, they appear to the youngest participant of their workforce.’
Ferdinand added additional reward after full time, as he admitted it was a privilege to observe Yamal within the flesh.
Ferdinand informed TNT Sports activities: ‘We had been sitting simply behind the place Yamal was doing his harm and mesmerising the stadium, the quantity of instances he had the ball and affect the play, each side was on present and it was lovely to be right here and be part of.’
Barcelona’s hopes of reaching the Champions League last hold within the steadiness after Wednesday’s first leg, however they’ve Yamal to thank for conserving them within the tie.
Inter received off to a dream begin when Marcus Thuram flicked house the opening aim inside 30 seconds, and 20 minutes later they doubled their lead via a spectacular Denzel Dumfries acrobatic effort.
Yamal pulled a aim again, and Ferran Torres introduced Barcelona degree earlier than half time, however Dumfries received his second of the sport to revive Inter’s lead after the interval as Hansi Flick’s males struggled to deal with set-pieces.
Yamal prompted Inter issues all evening and Ferdinand claimed he was ‘taking the mick’ at instances
Yamal was the participant that introduced Barcelona again into the sport after their horror begin
His gorgeous efficiency got here after he suffered an harm scare within the warm-up
Barcelona rescued a draw when Raphinha’s fierce strike rattled the crossbar and went in off Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
It was a gripping match, however there was no doubting who the star particular person was, and all of it got here after Yamal’s participation was positioned into doubt simply earlier than kick-off.
Yamal was seen leaving Barcelona’s warm-up early after showing to endure an harm scare, however he was declared match to play.
He proceeded to ship on the most important stage, and Ferdinand now feels he needs to be a frontrunner for the Ballon d’Or.
This season’s Ballon d’Or race is the one of the vital open in years, with a number of candidates within the combine to obtain the honour.
Mohamed Salah has performed an enormous position in Liverpool profitable their twentieth league title, however the Reds had been eradicated from the Champions League within the spherical of 16 which might dent his possibilities.
Ousmane Dembele has additionally emerged as a severe contender after scoring 25 targets within the opening months of 2025 for PSG, whereas Yamal’s Barcelona team-mate Raphinha has additionally had a wonderful marketing campaign to maintain his workforce in rivalry for a historic Treble.
Yamal was out of motion for 2 months earlier within the season on account of harm which can depend in opposition to him within the last reckoning.
However he has nonetheless recorded 39 aim contributions in 49 appearances this season, and, remarkably, he doesn’t flip 18 till July.
Extra to observe…
