Lamine Yamal made FC Barcelona fans quickly forget about Ousmane Dembele in the Joan Gamper Trophy ... [+]
La Masia pearl Lamine Yamal made FC Barcelona fans quickly forget about Ousmane Dembele with a devastating 10-minute cameo against Tottenham Hotspur described as the best display in the Joan Gamper Trophy since Lionel Messi in 2005.
Barca were trailing 2-1 against the north Londoners when the 16-year-old from Mataro, a dormitory town around 30 kilometers east of the Catalan capital, entered the fray.
In less than a minute, he charged down the right wing in acres of space leaving his market for dead, and then cut into the box to lay off a pass with the outside of his foot for Ferran Torres to score the equalizer with 81 down on the clock.
Then with full time fast approaching, he was again vital on the same flank finding Torres, who spun around to provide for Ansu Fati scoring what could have been the winner on 90 minutes.
In stoppage time, however, Lamal was once more a menace by leaving Sergio Reguilon flat-footed and limping with his dribble before finding Fermin Lopez who set up Ez Abde to make it 4-2.
After the final whistle, SPORT raved about Yamal's "exhibition". The daily newspaper said he was responsible for creating three goals and beamed that they hadn't seen anything like the display since a certain Messi lit up the Gamper against Juventus in 2005 with AS correspondent Javi Miguel thinking exactly the same thing.
Then-boss of the Turin giants Fabio Capello famously enquired about taking the Argentine on loan after said match, only to be laughed out of Camp Nou by Frank Rijkaard.
You would think that modern day head coach Xavi Hernandez would do the same if anyone tried to snatch away Lamal even temporarily.
While not just reminding onlookers of the club's greatest ever player, Lamal also made Barca fans forget about Ousmane Dembele in an instant.
The Frenchman is expected to complete his shock €50 million ($55 million) move to Paris-Saint Germain any day now.
Yet with Raphinha also not doing too bad with an assist of his own inside two minutes for Robert Lewandowski to open the scoring, Xavi might now be convinced he doesn't have to look out on the market for replacements in the area of the pitch the three men - or two men and a wonderboy - share.
