Not Done With the Game Yet: Barcelona, Don't Worry About Lamine Yamal Getting Complacent... Tougher Challenges Await Him and the "Lost Neymar" Will Serve Him Well!

Not long ago, Barcelona's Spanish jewel Lamine Yamal was flashing warning signs. His "unprofessional" mentality, many feared, could cut his career short before it truly took off.

He sulked when hauled off the pitch. The parties and the life away from the green rectangle raised eyebrows too.

Yet something has shifted. Yamal appears to have grown up since those early days, and the 2026 World Cup laid it bare across three telling moments.

* Firstly: his sacrifice for the sake of his national team, Spain.

* Secondly: his dealings with the game's great legends.

* Thirdly: the battle of the final.

Take the first point. Spain manager Luis de la Fuente openly admitted that Yamal learned during the 2026 World Cup "how to sacrifice for the sake of the team".

He gave up the urge to be the number one star, the man with the best individual numbers, and instead helped the team win by freeing up his teammates and opening spaces for them.

De la Fuente said as much himself, stressing that he loved this new personality from Yamal, one that reflects real footballing maturity.

The second point played out in front of the whole world. Everyone saw how the Barcelona jewel behaved with two legends, "Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina's Lionel Messi", when he met them at the 2026 World Cup.

Spain, led by Yamal, beat "Ronaldo's Portugal" in the round of 16 and then "Messi's Argentina" in the final. Even so, the youngster showed enormous respect and humility in his dealings with the pair.

Then came the battle of the final. Nobody can forget the clashes that flared up between the Argentina and Spain stars the moment the whistle blew.

Here is the intriguing part. The trouble kicked off right behind Yamal, yet the Barcelona jewel wanted no part of it. He dropped to the ground and prostrated himself in thanks to God for winning the title.

Yes, dear reader, that scene alone confirms the maturity Lamine Yamal has now reached. He has learned to stay clear of trouble on the green rectangle as much as possible.

There's another sign that Spanish jewel Lamine Yamal is far from done with football, whatever some may fear.

He gave it away after lifting the 2026 World Cup with Spain. "I still have a lot to achieve," he said. "The European Championship and another World Cup, in addition to the Champions League with the Catalan giants Barcelona."

Remember, too, that Yamal never truly dazzled at the 2026 finals. The injury he picked up at the end of last season left him short of his best, technically and physically, when the tournament came round.

So a fresh World Cup mission awaits him despite that 2026 triumph. It breaks down like this:

* Firstly: to be "Spain's foremost hero" when a new World Cup title is achieved.

* Secondly: to enter the list of World Cup legends by approaching and breaking some records.

With Barcelona, meanwhile, Yamal wants to go down as one of the club's all-time greats, as he has said himself. That demands serious graft: more than one Champions League title and individual records to match.

Put simply, Lamine Yamal has plenty left to chase, individually and collectively. The job doesn't end with European Championship and World Cup titles, or with domestic dominance in a Barcelona shirt.

Now to another intriguing thread in the story: the "role model" of Spanish jewel Lamine Yamal.

The whole world keeps calling Yamal the "heir" to Argentine legend Lionel Messi, a carbon copy in every way. Lamine treats the comparison as a great honour, and he never misses a chance to hail "La Pulga" as the greatest player in history.

But here's the twist. Yamal has repeatedly insisted that Brazilian magician Neymar da Silva Junior is his real "idol" in the game.

That choice of Neymar in particular left many fearing the Spanish jewel's career could collapse fast, given the Brazilian's "unprofessional" mentality, the very thing that wrecked his own.

Those fears might ease considerably, though, when you see how Neymar treats Lamine. The Brazilian magician is keen to hand out advice so the youngster doesn't repeat his mistakes.

Take Yamal's trip to Brazil, when the pair met up. The newspaper "Sport" revealed some of the counsel the samba magician passed on to the Spanish jewel, as follows:

* Firstly: Don't put personal interest first or fixate on individual numbers.

* Secondly: Sacrifice and run for the team.

Neymar told Yamal that his best seasons with Barcelona came in 2014-2015, when the team landed the historic treble of "the Spanish league, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League". The reason, he said, was that he ran like a madman across the pitch and pressed the opponent relentlessly.

He rounded off his advice to the Spanish jewel: "Sacrifice, running and defensive support are what always lead us to collective glory."

Put simply, the bond between the two has grown into genuine affection, and Neymar is trying to pass on the lessons of his own career to help make Yamal a better player.

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