{"id":49939,"date":"2026-04-23T14:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=49939"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:30:05","slug":"could-lamine-yamal-reach-lionel-messis-level-frenkie-de-jong-shares-his-honest-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/could-lamine-yamal-reach-lionel-messis-level-frenkie-de-jong-shares-his-honest-take\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Lamine Yamal reach Lionel Messi\u2019s level? Frenkie de Jong shares his honest take"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">At just <strong>18 years old<\/strong>, Lamine Yamal is already turning heads and lighting up pitches for <strong>FC Barcelona<\/strong> and Spain. The young wizard from La Masia has dazzled everyone with his silky dribbling, pinpoint crosses, and eye for goal. But the big question on everyone\u2019s lips is: <em>Can this kid one day reach the legendary level of Lionel Messi?<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Recently, his Barcelona teammate <strong>Frenkie de Jong<\/strong> gave a thoughtful and heartfelt answer. While praising Yamal\u2019s insane talent, Frenkie made it clear that Messi stands in a league of his own.<\/p>\n<blockquote dir=\"auto\">\n<p dir=\"auto\">\u201cSpeaking for myself, I believe I am never going to see someone again who will reach Lionel Messi\u2019s level,\u201d Frenkie said. \u201cLamine Yamal has an insane amount of talent, he can become the best player in the world, and he can become this multiple times in his career. But I have seen Messi play from when I was a child, and he is the greatest footballer that has ever played. No other player comes even close to his level. But hopefully Lamine Yamal can become the best player in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"auto\">What a classy way to put it! Frenkie isn\u2019t shutting the door on Yamal\u2019s bright future\u2014he\u2019s just giving the ultimate respect to the GOAT. Messi isn\u2019t just a great player; for many, he\u2019s the magic that made football feel like art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At just 18 years old, Lamine Yamal is already turning heads and lighting up pitches for FC Barcelona and Spain\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":49941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3738],"class_list":["post-49939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-lamine-yamal"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49942,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939\/revisions\/49942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}