Comparing how long it took Lamine Yamal to reach 50 goals with Messi & Ronaldo

Lamine Yamal has continued his incredible early career rise by racing to the 50-goal mark, and he’s obliterated the time it took Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to reach the same milestone.

He’s still only a teenager, but is already touted as arguably the best player in the world. So far in his career, the stats point to a remarkable, generational talent.

The Spain international is three years younger than Ronaldo was when he scored his 50th goal, and two years younger than Messi.

And he’s reached the 50-goal mark within three years of making his senior debut, whereas it took Messi three and a half years and Ronaldo over four.

Not only that, but he’s also considerably more prolific when it comes to notching assists than both Messi and Ronaldo were at that stage in their careers. In fact, he has even more assists than goals.

Yamal scored his 50th goal for club and country to put Barca ahead, and in the driving seat in the La Liga title race, with a well-taken effort midway through the second half of a tight and tense game away to Athletic Club.

The 18-year-old opened the scoring in the 68th minute, an emphatic finish right into the top corner, and it proved to be a vital intervention as Hansi Flick’s side went on to register a vital 1-0 victory.

His match-winning goal continues a particularly fine run for the prodigy, with 10 goals and three assists in his last 13 outings. A spell of form that includes his first career hat-trick .

Lionel Messi’s 50th came in Barcelona’s 6-0 thrashing over Valencia back in 2008 – at which point Messi was 20 years, 10 months and 10 days old.

Barcelona’s all-time greatest goalscorer reached the milestone in 40 fewer appearances than Yamal, but his ascent wasn’t quite as rapid. He was still gradually getting integrated into the first team set-up when he was Yamal’s age.

As for Ronaldo, he was 21 years, eight months and 30 days old when he scored his 50th goal in November 2006 – an outrageous long-range knuckleball free-kick that somehow wasn’t even the best one he scored with that technique against Portsmouth.

Yamal might have a few years’ head start on Ronaldo, but he’d do well to match the Portuguese’s longevity, having added more than 900 goals to that tally and still playing today at the age of 41.

Here’s a full breakdown of how long it took Yamal to reach his 50th career goal with Messi and Ronaldo.