Lamine Yamal surpasses Lionel Messi to become Barcelona’s youngest player to reach 50 goals
With his brace against Rayo Vallecano, Lamine Yamal surpassed Lionel Messi while also turning into the youngest player in FC Barcelona's history to reach 50 goals. Lamine Yamal has routinely re-written the record book since making his senior debut for Barcelona as a 15-year-old, and his unprecedented rise continues to accelerate. With his latest multi-goal outing, Yamal eclipsed Lionel Messi to become the youngest player in Barcelona history to reach 50 career goals for the club. On Monday, Barcelona hosted Rayo Vallecano on Matchday 3 of the 2026-27 La Liga campaign at Spotify Camp Nou, securing a convincing 5-2 victory behind the teenager’s display. Delivering a thunderous strike in the 21st minute followed by a clinical finish in the 90th minute, Yamal completed a brace for the hosts, bringing his career total to 51 goals in a Barcelona shirt. At 19 years and 49 days old, Lamine Yamal stands as the youngest player to reach the 50-goal milestone for FC Barcelona, accomplishing the feat in 154 official appearances. Highlighting his influence across European football, he also became the youngest player to record 50 first-team goals across Europe’s top five leagues, spanning La Liga, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1. This landmark achievement sees Yamal eclipse Lionel Messi’s pace to 50 goals for Barcelona. The Argentine legend reached 50 goals for the club at 21 years and 120 days old, though Messi accomplished the milestone in fewer matches, needing just 118 official appearances. The historical record, however, was previously held by iconic forward Josep Escola. The Spaniard set the club benchmark back in 1935, hitting the 50-goal mark for FC Barcelona at 20 years and 356 days old, a record that stood for nearly a century before Yamal’s arrival. Lamine Yamal’s goal breakdown Equipped with elite dynamic dribbling, Yamal’s primary responsibility at FC Barcelona extends far beyond pure goalscoring, focusing heavily on playmaking duties where he actually boasts more career assists than goals (52 assists to 51 goals) across 154 matches. Nevertheless, over recent seasons, his finishing production has increased exponentially. After making a single appearance in 2022-23, his initial goals arrived during the 2023-24 campaign, concluding with seven goals as a 16-year-old. He established himself as a central star during the 2024-25 season with 18 goals, before exploding in 2025-26 with a career-high 24 goals for the Blaugrana. Now, with two goals already under his belt in 2026-27, Yamal remains positioned to push his ceiling even higher. 2022-23: 0 goals in 1 game2023-24: 7 goals in 50 games2024-25: 18 goals in 55 games2025-26: 24 goals in 45 games2026-27: 2 goals in 3 games Lamine Yamal’s road to Messi’s 100th goal record Having established the mark as the youngest player to reach 50 goals at Barcelona, the next major milestone on the horizon is the century mark. Unlike the 50-goal record, the benchmark for the youngest player to 100 goals for Barcelona is held directly by Lionel Messi. Messi broke the previous standard set by Mariano Martin, who reached 100 goals at 24 years and 3 months old, by a significant margin. Accelerating his goalscoring pace to become the dominant player in world football, the Argentine reached 100 goals for Barcelona in his 188th official match at just 22 years and 206 days old. With a runway of nearly three years to match that age, Yamal remains well-positioned to challenge that record as well.
