Lionel Messi’s heir under scrutiny? Lamine Yamal warned not to let fame get better of him after roughest week of career

BARCELONA prodigy Lamine Yamal delighted fans once again on Sunday night, in what could possibly be the last game in Montjuic before returning to Camp Nou later this month.

With barely nine minutes down on the old clock in the city’s Olympic Stadium, the teenager put Barca 2-0 up against Elche by making a clever run behind his marker and using his gifted left foot to smash Alejandro Balde’s clever ball past former team-mate Inaki Pena.

If only temporarily, Yamal’s fourth strike of the season seemed to take a weight off the youngster, who experienced what was the roughest week of his storied career so far.

First criticised for remarking that Real Madrid “rob and then complain” during an appearance in the Kings League on the eve of El Clasico, the winger was widely mocked when unable to make an impact in the match Barca lost 2-1.

Involved in a spat with his international team-mate Dani Carvajal, who fulfilled a promise he would talk to the youngster about his remarks, Yamal was also the subject of a full-time brawl involving other stars such as Vinicius Jr. and Jude Bellingham.

England star Bellingham fired an indirect shot on social media and wrote: “Talk is cheap,” which is something Yamal learned the hard way in the Bernabeu.

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Throughout 2024/2025 the season that made him a runner up to the Ballon d’Or award and Barca treble domestic champions by beating Madrid four times, he made constant trashtalking comments about Los Blancos and others.

Yamal taunted: “As long as I’m winning, no one can say anything to me. When they beat me, then yes.”

That time has now come with Barca on a downslope, and Yamal has been accused of everything from disrespecting the code among professional footballers through his remarks, to breaking the harmony in the Spain national team he helped make European champions only seven months or so out from the World Cup.

For the first time since he turned professional as a 15-year-old, and then went on a whirlwind two-year ascent that saw him given Lionel Messi’s iconic number 10 shirt, there are also reports Barcelona are worried about their Golden Boy who before could do no wrong, and have started to put their foot down on his public appearances.

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SPORT said that the club felt his pre-Clasico taunt gave Real Madrid extra fuel, and it was reported a few months ago the Catalans were already starting to get worried about his off-field life which has seen him throw lavish parties, meet Neymar in Brazil and start a well-publicised relationship with Argentine rapper Nicki Nicole.

Before the weekend, El Desmarque ran a piece on “How Yamal’s fame is affecting him”. The outlet spoke to Barcelona handball legend Xesco Espar, who also spent considerable time as a senior and youth coach at the club.

He claimed that “receiving so much fame, so much praise and doing so well is affecting his self-image”.

Xesco added: “He has the examples in sight: the case of Messi or the case of Neymar.

“He is free to choose what he wants, but I don’t know if that is so much the responsibility of the boy, as of the people around him, who pull his tongue.”

In his El Pais column, Jorge Valdano, who is a highly-respected pundit in Spain and Real Madrid legend that won the 1986 World Cup alongside Maradona, remarked that while he doesn’t care about Yamal “hiding his ego” as a player that “occurs every ten or 20 years to make football better”, he should watch his step.

Valdano wrote: “Someone must tell him that at 18 years old it is not necessary to go through life so quickly. Winning or losing, idiocy is idiocy, disrespect is disrespect, and bragging is bragging.”

While ever he maintains such a high standing, Yamal will forever be under the microscope. His week to forget was topped off by being followed by paparazzi in his car on Saturday, when his separation from Nicki Nicole became worldwide news.

Some Barca fans saw the breakup as a sign Yamal might now focus more on his football and less on what goes on away from the pitch.

That early goal against Elche added food for thought, to an agreement the club reportedly struck with his agent Jorge Mendes to get things under control and avoid a repeat of the Kings League incident and the scrutiny that brings with it.

But the number 10 later faded in the match which Marcus Rashford helped secure with the bullet third goal in a 3-1 win, and concerns remain about his physical state.

Yamal reportedly having an “incurable” case of pubalgia dominated sports pages midweek and seems to be preventing him from recreating the form which catapulted him to such a level of fame in the first place.

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His club manager Hansi Flick has vowed to protect the Mataro native, but Barca’s Messi-like dependence on Yamal, and the raft of injuries Barca has too, makes it hard to leave him out at a time Madrid has a five-point advantage at the La Liga summit.

Flick and Spain boss Luis de la Fuente have already been in a war of words on how to best manage the whizzkid, and while he learns to handle and listen to his body, Yamal must also do likewise with fame that seems to be getting on top.