Lamine Yamal: Why 100 games is a worrying sign for future of Barcelona star and Messi heir

There is a belief within football circles that as a player, you get 500 games.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. The brightest young talents have burnt out long before that mark while walking testaments to a good diet and yoga continue playing long past it.

But generally speaking, once a player hits 500 games, their body gives out. You don’t run quite as fast as you did before. Your niggles become longer-term injuries and you wake up feeling sore in places you had never even thought of before.

Sports science and our understanding of our own bodies has advanced massively this century but even still, there is something about the 500-game mark that acts as the extinguishing of your candle, the breaking down of your engine, the train pulling into the station for the final time.

Back before the age of never-ending football, 500 games got you a decent career and some of the sport’s most legendary figures never even reached that mark. Now though, the demand on footballers is only going one way and the latest to be pulled in several different directions is Lamine Yamal.

Even at 17, there is no denying Yamal’s talent. The way he ripped through Inter’s defence in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash had Simone Inzaghi saying he had not seen a talent like that in the last nine years, referencing another famous Barcelona right winger.

But the Inter game was significant for another reason’ it was Yamal’s 100th in professional football which, for as much as it says about the Catalan’s talent, says a lot more about the demands of the modern game and the desire to put prizes over players.

If the notion of 500 games is accurate, Yamal is already a fifth of the way through his career having made his debut only two years ago. The Inter match was his 49th of the year with at least nine more to go. If Yamal continues at this rate, he will reach the 500 mark by the age of 25.

In the midst of a player’s immediate brilliance, it is easy to ignore the future. Modern football demands success now so why should Hansi Flick or Luis de la Fuente care about Yamal’s condition in 10 years? There are trophies to be won and jobs to be saved that rely on a game every three days.

But even if we are blinded by the next season or the next game or the next trophy, the prospect of burnout for footballers is very real.

Of the top 10 appearance makers in the Champions League, none of them were 16 when they made their debut, as Yamal was. Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema were both 17 when they first played in the competition while the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi and Toni Kroos were 18. Luka Modric did not feature until he was 20.

The obvious comparison for Yamal is Messi – he did wash him in a bathtub as part of a slightly odd photoshoot after all – but Messi’s early career was far slower than this. Yamal was 17 years and 292 days when he played his 100th game. Messi was 20 years and 248 days. Messi made his Barcelona debut on October 16, 2004 but was not a regular until the following season. It took him until the 2008-09 campaign, when Messi was 22, to reach 50 games in a year. Yamal hit that mark last year and will do so again this season.

There is also the difference in play style. While Messi started as a quick player, he soon became one who did not do too much running if it was not needed. The Argentine used to average 5km in a Champions League match. This season, Yamal is running a kilometre more than that each game.

Yamal need only look around the Barcelona locker room to be reminded of the pitfalls of too much, too young. Pedri’s first season saw him start 57 games and in a period of 298 days, he played 63 times, averaging a game every four days. A hamstring injury that ruled him out for 100 days came as little surprise.

Ansu Fati represents another example of how fatigue can catch even the young. He was billed as the next Messi before a meniscus tear sidelined him for 306 days and put an end to any hope of the second coming.

Even away from the Camp Nou, there are examples across football of bright sparks being snuffed out too soon.

Yamal is the only recognisable name in the top 10 youngest Champions League players. In the Premier League, Wayne Rooney represents a rare 16-year-old to go on to be a world-class player but even the Manchester United forward retired at 35 after more than a few years away from the top table.

Bukayo Saka had already played 300 games before picking up a thigh injury that derailed Arsenal’s Premier League season. Kobbie Mainoo followed up his Young Player of the Season award with a muscle injury that ruled him out for more than a month.

Players who need to be more concerned with their own fitness have raised the issue of overworking on a number of occasions. 31-year-old Harry Kane said players were not “listened to” when it came to fixture congestion. Shortly before his season-ending knee injury, Rodri said players were close to striking over the matter.

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FIFA did not care of course for it is easy to ignore the players when the sound of the latest cheque being deposited into your bank account is made. This summer will see another competition added to a player’s workload – an overinflated, money-grabbing revamp of the already unnecessary FIFA Club World Cup. Gianni Infantino’s pet project adds at least three extra games to the fixture list – all in the US and all in a supposed ‘off’ summer of football. Arsene Wenger’s proposal of a World Cup every two years appears to have died a death but was another suggestion that put money before managing minutes.

Clubs are as much to blame as well. Managers will moan about FA Cup replays before being told they are heading to Melbourne a day after the season is over for a ‘summer tour’.

This never-ending greed is pushing football towards a crisis point. Players can be used and exhausted in the knowledge that someone younger is always available.

In many ways, watching Yamal at this age feels like eating something we know is bad for us. In the long run, it will have more harmful effects than good but for now, it is just so sweet that it is easy to ignore the consequences.

For now, Yamal has the confidence and recovery ability of a teenager, and one that looks destined for great things, but only a select few have managed to slow down father time and ultimately, no-one has been able to stop it completely.