Ronaldinho had a young Lamine Yamal laughing at his screen. The Brazilian was slipping past defenders, and Yamal’s reaction came with a pointed observation: he was doing it against Real Madrid.
The resurfaced footage catches Yamal during his years in Barcelona’s La Masia academy, watching a Ronaldinho compilation. Marc Bernal appears in the video too, reacting to the Brazilian’s dribbling. Before either had a first-team career to discuss, they were enjoying the work of someone who’d already finished his at Barça.
“It looks as though he’s playing against little kids. He even does it against Madrid,” Yamal says in Spanish, in comments transcribed by Cadena SER. It’s the difference between admiring a trick and recognizing how difficult it should be to pull off.
The recording, reported to date from 2018, was already circulating in 2024. Its return now places that childhood scene beside a different picture of Yamal: wearing Barcelona’s No. 10, the same number Ronaldinho once wore.
From watching Madrid defenders to scoring against them
Yamal was born in July 2007, during the summer before Ronaldinho’s final Barcelona season. The Brazilian left for Milan in 2008. Yamal was too young to have followed that Barça career as it happened, but a compilation could bring him the football he’d missed.
Ronaldinho had arrived from Paris Saint-Germain in 2003, not through La Masia. He helped Barcelona win consecutive league titles and the 2006 Champions League. At the Bernabéu in November 2005, he scored twice in a 3-0 victory and drew applause from sections of the Madrid support. Even in a career full of extraordinary dribbling, the opponent gave those goals a distinction of their own.
Yamal eventually scored at the Bernabéu himself. His goal in Barcelona’s 4-0 win in October 2024 made him the youngest scorer in the men’s Clásico, at 17 years and 105 days. Madrid was no longer just the team in the highlights he was watching.
Barcelona gave Yamal the No. 10 in July 2025, after Ansu Fati’s loan move to Monaco left it available. He joined a shirt history that runs through Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Fati. The number places them in the same sequence. It doesn’t make their careers interchangeable.
The comparisons with Lionel Messi can turn into calculations of goals, assists and age records. This footage preserves something less measurable. Yamal’s laughter doesn’t have to establish a stylistic influence, settle a ranking or predict the player he’ll become. He’s a young footballer enjoying another player’s imagination, before his own performances became material for comparison.
Yamal now provides highlights of his own. In this one, he gets to stay a kid watching Ronaldinho.
