16-year-old Barcelona youngster sets new national team record on Spain debut

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal has started his international career in the perfect way after breaking an all-time Spanish national team record in his first game with La Roja. 

Yamal has been the talk of the town in Spain since making his Barcelona debut as a 16-year-old last season and has grown into the Blaugrana's first team in the 2023/24 season. 

The youngster’s impressive performances for Barcelona earned him a shock call-up to the Spanish senior national team despite playing only five first team matches for Barcelona in total. 

The Barcelona starlet repaid the faith of Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente, who selected him in the team to face Georgia in La Roja’s 2024 Euros qualifier, by getting on the scoresheet after coming on as a substitute. 

Yamal came on at the end of the first half against Georgia with Spain already 4-0 up and marked his international debut with a brilliant goal to put La Roja 7-1 up in the match. 

With his goal, Yamal became the youngest player to score for Spain at the senior level and the third-youngest player to score for a European national team in the continent’s history. 

Aged only 16 years and 57 days, the Barcelona youngster also became the youngest player to play for Spain, breaking the record set by his club teammate Gavi who was 17 years and 62 days when he made his La Roja debut. 

Before Yamal became Spain’s youngest ever goalscorer, the record was held by Gavi, who took the record from another Barcelona youngster Ansu Fati.