Lamine Yamal breaks Vinicius Jr’s La Liga record amid jeers from hostile crowd

Lamine Yamal just did something that took Vinicius Jr until age 22 to accomplish. He did it at 19. And he did it while opposing fans were giving him an earful. During Barcelona’s 3-1 comeback victory over Sevilla on September 19, the Spanish winger provided two assists to teammate Raphinha, pushing his career total to 51 assists in just 159 official matches for the club. That made him the youngest player to reach 50 assists in La Liga since at least the 2013-14 season, clearing the bar Vinicius Jr set in May 2023 by a comically wide margin. The numbers tell the story Yamal was 19 years and 68 days old when he hit the 50-assist mark. Vinicius Jr, the previous benchmark, was 22 years and 298 days when he reached the same milestone. That’s more than three years of difference. Averaging roughly one assist every three games across 159 appearances is elite production for any winger. Both assists on the night went to Raphinha, who completed a hat-trick in the match. The Brazilian forward’s three-goal performance drew comparisons to the kind of output historically associated with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo during their peak La Liga seasons. Barcelona went behind early against Sevil...