 This is Lameen Yamal, a 16 year old who is on top of the world right now, being celebrated as the next heir to Messi's throne at Barcelona. But what if I told you his rise was all planned out years before he was even born? From the time Lionel Messi rose to power alongside Ronaldinho in 2005, Barcelona's academy team, La Masia, has been attempting to recreate that formula for a player capable of world domination ever since. The hunt for that player began a lot earlier than you probably think. A young Argentine named Messi has cemented himself as a starter for one of the most complete teams in Europe. In the following year, he would win the sex tuple and bask in the glory of Barcelona for years to come. But before all of that happened, Barcelona were already rolling out the red carpet for the next man that was supposed to share, and maybe challenge for Messi's throne, Bojan Kerkic. Born in Catalonia, Bojan joined Barcelona at just 9 years old, and from the start it was clear that he had that special swiftness and ability on the ball that only Lionel Messi had before him. After allegedly scoring 900 goals in the Barcelona academy system, Kerkic was quickly attracting the watchful eyes of the higher ups at the club, and it wouldn't be long until they handed him the chance to take the next step. Kerkic made his debut for Barcelona's first team just after his 17th birthday. In his first season with the club, Bojan earned several records for being the youngest player to achieve something at FC Barcelona, many records that were once held by Lionel Messi himself. It's safe to say that the young boy was on top of the world. Messi had hardly become the Messi we know today, and yet his heir, even though Bojan was only 3 years younger, was basically ready to take his throne. Bojan's hair and his playstyle very quickly earned himself comparisons with the great Lionel Messi. It was exactly those comparisons that would eventually lead to his downfall. The unbelievable amount of pressure put on Bojan's shoulders would be unmanageable for the vast majority of people around the world. And Kerkic, well, he was no exception. In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Bojan said that his life went from flying under the radar as just another talented player at the under-17 World Cup in July to then two months later being unable to walk down the streets without being bombarded by fans. He was quickly becoming effectively a demigod to so many expectant Barcelona fans. And well, Bojan's abilities and all these comparisons flew him just a little too close to the sun. Bojan was severely struggling mentally at Barcelona, and though he would eventually gain a better foothold of his emotions, he always felt like he couldn't realize his potential with Messi and the other talents of Barcelona in front of him. So he left Barcelona, and he never returned, and he also never found that form that he had hoped to away from Messi's shadow. All the while Messi grew into the great player that we know today. In reality, Barcelona didn't need someone to compete with Messi for the throne. So while Messi was there, they would be okay. But that doesn't mean they stopped looking for him. And the next Messi would come just a few short years later. While Bojan Kierkech was winning the sextuple at 18 with the first team, there was a 14-year-old among La Masia's ranks, grabbing all the headlines for being one of the youngest players to ever sign an endorsement contract with Nike. Having a remarkable ability with the ball at his feet, unparalleled speed, and constantly overperforming his age group, Gerard de La Feu had all of the makings of the blueprint that Messi had laid out in La Masia for what Barcelona's king should be. Gerard was another fast-footed winger that stood head and shoulders above the rest of La Masia, with many YouTube compilations displaying his abilities to the world. However, despite all of these expectations, his professional future would see very few Barcelona appearances. After signing a five-year deal with Barcelona in 2013, 19-year-old Gerard was loaned out to Everton where he was expected to find his footing as a professional and join the squad again for the 2014-15 season. But when he eventually came back, Luis Enrique was never convinced by him due to his lack of a defensive quality and tactical issues, and so he was sent back out on loan, missing out on winning the treble with Messi, Neymar, and Suarez that season. The remainder of his contract was spent entirely on loan, only playing 12 matches of first-team football with Barcelona his entire career. Expectations flew all around de La Feu's name his entire career, but he was never able to find his footing and give the Barcelona managers what they needed for him to be successful at the club. So he never took over for Lionel Messi, and that left Barcelona and La Masia searching for their next Lionel Messi. And that would lead them to their first non-spanyard, Takefuso Kubo. Take Kubo is a name that a lot of you probably know right now. He's one of the most lively players on the exciting Real Sociedad side, but at one point he was leading the line for La Masia, looking primed to one day play right alongside Leo Messi. Originally, Kubo joined La Masia in 2011 at 10 years old, and basically the comparisons began from that moment on. Similar stature, similar playstyle, we've heard it all before, but to be fair Kubo did score the goals to back it up. Take led his age-grouping goal scored in his first season, and he progressed through the ranks at La Masia at a relatively good rate. However, that's when the feds, or at least FIFA, came calling, as Barcelona had apparently broken the regulations for signing foreign players. This forced the 14-year-old Take Kubo back to Japan in 2015, and even though Barca hoped to sign him again eventually, when it came down to it, they were unable to meet his contractual demands, and Real Madrid swooped in to snag him away. Madrid reportedly paid Take Kubo at 15 years old a million euros a year for the next 6 years, and Barcelona were just unable to meet that, so they lost out on what could have been, and clearly there was a lot of talent there. Financial limitations hampered Barcelona yet again, but they still had Lionel Messi at this time, and several other options still in the factory of La Masia. Though many of the players I've mentioned so far have had the talent possibly necessary to reach the level of