Barcelona midfielder Gavi says Lamine Yamal is the best player in the world after Lionel Messi following the teenager’s devastating showing in Wednesday’s 5-1 Copa del Rey win over Real Betis.
Yamal scored one, created two and had another goal ruled out for offside as Barça eased into Monday’s quarterfinal draw.
The 17-year-old has now scored nine times this season and laid on 13 assists for his teammates in 24 appearances.
“Yes, he is,” Gavi told reporters when asked if Yamal is already the best player in the game. “Well, after Lionel Messi, he’s the best.”
Yamal, who led Spain to European Championship success last summer, finished eighth in the Ballon d’Or last year and also claimed the Kopa Trophy and the Golden Boy award, prizes given to the best young player in the world.
He has long since established himself as a regular in Barça’s first team, clocking up over 70 appearances already, and was a nuisance for Betis all night on Wednesday.
After Gavi had opened the scoring, Yamal’s brilliant lobbed pass set up Jules Koundé for Barça’s second. The winger then set up Kounde again, only for the goal to be ruled off for offside after a lengthy VAR check.
Yamal thought he had added Barça’s third after the break, only for a VAR review to once again cancel out the effort for offside, before a brilliant solo run from the edge of his own box led to Raphinha scoring.
Substitute Ferran Torres scored Barça’s fourth before Yamal finally got his goal, finishing well after being fed by Fermín López. Vitor Roque, on loan at Betis from Barça, scored a late consolation from the penalty spot.
“You know, Gavi’s very emotional, so I say yes as well,” Barça coach Hansi Flick said in a news conference when asked if he agreed with Gavi’s take on Yamal. “You can see it. I think in great matches you see big talent and he’s showed it many times. He’s on a really good way. But we have to take care about him.”
After a disappointing end to 2024, Barça have now started 2025 with four straight wins, including Sunday’s 5-2 demolition of Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa final.
Flick wants his players to now take that form into LaLiga, where they have fallen six points behind leaders Atlético Madrid and five behind Real.
“For us, today was very important after the big win against Real Madrid,” the German said. It was very good to see how all the team come back because we travel [back from Saudi Arabia] and we train only yesterday.
“So it’s good to see this, how we play today, the performance from the beginning. We controlled the game and this is really great to see how they do.
“The big goal [is to play like this in LaLiga]. We are looking match to match, of course Saturday is the next one against Getafe. We want to play and be ready for that and win.”
