The data story · 2022/23 – 2025/26
Most wide forwards take three or four seasons to find their peak. Yamal found his at 17 and kept climbing. The arc you're looking at belongs to a player in his late twenties. He is 18.
Goal Involvement (GI) per 90 · All competitions · 2022/23–2025/26 · Source: Sofascore
"Every season, Yamal finishes above his expected goals. Not once. Not twice. Every season. That is not variance. That is a finishing signature xG cannot explain."
This profile — elite Duel Drive, elite Threat Volume, elite Chance Ignition, all simultaneously — belongs to a player who has been doing this for a decade. The radar does not lie about age.
10 metrics · La Liga wide forward peer group · 2025/26 · BarcaFutbol design system
Bukayo Saka is one of the best wide forwards in the world. His profile is balanced, precise, intelligent. Yamal's profile is extreme. Where Saka measures, Yamal overwhelms. The overlap is smaller than you'd expect.
Same 8 metrics · normalised to career peak · both players 2025/26 · Source: Sofascore
Ten metrics. Eight wedges pushing toward the outer ring. The two that don't — Cross Accuracy at 21.3% and aerial duels — are the only reminders that there is still a ceiling somewhere above him.
Estimated percentile ranks vs La Liga wide forwards · 2025/26 · BarcaFutbol
Most elite wide forwards are one thing. A finisher or a creator. A carrier or a passer. Yamal is the rare player whose output index and creativity index both sit above 70. The archetype label barely contains him.
Four family indices · Control · Creativity · Output · Defense · BarcaFutbol composite
xA on one axis. Goals on the other. Twenty of the best wide forwards in Europe shown in gray. The red dot is Yamal — at 18, in the top-right quadrant. The size of each dot is their Game Impact Score, the metric xG misses entirely.
20 top European wide forwards · min 25 apps · 2025/26 · dot size = GIS · BarcaFutbol
"Expected goals ranks Yamal as a good player. The Game Impact Score — BarcaFutbol's composite of chance creation, ball progression, defensive contribution and costly errors — ranks him as a generational one."
The full BarcaFutbol report on Lamine Yamal includes all 42 charts, every competition split, UCL vs LaLiga vs Copa analysis, transfer timeline, the complete career delta heatmap, and the most detailed analytical write-up of this player available anywhere outside a professional scouting department.
Full 42-chart PDF report · Competition split analysis · Monthly player stories