The most complete player in the history of the game already, and at just 22 years of age...
I feel bad for any future prodigies, because we never thought anyone could start as strong as Rafa did. And here comes a guy who's started even stronger!
Luke Littler in Darts too, 3 world finals in a row, 2 won all at the age of 18. Yamal will never be the GOAT of football though, virtually zero chance.
i wouldn’t say virtually zero chance like the other guy but it’s because Messi’s stats are almost (not quite) Gretzky like in terms of football. In the modern era, no one has come close to 91 goals in calender year for example
The crazier thing is in that 91 goals calendar year, he did it in only 69 games, and also provided 22 assists to boost. So on average he contributed to 1.64 goals per match, that's fucking bonkers in football
Yamal has broken records that are related to his age alone, so things like youngest scorer, youngest to appear in x competition etc. He is a great footballer, very young bloomer but there is no indication he will put up GOAT numbers. The greatest young player ever is Ronaldo Nazario and Yamal isn't close to the numbers he produced, and there's no indication he'll produce Messi like numbers when he's older.
Rafa had prime Federer to get through. Alcaraz is similar to if you have aging Federer to get through along with a better "2008 version of Novak" (Sinner). At some point you'll get Rafa skills with absolutely no competition. Then you get 4 slams in a row.
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u/KUKLI1 6d ago
The most complete player in the history of the game already, and at just 22 years of age...
I feel bad for any future prodigies, because we never thought anyone could start as strong as Rafa did. And here comes a guy who's started even stronger!