Lamine Yamal reached the byline at RAMS Park on Tuesday night, feinted the start of a rabona, and watched the Galatasaray defender hit the turf. He flicked the ball back inside, drove in, and squared it for Anthony Gordon to make it 3-1.
That assist carried Barcelona on their way to a 4-1 win in Istanbul. It also pushed the 19-year-old past 25 Champions League goal contributions at 19 years and 92 days, the youngest in the competition’s history to the mark, with Kylian Mbappé previously the holder at 20 years and 306 days.
Yamal’s Champions League line now reads 12 goals and 14 assists.
Aleksey Batrakov had put Galatasaray ahead on 28 minutes before João Cancelo leveled on the stroke of halftime. Then came the Yamal half. Fermín López headed in a Yamal cross on 50, Gordon converted the near-rabona on 53, and Karim Adeyemi finished the scoring on 65. Three goals in 15 minutes.
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Yamal: ‘I don’t know what to call it’
Asked after the game to put a name on the move, Yamal shrugged.
“I don’t know what to call it, it was an almost-rabona dribble,” he told Movistar.
He also told Thierry Henry on CBS that he had been looking for the opening all season.
“Recently, I have noticed that a lot of opponents, whenever I reach the byline, go to ground, so I saw the opportunity, went for it and it came off.”
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Hansi Flick was less interested in the technique than in the outcome.
“It’s incredible to have players like that,” Flick said. “He’s turned the game around for us.”
Eleven days from the Palladium
The record is one more in a run of them. Yamal had already overtaken Mbappé’s teenage goal-involvement record in last month’s 5-1 win over Feyenoord, when he was still 19 years and 58 days old.
The Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place at the London Palladium on Monday 26 October, with Yamal in the running alongside Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Harry Kane, Vinícius Júnior and reigning winner Ousmane Dembélé, according to Yahoo Sports’ preview. The vote is cast by 100 journalists across 30 nominees.
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