Barcelona winger now trails only Mohamed Salah in the assist charts of Europe’s top five leagues | OneFootball

It was roughly three and a half years ago when Lionel Messi’s unfortunate Barcelona exit shocked everyone. The team was struggling, and the creativity from the right wing, especially that game-changing factor, was missing.

But fast forward to 2025 and it seems like Barcelona has finally rediscovered that magic, thanks to arguably the greatest wonderkid of all time, Lamine Yamal, who now is giving tough competition to elite players like Mohammed Salah.

Under a very short time, Lamine Yamal under Hansi Flick has risen to another level, as the German coach’s direct attacking approach has made the Barcelona winger even more potent in the final third.

While any regular watcher would acknowledge this without even needing the statistics, but according to a recent report from Mundo Deportivo, Yamal’s assist tally this season is simply the icing on the cake.

With Yamal providing 10 assists in 18 league games, only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is ahead of him with 13 assists in 22 games. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, meanwhile, is level with Yamal on 10 assists.

Across other leagues, Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz (Bundesliga) has registered 9 assists, Lazio’s Nuno Tavares (Serie A) sits on 8, and PSG’s João Neves (Ligue 1) follows with 7.

Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images

While it’s impressive that a 17-year-old playing just his second full professional season has already reached double-digit assists, the best may still be yet to come.

With 10 assists to his name, Lamine Yamal has the potential to equal or even surpass Lionel Messi’s iconic 2019-20 La Liga campaign, where the Argentine legend set the league record with 20 assists in a single season.

Yamal’s ability to come close to that historic benchmark or even surpass Salah this season becomes increasingly plausible when you consider that Flick’s Barcelona has already scored an astonishing 101 goals this campaign.

With technical brilliance, precise passing, and a strong team around him, the young Spanish winger may only need a touch of luck to overtake the Liverpool star and etch his name further into the history books.