On Sunday night, Barcelona star Lamine Yamal made history by becoming the league’s youngest ever goalscorer against Granada.
Barca needed a victory over Osasuna to surpass second-placed surprise package Girona and close the gap on current leaders Real Madrid after Los Blancos destroyed the struggling team 4-0 on Saturday.
As a result of Robert Lewandowski’s ankle injury, Yamal continued to play on the right wing for the champions, with Joao Felix on the left and Ferran Torres working through the middle.
With less than a minute remaining, Lucas Boye sneaked past Bryan Zaragoza to bury a low attempt beneath Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s arm, putting the Blaugrana’s unblemished record for the season in risk. The Blaugrana entered Sunday’s matchup still unbeaten on all fronts.
The Blaugrana quickly went from bad to worse as Zaragoza added his tally in style with 29 minutes remaining, making it the earliest La Liga goal Barca had given up in the twenty-first century.
On the half turn inside his own half, Gerard Gumbau collected the ball and released Zaragoza, who deftly avoided Jules Kounde and took down Ter Stegen before confidently finding the back of the net.
To make matters worse for Barcelona, Kounde was then substituted, but Yamal ignited a comeback on the final play of the half when he met Felix’s pass to the back post for a straightforward tap-in.
Yamal broke the previous record by just 11 days when he prodded the ball home from less than a yard out to become the youngest player to ever score in Spain’s top division.
Fabrice Olinga, a former Malaga player who is currently a Botosani striker, was 16 years and 98 days old in 2012 when he scored for the former team, but the Cameroonian has since lost the record after 11 years.
Sunday’s goal was just one of a plethora of records Yamal has already left in his wake during his fledgling career, having become Barcelona’s youngest player on his debut in April as a 15-year-old.
The 2007-born attacker also became the youngest man to ever play and score for Spain in a 7-1 Euro 2024 qualifying thrashing of Georgia last month, and two assists against Villarreal made him the youngest player to register a La Liga goal contribution in August.
Last week, Yamal also set the record for the youngest player to make a Champions League starting lineup in Barca’s 1-0 win over Porto, not long after he signed a new three-year deal with a €1bn (£864.6m) release clause.
Yamal’s historic strike came at the perfect time for Barca, who eventually levelled matters in the 85th minute, as a close-range Sergi Roberto shot struck goalkeeper Andre Ferreira and trickled over the line.
Barca’s 2-2 draw with Granada leaves the La Liga champions third in the table heading into the international break, where Yamal will represent Spain in Euro 2024 qualifying fixtures with Scotland and Norway.
[…] Yamal is 16 years and 107 days old, meaning that he has comfortably broken the record, but he was unable to prevent his side from suffering a loss, as Jude Bellingham scored twice to secure all three points for Real Madrid. […]
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