Lionel Messi, they never had that ability combined with that mentality required to reach the stature of a Lionel Messi, that was seemingly until 2019. This season, La Masia lost Chavi Simmonds, possibly the most exciting and highly touted player to ever play for the academy to PSG, and that pipeline that had been flowing so strongly for years seemingly was drying up. That was until Ansu Manifati made his debut for the first team on August 25th of that year. Many of these next messes were talented, some were hard working, but none had that daring confidence that Ansu seemed to have as just a 17 year old with Barcelona. The kid was incredible, he took shots from the most unlikeliest of angles, scored them, and shined right alongside Lionel Messi. For the first time since Bojan Kerkic, one of these highly touted La Masia players was becoming the guy, but unlike Kerkic, Ansu was kind of handling the pressure well. Fatih came into a worse Barcelona than any of the other players previously mentioned had, and he still shined sometimes brighter than Messi himself. And when things like that happen, unbelievable levels of pressure are forced upon these players, and it's up to them to prove if they can handle it. For Bojan Kerkic, it was too much for him, and the injuries caught up with him after that, and he couldn't find his feet again. For Ansu Fatih, it was exactly the opposite. He handled the pressure well, he was confident, ready to play, ready to be the guy, and he thrived until injuries got him. At the beginning of the 2021 season, Ansu was hit with a meniscus tear that would keep him out for the entire season. However, when he came back, he was still great. He immediately scored in his first game back, and he looked to be right back to normal, still that player who was important and impactful for this side. He still had that killer instinct, but he couldn't escape the injuries, and he would miss another 38 matches that season. Sure, he could have come back to being the old Ansu that we know after that. Messi left him the number 10, and expectations were still high for him. They were ready for him to come back and be that player again, figure it out in the 2022-23 season. But honestly, he didn't do it. The truth is, something changed in Ansu going into the 2022-23 season. He couldn't take players on as well as he had before, and his aggressive finishing was just not coming off the way it used to. It seemed that the pressure had finally got to him. When extreme difficulties came his way, he wasn't able to recover perfectly, and that's very understandable. Ansu still has a bright future, sure, but at that moment in time, Barcelona needed a player that could shine and be brilliant and change matches, the way Lionel Messi had done for the decade and a half before. A lot of us hoped that would be Ansu Fati, but the fact is, he wasn't what Barcelona needed at the time. And at the start of the 2023-24 season, the lack of that special player was becoming all too apparent. Though Barcelona's initial performances were good, and the Joao's were shining in a way that they had never before, all this excitement and brightness eventually dimmed and the squad faltered. Not only were they poured defensively, but the team also didn't gel in the middle of the park, nor up top, with Lewandowski having one of the worst starts to a season in his recent history. Word of Barcelona being incapable of doing it against the best teams without Lionel Messi spread like wildfire on social media, and the season was not looking great. However, things would begin to change a little bit, as the 16-year-old Lameen Yamal came into his own throughout this season. Just two months ago, I'm owning up to it, and I made a video talking about how Lameen wasn't exactly what Barcelona needed, because he wasn't an incredible finisher, nor was he elite with space in front of him. Well, it's funny, because he's been basically growing into exactly that player ever since then. Not only is his link-up play fantastic, but he has an incredible confidence and ability to take players on, and be successful in a way that the team has hardly seen since Neymar left. He's also began to show up with some very clutch goals, scoring the winner against Mallorca a few weekends ago, something very reminiscent of another right-winger that Barcelona had previously. However, Lameen Yamal is in very dangerous territory right now. As I record this video, 16-year-old Lameen Yamal has already played more minutes this season than Anzufati ever has in a single season with FC Barcelona. He is going to play a lot of football, and with the Euros coming up and great Luis de la Fuente in charge of the Spanish national team, I don't expect that to get any better anytime soon. A very tough and dangerous road lies ahead for Lameen, and to be fair, all of these expectations are not helping at all either. Just look at me, I'm saying that this kid could be the next Lionel Messi, and I'm putting him alongside some talent that isn't exactly the best company to be in if you want to have a very long and successful career. This pressure is an insane amount to put on somebody's head, and we've seen it fail with the likes of Deola Feyu and Bojan Kierkech. It can have very bad effects on players, but I think this fanbase desperately needs something to latch onto and to be excited about, and the likes of Lameen Yamal and Pau Kubarzi give that to us. So all of this pressure being put on his head isn't going to stop anytime soon. Barcelona don't have the depth in the squad to hide him behind great players so he can develop slowly. He's being thrust into the spot like just like Kierkech was. Thankfully, he now has Bojan Kierkech working for Barcelona in his corner to help him along the ride. The club is chaotic right now, even if good things are happening, and so Lameen's going to be put through a lot of chaos, and it's up to him whether he's going to be ready for that or not. So many Lamecia talents have failed to even get to the spot that Lameen Yamal is in right now, so is Barcelona's hunt for their new Lionel Messi over, or will it have to continue again? What do you think? Jump on over to this video to learn about the insanity that is Pau Kubarzi right now and the significance of him playing this well. It's a big deal, and it's kind of crazy. Or jump over to this video about whatever YouTube thinks you'll be interested in. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.