In our monthly feature, Flashscore shines a light on the best players in world football to see what has made them stand out from the crowd. Using cutting-edge stats as well as our player ratings system, we will delve into the numbers to see why they are performing so well. For October, there was a clear winner: Lamine Yamal.
It’s been quite the start to the 2026/27 season for Barcelona’s super-talented teen. So much so that he takes a second successive Flashscore Player of the Month award, thanks to more incredible performances.
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Genius
Across the six games played in October, all for Barcelona, Lamine played a total of 504 minutes and helped the team to score 21 goals.
Despite two of those six matches being lost, he still managed to secure an excellent Flashscore rating of 8.6.
Five assists and four goals in those matches, including a goal of the season contender at Real Betis in an eventual 5-2 Barcelona win, as well as three man-of-the-match awards, were enough to put him top of the tree once again.
The amazing thing about Lamine is that no one is at all surprised at his ability to be the major player in any given match, and that really shouldn’t be overlooked because what he’s doing on a weekly basis can only be described as genius – and that’s not a word that should be bandied around lightly.
Better than Messi at the same age
He’s still only 19 years of age, and has, to date, already played in 165 games in all competitions for his club. During that time, he’s scored 61 goals and provided 56 assists.
To give some perspective to those numbers, when Barcelona’s greatest ever player, Lionel Messi, had turned 19, he’d played just 43 times for the club, scoring 11 goals and assisting six more.
Of course, Lamine has a long, long way to go to get anywhere close to being considered in the same bracket as the Argentinian, though the signs are there that, if he remains injury-free for the most part, there’s no ceiling as to how far he could go in the game.
At the start of October, Barcelona’s international stars were just coming back off an extensive international break, but they were able to ease themselves back into league action, and Lamine’s assist helped the first team win 3-0 over Getafe.
Champions League masterclass
He quickly followed that up with a masterclass in Turkey. Despite Barca going 1-0 down to Galatasaray, the winger helped begin the fightback, and his two assists in the match were part of a convincing 4-1 victory that left the home support stunned.
The 5-2 win against Betis will always be remembered for Lamine’s incredible curling effort, though he would provide another assist for good measure in as comprehensive a team performance as Barca have provided in 2026/27.
A 4-2 Champions League loss against holders Paris Saint-Germain was regrettable, though Lamine still managed a goal in the game and an individual Flashscore rating of 8.3.
El Clasico was arguably his most disappointing showing in the month, but he was quickly back to his best in Barca’s 6-1 rout of Alaves to close out the month, scoring twice and assisting one more.
“For Lamine it was a great game,” Hansi Flick said afterwards. “This is what I want to see after these two defeats. How we react, it was good and in the right way.”
Football needs players like Lamine
He could’ve cemented the month with a Ballon d’Or win, but was pushed into third place by Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe.
In a sign of his maturity, there were no histrionics, just congratulations to the England captain on his win.
A long-time favourite for the award, the disappointment he would’ve undoubtedly felt will now just get channelled into his performances, as Barca go looking to win it all this season.
The Champions League remains the trophy everyone at the club wants to win, and there’s little doubt that Lamine will be doing everything possible to help steer the club to glory in Madrid next year.
That the pressure is on him to do just that illustrates just how important a player he is for Barca.
The joy he brings to so many, not just Barcelona fans, illustrates how important he is for football.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high-profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
